From the time he was little, everyone looked up to Dietrich Williams.

The oldest of seven children, Williams was the stereotype of the responsible big brother — the one who was a “provider and protector,” said his brother, Emil Williams. So it was no surprise that, as an adult, Dietrich Williams continued to serve in that role as a youth mentor and beloved basketball coach at Mergenthaler Vocational Technical High School.

Williams spent 15 years at Mervo as a support staffer, junior varsity coach and varsity assistant. This year was his first season as the Mustangs’ varsity coach — a longtime dream — and that accomplishment makes his absence at Mervo feel even bigger now.

Williams, an adoring father who was committed to helping young people succeed, died suddenly Jan. 17 of a heart attack. He was 54.

He was born April 2, 1970, and grew up in East Baltimore. He always had a love of basketball growing up and was often found at recreation centers practicing shots, family said. He was so good that he was one of the first freshmen ever to play varsity basketball at Dunbar High School, Emil Williams said.

He also played football as a wide receiver but stopped playing to focus more of his time on hoops, Emil Williams said. That was his true passion.

During his senior year of high school, he went off to a boarding school in Maine. He brought along his high school girlfriend, Lakeshia Hickman, who was pregnant with their first child. A year or two afterward, they got married, said their daughter, Diamond Williams.

After high school, Williams was torn between going to college or pursuing a basketball career. He attended a few colleges but didn’t graduate, and he ended up playing basketball overseas. At the time, he was invited to two NBA workouts — something of an informal tryout — but “he actually turned it down to take care his family,” Emil Williams said.

He had also injured his knee in a basketball game, which “put him down mentally,” Diamond Williams said. “It kind of pushed him back, but he kept it going. After he got it together, he kept it going and just continued to play — and then started coaching, and he put his all into coaching.”

He also put his all into his family. Diamond Williams was born after Dietrich Williams Jr., and the youngest is Demetrich Williams. Dietrich Williams and Hickman divorced shortly after their second child was born, but they remained friends and “phenomenal co-parents,” Emil Williams said.

As his daughter grew up, Dietrich Williams took her to nail salons and encouraged her to embrace her girly side. Still, Diamond Williams spent many of her days at basketball courts, and growing up, she thought her father was a “superstar.”

As Dietrich Williams helped his sons get involved in sports, he started coaching on a volunteer basis, family said. At some point, someone approached him and asked if he’d be interested in coaching at Mervo, and he decided to give it a try.

He fell in love not only with coaching but with the high school itself, and he couldn’t picture himself anywhere else, Diamond Williams said.

“He really, really, really embodied the spirit of Mustang Nation and bled blue and gold,” said Mayor Brandon Scott, a longtime friend and Mervo alumnus.

He was there for just about every event Mervo hosted, Scott said, and they’d often run into each other at games.

“He was much more than a basketball coach, at least for these young men, and for the young women, too,” Scott said. “He was someone that just helped them understand how to grow into their greatness, challenge them to be better, hold them accountable.”

Patrick Nixon, Mervo’s athletic director and football coach, started the same year as Dietrich Williams. He remembers clocking how genuine he seemed — he had a good sense of humor, and he truly cared about those around him, Nixon said.

They hatched a plan to revitalize the school’s basketball program, and Dietrich Williams made sure that students were always at the center of their efforts, Nixon said.

“He was the type of guy who just volunteered and helped out all the staff in the building,” Nixon said. “Whatever you needed, there was no task, no job, no responsibility that was too big or too small for him. He just wanted to help people.”

That spirit was evident in just about everything he did, loved ones said. Outside of school, he worked part-time at a facility that assisted at-risk youth, mentoring the children and helping them work through whatever they had going on in their lives.

Mentorship was so important to Dietrich Williams because “he had people that helped him. He always kept that dear to him, to pay it forward.”

Diamond Williams said she will remember her father as patient and respectful, someone who loved his children and his three grandchildren with his entire being. When she hears gospel music, she’ll think of her father, who wasn’t religious but enjoyed the songs because they “put him in a calm space,” she said.

Emil Williams said his brother, who he mostly called Deek, was “graceful” — and a big part of that was attributable to his “phenomenal fashion sense,” he said. He was always a trendsetter, and he loved to shop, family said. Almost everything he owned was from Under Armour, his daughter said.

In any case, he always made sure to look his best, Emil Williams said. And it worked: Even when he was in the hospital last month, the nurse who cared for him had to check his chart twice because she couldn’t believe he was actually 54.

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