Rising Senior Spotlight: K.J. Williams of Trenton

Rising senior K.J. Williams of Trenton will participate in three sports for the Tigers in 2021-22.

Williams plays running back and outside linebacker for the Tigers’ football team.

“Very engaging kid,” Trenton coach Bill Wiles said. “A pleasure to coach. KJ has been a big-time player for us the last two years.”

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Last year as a junior, Williams finished second on the team with three tackles for a loss.

“He is an ultra-high motor kid,” Wiles said. “He is unblockable as an edge rusher. His energy, effort, and intensity are unmatched.”

On offense, Williams is one of several weapons for the Tigers, who have shown their potential on offense this year with 38 points against Interlachen in the spring game and 34 points last Friday in a season-opening win against Jefferson County (Monticello).

While Williams (180 pounds) “learns how to be a running back,” Wiles raved about him at outside linebacker on defense.

“He’s a tremendous defensive player,” Wiles said. “There is not a better football player in 1A pound-for-pound in the state of Florida. You can’t block him.”

Williams, who also had a sack last year, said defense is his “favorite part of the game.”

“I love defense,” he said. “But we do have a couple of things we need to work on like tackling and pursuing the ball because sometimes we get tired, so we don’t always run to the ball, but I have confidence in our defense.”

More than anything else, Wiles described Williams as an athlete.

“He could literally play all 11 positions on the field,” Wiles said. “If he was 6-3, 210, he would be a 5-star player. In Trenton he is just that. Great personality, great player, better kid.”

Williams has high expectations for this season after Trenton played a highly competitive early schedule last year. They were 1-4 against their opponents who Wiles said “were like 23-2.”

“We were 1-4, but we weren’t terrible,” Wiles said.

It has helped serve as motivation for 2021.

“It made us stronger,” Williams said. “It made us more confident. Most people didn’t believe in us after we lost all of those games, but they don’t understand the teams that we played. I just feel like we’re going to do good this year because the negativity is going to motivate us to do better this year.”

As far as this year’s schedule, there is one game in particular that Williams is looking forward to the most – Dixie County.

The Tigers will travel to Cross City this Friday night at 7:30 p.m.

“It’s a rivalry game,” he said. “Every time we play them it’s competitive, a lot of trash talk, but at the end of the day it’s all fun and games.”

Following football season, Williams will be on the weightlifting team and he will also run track during the spring.

“I love true 3-4 sport dudes,” Wiles said. “They love to compete. It’s hard to find real competitive cats anymore.”

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