Christian Williams is an NCAA Division I recruit in basketball. His transfer hit the St. Teresa basketball team the hardest.
But Williams was also the H&R All-County Second Team quarterback last year, throwing for 949 yards, 11 touchdowns and just three interceptions, while also rushing for 417 yards and nine touchdowns.
The Bulldogs will feel his loss on and off the field. In addition to being a great athlete, Williams was popular at St. Teresa – with students, teachers and coaches.
“I'm very close to Christian,” coach Tim Brilley said. “I still consider him one of my players. We have a lot of guys who are still very close to him.”
But, Brilley said, he told his team not to mourn the loss.
“What I told them was, 'He's not dead,' ” Brilley said. “He's just at another school now. It's unfortunate for them because their friend is no longer their teammate, but he's still around.”
Bulldogs senior CJ Stuart is close friends with Williams. There was talk before news of the transfer that Williams might not play football this season, and Williams did spend the bulk of his summer playing AAU basketball. But Stuart said Williams had planned to play football for the Bulldogs. Williams isn't on the football team at the school he transferred to, Springfield Lanphier.
“He thought he would be able to come back, but when he couldn't nobody was mad at him,” Stuart said. “We understood he has no control over it. Christian is going to be find and we'll be fine, too.”
Williams put up good numbers last year and threw a good ball, but St. Teresa is built to run. Williams was a good runner, but he wasn't going to carry it 15 to 20 times per game.
The Bulldogs have three capable ball-carriers in Zach Jarrett, Stuart and Jake Handley. And while they only return one starter on the line (senior Sam House), the incoming talent (juniors Zach Fitzgerald and Noah Bowers, and three sophomores that include potential future standout Cade McLeod) is big and capable of putting up numbers similar to last year's team. That team had more than 2,000 yards rushing, with four players rushing for at least 239 yards.
The Bulldogs will start out with sophomore left-hander Ryan Fyke at quarterback. Fyke reportedly played well at Friday's scrimmage. His receivers are untested, but the Bulldogs' players said they like the potential of senior Brannon Taylor and sophomore Mike Davis.
“When I heard the news (about Williams), I was sad,” Handley said. “But I'm not all that concerned with it because I know the kids coming up are going to be good.”
Fyke will get his shot in the first week, but Brilley called it a "week-by-week" thing, with junior Zach Hooker also in the mix.
"We've had a competition all summer," Brilley said. "We had it in the back of our minds that Christian might come back, but we kind of figured we should be prepared. Both Ryan and Zach have come light years since when we started in June.
"I'd be confident with either of them in the game, but right now Ryan is a little ahead of Zach, so that's who we're going to go with."
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