Sky's the limit for Skyline brother, sister

SAMMAMISH — They were young and they were fast. And on the Sammamish Plateau, they were everywhere.

Kiara and Kasen Williams played just about everything: club soccer, AAU basketball, junior football, Little League baseball and softball, and track.

"Hey, Kasen," Kiara would joke with her baby brother. "When you become famous, help me out, OK?"

Kasen would send back one of his monstrous smiles and shrug it off.

They joked then about being the stars they're becoming today. Two Skyline High School teams are still alive in the state playoffs this weekend, and these two siblings — children of former Washington receiver Aaron Williams — are in the middle of it all.

Kiara, a senior, is the leading scorer for Skyline's soccer team, which plays Mead of Spokane tonight in the Class 4A semifinals. If the Spartans win, they will play in Saturday night's championship game, but not before Kasen's top-ranked football team hosts Auburn in the state quarterfinals that afternoon. Kasen, a 6-foot-2, 190-pound sophomore, leads the Spartans in catches and receiving yards.

They're as close as twins, texting each other constantly, but their overloaded schedules keep them apart.

"It feels like we never see each other anymore," Kiara says.

Kiara, who has committed to Arizona State, plays soccer for Skyline and Crossfire Premier, one of the state's top club teams. When football season ends, Kasen moves directly into basketball. Both run track and have a good shot at state track championships this spring. Kiara finished third in the 100-meter hurdles last spring, and Kasen, who once jumped 6 feet, 4 inches as an eighth-grader, finished second in the high jump as a freshman.

"I love the fact that for both of them, a highly competitive game is fun," Skyline soccer coach Don Braman says. "There's always a smile from Key [Kiara] to help us realize it's about fun."

Their dad remembered being recruited as a receiver out of Wilson High School of Tacoma. When Kiara was a freshman, Aaron sat her down and put together lists of what she wanted in a school and what she needed to do. By her sophomore year, her play was doing much of the work for her.

Braman called her the team's "secret weapon" during her sophomore year because he could bring her off the bench, and opponents wouldn't see her speed coming.

"It was easy to change the speed of the game just by putting her out there," Braman said.

By her junior year, she made visits to all of her favorite schools. And after considering Missouri and Washington — her parents, both former Huskies, really rooted for that one — she chose Arizona State.

"It seemed like it was a lot of work," Kasen remembers of watching his sister get recruited. "I was just thinking, I can't wait until I get to do all that stuff."

But Kasen never needed to make a list. By the end of his freshman year, colleges were coming to him.

Washington and UCLA offered scholarships when he was a freshman, and Boise State soon followed. Aaron Williams, who says he was "nowhere near" Kasen's level as a freshman, never saw that kind of attention coming.

"He only played a couple games, and it was like, he did what he's supposed to do," Aaron says. "And he got hit doing it."

"Awww, you've got to bring that up," Kasen says, as his family bursts out with laughter. "You've got to bring up Johri."

One catch — a slant route on the winning drive of last year's 3A state-championship game against O'Dea — probably has done more for Kasen than his other 63 combined. Just as he caught it, O'Dea's Johri Fogerson — now a safety at Washington — drilled him to the ground. It was a monster hit, but Williams held on.

"He's just gifted," Skyline football coach Mat Taylor says. "The sport comes so easy to him. There are times I don't think he's even running hard because of his stride. He's so smooth."

After catching five passes for 116 yards in the title game, Williams went from a sparsely used freshman to sought-after recruit. Some coaches and recruiting analysts believe he will be the state's top recruit as a senior.

For now, he rarely talks about scholarships and verbal commitments. Skyline's large offensive playbook, with more than 100 play combinations, keeps his mind occupied.

"He's just kind of easygoing," says Kasen's mom, Rhonda. "He's just like his dad."

As she says that, Aaron nods while lounging on the living-room couch and petting the family dog (you guessed it: a Husky).

Garfield coach Anthony Allen, who roomed with Aaron Williams when they both played at Washington, sees the same quiet, humble personality in Kasen that he saw in Aaron 30 years ago.

"He's so much like his father, it's unbelievable," Allen said. "The kid doesn't brag about anything."

Kasen, who could be the toughest one-on-one matchup in the state, is one big reason the Spartans are the favorites to win another state championship. And his big sister could lead Skyline to its first state soccer title.

Next year, Kiara will go off to college. From Arizona, she will keep texting for updates from her baby brother, who remembers when big sis told him he would be famous one day.

"The future has so much to come," Kiara says.

Tom Wyrwich: 206-515-5653 or twyrwich@seattletimes.com