Correspondent file photo / Michael Taylor Warren G. Harding senior DeAver Williamson shows his school and hometown pride by signaling a “W” to the crowd after winning the 100-meter dash in the Division I state track and field meet in 2010. Williamson also won the 200 to help the Raiders to the state team championship.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the second of a three-part series looking back on Warren G. Harding’s Division I boys track and field state championship in 2010.

DeAver (D.J.) Williamson came across the finish line in his all-white track outfit, winning the 100-meter dash in the Division I state meet for the second straight year.

That Saturday afternoon in early June of 2010 at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium in Columbus was a time for celebration. This time, Williamson had more teammates to celebrate with than in 2009.

The Warren G. Harding senior sprinter started a day — one that the school continues to celebrate years later — that culminated in the Division I boys state track and field championship.

The day was marked by one moment — Williamson coming across the finish line with his thumbs wrapped around one another and his fingers, four to one side and four to the other, extended to form a W.

“It was all instinct,” said Williamson, who is running backs and defensive backs coach, along with track and field sprints coach, at Mineral Ridge High School. “I don’t know where it came from. I never thought about it before the race. I’m not one to showboat. I’m pretty quiet, pretty laid back.”

He wasn’t the first one to do that finishing move that season. Teammate Marvin Logan, who is the adult and community engagement manager for the boys and girls clubs of southeastern Michigan, remembers flashing that sign after winning one of his races earlier in the 2010 season.

“I got chewed out for it,” Logan said.

For Williamson to do it, especially after winning the 100, was an iconic moment in Warren sports history.

“There are generation of kids who throw up the W now because we made it the cool thing to do,” Logan said. “There are people who say it’s all about the W.

“Some people aren’t old enough and don’t know, that’s all the 2010 track and field team.”

Coach Charles Penny came up with the T-shirts and the slogan. At the time, the Raiders were chasing faster times and putting themselves into the history books.

Penny said this past indoor season felt the same, if not better. There were plenty of football players out for track in the spring. Long jumpers, sprinters, middle distance and distance runners, hurdlers, throwers and relay runnerss seemed to click together as one.

Then the COVID-19 pandemic dissolved not only the Raiders’ hopes at a possible Division I state title, but the senior seasons of spring sports athletes around the nation.

Penny said this year’s boys track and field team would have been his best team since that magical 2010 season.

“We were all like, ‘this feels like the 2000s again’,” Penny said. “We felt so good. We had a really talented team this year.”

It could’ve been another run like in 2010. Another sprinter could’ve flashed the W in victory once again, just as Williamson did 10 years ago.

“Of course, in Usain Bolt fashion, as he’s pulling away from everybody in the last 5 meters of the race, D.J. throws it up and it becomes the coolest moment in history,” Logan said. “I’m glad if someone had to do it, I’m glad it was him.”