André Williams doesn’t like the concept of a hero.
“For me, I don’t even like the concept of a hero because giving back to your community is just an act of selflessness,” he said. “Because you want your community to grow. But anyone that takes a step to make something better is a hero.”
The city of Macon police sergeant was selected as the winner of the Missouri Local Government Employee Retirement System’s (LAGERS) 2025 Local Government Hero Award. The announcement was made during the systems 58th Annual Meeting held in Springfield on Oct. 30.
The award celebrates the outstanding contributions of the state’s local public workforce and honors a LAGERS member who has gone above and beyond the daily duties of a public servant to enhance their workplace, community, and profession.
Williams was named this year’s winner for spending the past 13 years making a positive impact on the city of Macon, both in his professional service as a police officer and through his off-duty work in forming Macon’s first youth soccer team, the Macon Gunners.
After moving to Macon, in 2018 he started the team with just 17 players as a way to stay grounded and share his love of soccer—a sport that had helped him earn a scholarship to Lincoln University.
“With the relationships that I’ve built with the kids and the parents, that just tied me in with the community,” he said. “Every January and February I can’t wait to start [the season] again! I’m ready to go and ready to compete with these kids.”
In addition to spending his days off either coaching a practice or supervising games, Williams said he also travels with the soccer team, even bringing them to his home country of Jamaica this past year.
“Macon is not a town known for diversity, but soccer is a very diverse sport,” he said.
Being able to meet people of different races, religions, and backgrounds, he said, is just as important as learning the sport of soccer.
“We’ve even had parents say it’s good for these kids to be around all these diverse backgrounds and know how to interact with different people.”
Williams carries that philosophy into his professional work and said that he tries to use discretion and compassion as a police officer. It’s not enough to simply enforce the law, he said, but to understand what causes people to do certain things.
“It’s not just saying, ‘You broke the law,’” he said. “It’s having that compassion to say, ‘I understand why you did this. It’s not because you’re a bad person, it’s just because you’re in a particular situation more than anything else.’”
He believes that ethos applies especially to kids, who often don’t know right from wrong because they don’t have appropriate adult guidance.
“It’s not that they’re a bad kid. So, you take the time out to sit and talk with that kid and say ‘Hey, maybe you just need to follow a better crowd.’” He said when dealing with children, he tries to emphasize potential future consequences if their behavior is not corrected.
“Instead of the child continuing down the path and just waiting for them to get caught, we let them know look, ‘You’re not a bad child but what you’re doing is unacceptable. You’re going down this bad path. Try to correct it before you get to the age where it sticks on your record.’”
Williams said that the soccer program has helped him and other officers build the relationships needed to make those conversations effective.
Mercedes Deskin, Williams’ nominator, agreed that the soccer team has been instrumental in building community across different demographics.
“We build relationships with people outside. When we go places, that’s sometimes what we’re recognized from,” she said. “Like, ‘Oh, you’re so and so’s coach.’ So, I would say that you almost build respect and trust from people, or they’ll respect you because of what you do for the kids.”
She said Williams is extremely deserving of the award and that anyone asked would say the same.
But when asked his plans for the future, Williams said he is not quite finished.
“We want to acquire some kind of land so we can have our own home soccer field and extend our soccer season,” he said. Currently, the team only has a spring soccer season due to field availability. He recently made a presentation at the Macon city town hall to petition for a home field.
But even then, he said he thinks he can do more, saying he’d love to see soccer integrated into the Macon school district.
“That would be the prize goal out of everything,” he laughed. “I think once we get soccer into the school our job is complete. Then we can coast and our work is done there.”
