The Daily O’Collegian

For Andre Williams, it was undoubtedly a long, anxiety-filled trip.

But it was a trip he knew he had to make.

Traveling to the exact spot where 10 of his friends had died was not going to be easy.

And arriving there was even harder.

“It was really hard going out there because I just never pictured something like that happening,” Williams said of his visit in August to the spot near Strasburg, Colo., where 10 members of the Oklahoma State basketball program lost their lives in a plane crash.

“Especially going out to where the plane actually hit. The closer I got to it, the heavier my heart felt,” he said.

“But it was something I needed to do, kind of like some kind of closure.”

Almost a year later to the day of the plane crash that followed the Cowboys’ road loss to Colorado, Andre Williams, his teammates Victor Williams and Fredrik Jönzén, and coach Eddie Sutton, addressed the media Monday afternoon at a somber press conference to share their feelings about Jan. 27.

A year later, the thoughts that dominated the players’ minds are memories they hold onto tightly.

“You can’t help but think about it, because it was faces that we were so used to seeing,” Andre Williams said. “Like Nate (Fleming) hustling to shag balls, or Dan (Lawson) on the end of the bench smiling and laughing.

“We miss them every day.”

OSU will hold a moment of silence at halftime at the Colorado-OSU game Saturday, in what will surely be an emotional time for everyone associated with Cowboy basketball.

The university also plans to toll the Edmon Low Library bell 10 times at 6:37 p.m. Sunday to commemorate the exact moment of the crash.

“The anniversary date will be an emotionally challenging time for those closest to the victims, and the families have asked us not to plan a large-scale public ceremony,” said Halligan in a news release.

Echoing that sentiment, Victor Williams said it had been, and still is, difficult to concentrate on basketball.

“Any time you lose 10 people that were very close to you, like a family, you know it’s going to be a setback,” he said.

“You often think about it, but we have basketball games to play, and we have to concentrate on winning those.”

And playing basketball games was the task — however hard it was — that the Cowboys were faced with after the crash last winter.

Looking back, Sutton gave his players a great deal of credit for the way they responded after the incident, and said playing basketball was something he wasn’t sure they could do.

“I was really proud of the ballclub last year,” he said. “In the first few days after that accident, I wasn’t sure we could finish the season.

“They were really in shock and hurting, and the thing I tried to drive home to them was the fact that your teammates would want you to go on with your life and live every day as if it would be your last.

“To get through that season, I thought they really showed a lot of grit — a lot of character just to get in the NCAA tournament,” Sutton said.

With the anniversary nearing, the players are still calling on that grit to get them through each day.

“It’s been hard for all of us,” Victor Williams said. “We have a lot of mixed emotions about it.

“Sometimes it kind of drives you to play your best and sometimes you’re at home just thinking about it, and it kind of brings you down a little bit.”

Jönzén said it was remarkable to consider it has been a year since the tragedy.

“It’s kind of unbelievable to think it’s already been a year,” he said.

“It’s been a weird year, of course, for all of us. It’s been a difficult year; it’s been up and down.

“Especially playing Colorado, it’s going to be an emotional game, but we’re in the middle of the season and we’re focusing on basketball right now — so it’ll just be another game.”

OSU President James Halligan said written and floral tributes could be left at the Spirit Rider statue north of Gallagher-Iba Arena.