Sonia and Ariana Williams are motivated, engaging and caring young people with different – yet bright-as-the-sun – personalities.
If it is happening, they are involved.
A junior at Rock Island (Illinois) High School, Sonia is a soccer and cross country standout, who also excels in music, playing trumpet for the Rocks’ high-caliber marching band. Sonia captains the cross country team, which set a team mark by having 33 members on this year’s squad.
A freshman at Rock Island, Ariana is equally involved. She is a standout on the girls’ varsity golf team, a gifted soccer player and track state champion. As a seventh grader in 2024, Ariana captured an IESA state title in the high jump, then amazingly finished fifth in the spring of 2025, despite competing while rehabbing a knee injury. In the spring of 2026, she – like her sister Sonia has done – will compete in both track and soccer.
Both are honor students.
“It can be a little chaotic around our house,’’ Sonia said with a chuckle, making note that their mother, Susana Williams, is the head cross country coach and the assistant girls’ soccer coach at Rock Island. Sonia and Ariana’s father, Terell, played a district-wide role in the successes of Rock Island schools as its Board of Education President.
“It’s a good chaos.’’
The Williams family cares deeply about its community and its schools.
Rock Valley Physical Therapy’s Ashley Schurr, PT, DPT, OCS, CSCS, was a four-sport standout in high school and has a firm grasp of what it takes to compete athletically. Working out of Rock Valley’s Moline, Illinois (43rd. Ave.) clinic, Schurr understands time management, commitment to a sport, competitive spirit, and drive, and that injuries are part of the athletic landscape.
Ariana and Sonia Williams are fans of the ever-upbeat Schurr and she of them, despite the circumstances by which they came to know one another. The trio has formed a unique, trusting, bond as Schurr worked tirelessly to bring both gifted athletes back from knee injuries.
“There was work involved to get better, but Ashley made it fun,’’ Sonia said of Schurr. “She is really nice and really understanding. She always asked how I was doing before we did anything and took the time to listen. I mean, she really listens.’’
In game three of her 2025 spring soccer season, Sonia was hit multiple times by opposing players but brushed each incident off as part of the game. The last hit that game Sonia said, was different from the rest. It left her with an uneasy/queasy feeling.
“It wasn’t normal, the last hit,’’ she said. “And by that, I mean something was different with my knee. I was told it was fine, but I had a concussion.’’
Away from the game for a concussion-protocol-mandated week and one-half, Sonia said her head was fine when cleared to return to play, but – even with rest – she could not shake her knee issue.
“But I wanted to play against my uncle’s team,’’ Sonia said of De LaSalle Institute, one of the state’s top programs. “I got to play against them, but my knee wasn’t feeling better.’’
An MRI would show a torn meniscus. With it came good and bad news.
“Not super bad, but surgery was needed to fix it,’’ Sonia said. “It was six weeks away from competing surgery and not the six months away from competing surgery. I remember “crutching’’ to play for our (2025) graduation (after surgery), but I knew there was work ahead. I wanted to be able to at least have time to get ready for cross country, get through band camp, and ready for my solo (marching band). I wanted to dance up to my spot, play and dance my way back.’’
So, Sonia and Schurr went to work.
“It really helped that Ashley was an athlete and she kind of could read my mind at what I was thinking and hoping about getting better,’’ Sonia said. “Ashley understands wanting to get back to competing but really understands rest days and making sure you are ready when you get back into it. She knows it’s not worth getting injured again or making it worse. That’s important.’’
Sonia would reach those goals – competing in cross country as the team’s captain – despite no summer endurance work – and returning to play a role in the Rocks’ outstanding marching band. This included a two-mile walk while performing at the city of Rock Island’s annual Labor Day parade and improving daily with her competitive endurance.
“Early with Sonia, it was working on range of motion, and it came back nicely,’’ Schurr said. “So, then the strength component became important. With Sonia being more of an endurance athlete, our focus was more on the single leg activities related to endurance. She has done great. I enjoyed our time together.”
“With any patient it’s about trying to find a way to connect,’’ added Schurr. “Teenage athletes are a little different, trying to find commonality with what they enjoy. I remember being a teenage athlete. I remember being hurt a lot and I can sympathize with those athletes these days.’’
While competing in the ultra-competitive Olympic Development Soccer’s Far West Regional in Arizona, Ariana Williams had the ball and was changing directions.
It was then that she felt a pop – that something in her left knee had gone one way and come back into place.
“Along the lines of my kneecap dislocating and popping back into place,’’ Ariana said as to what she felt that day. “I went down, got back up and I was crying. It hurt, I didn’t know what was happening. I’d never had something like it before.’’
To that, her older sister interjected:
“She gets hurt but she doesn’t cry,’’ Sonia Williams said of her younger sister. “You know it’s serious if she is crying.’’
And it was.
Seen by an on-site trainer and carted off the field of play, Ariana – and her family – did their best to deal with the situation. The next day, as the family prepared to return home, signs of something seriously amiss became known.
“There was serious swelling,’’ Ariana said. “And it had finally started to hurt. The swelling was intense.’’
After returning home, X-Rays and an MRI, Ariana was told she suffered a dislocated kneecap and cartilage damage. Successful surgery followed.
It was then that Schurr stepped in to assist Ariana on her road back to better health and competition. Working a minimum of two times a week together, Schurr implemented a comprehensive rehabilitation program catered to Ariana’s circumstances.
“Ariana’s surgery was a little more extensive than Sonia’s,’’ Schurr said. “We had to go just a little bit slower. But we began with range of motion work and that came back. Then we concentrated on strength and simply because of protocol (locked out a knee brace) we weren’t allowed to bend it for a little while.
“But then we began focusing on strength, power and getting back to the goal of high jumping. It was her plant leg (for the high jump) that we then concentrated on,’’ added Schurr. “ Like Sonia, Ariana has a great personality and is not afraid to work. Ariana was motivated to get better and was a hard worker, like Sonia, in every task I presented. The biggest thing Ariana had to understand was it takes time. Like everyone that age, they wanted it yesterday. It was a great day when I could tell her she would be full participation.’’
For Ariana, golf will soon give way to soccer and a national tournament in Florida. Track and soccer will follow in the spring and the chance to chase high jump dreams at 100 percent. Sonia is expected to compete in soccer and track in spring 2026.
“High jumping will be a focus,’’ she said. “And I will play soccer. It was a tough time being hurt, but it’s so much better being out and competing again.’’
Schurr said having involved parents helped both athletes reach their goals.
“Their parents are great,’’ she said “They are obviously supportive and motivated for them. They both work very well with (being involved) and with mom being one of her coaches. I was so taken with them. And I thought we were busy at my house.’’
By: Johnny Marx, Storyteller