The Fox Creek High School football team says they experienced a miracle firsthand this week when their running back was diagnosed free of cancer following a community-wide prayer effort.

C.J. Williams, the star running back of the North Augusta, South Carolina, high school, was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma – cancer. Upon hearing the tragic news, friends, family, and other members of the community came together to offer up prayers for Williams.

C.J. was expected to miss his senior year of Fox Creek football, but then something extraordinary happened.

On August 31, the day C.J. was supposed to start chemotherapy, doctors told him he didn’t need it. Williams learned he had an infection and had been misdiagnosed, which occurred only once before – five years ago.

Head Coach Russell Schneider told The Christian Post that he noticed a strange lump on C.J.’s neck after the team’s first game against Branchville. Schneider said that C.J's family doctor believed "it could be cancer."

“My heart just sank. I said ‘Lord, no. Don’t let this be the case.’”

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Schneider recalled sitting on the hospital bed with C.J., who he refers to as his own son, and crying.

"I was scared to death," he told CP. "My heart was broken. His was too."

He added, "But he’s tough. We just felt like he was going to be healed when the treatment was done."

CJ told WJBF News that the diagnosis was a hard blow.

“I was really hurt. I thought my football career was over with. But I stayed strong. I had to be tough for everybody,” he said.

According to Schneider, students at Fox Creek High School prayed everyday, churches started visiting and also offered prayers. People reached out through Facebook – even someone “as far as Hawaii” was praying said Schneider.

Schneider told CP that doctors had diagnosed Williams with stage 3 cancer, but he told C.J.’s mom, Christina Berrien, that everything would be “okay.”

“Prayer changes everything. I want to thank everybody,” said Berrien, according to the Augusta Journal.

“It’s amazing how God put this together,” Schneider said. “God is still healing people. [This] Definitely put life in perspective for a lot of people today.”

He added, “Doctors say he was misdiagnosed, but I know that he got healed.”

Watch the video report about "Fox Creek Miracle" below: