By Bob Sutton
Special to The Alamance News
All the nice things being said about the Williams football team are like a return to a past era for the Bulldogs.
Perhaps, it’s about time.
“This is our year,” senior linebacker Charlie Smith said.
Williams is the only Class 3-A team in Alamance County without a conference championship in the past four seasons. Across the city, Cummings has a couple of titles in a different conference during that time, too.
So what do you say, ‘Dawgs?
“We’ve got to back it up,” coach Patrick Stokes said.
After finishing second in Central 3-A Conference play for three straight seasons and contending with top teams, the upward trend has been apparent.
“We’ve got a great chance of going far,” center Pierce Fussell said. “It’s something different about it. You can really tell.”
The Bulldogs’ overall win totals have grown from seven to eight to nine the past three seasons. Combined with Duke recruit Dan Mahan at quarterback, it’s no wonder they’re getting attention.
“I think that coming from a strong season last year without a lot of expectations,” Smith said. “We’ve got a Division I quarterback, so everybody has to look at us.”
Williams seemed to make the most of any underdog tag that existed.
“Last year we had the lowest expectations in the county and we came out and did what we had to,” Mahan said. “This year, nothing is going to change even though we have the highest expectations. We’ve tried to block out all the extra. We’ve stuck to us, and we’re going to do us.”
There might be no better time for the Bulldogs to get more accomplished.
“If we can be the class to put it on the upslope and make it trend up, we really want to be that class,” Mahan said.
Receiving targets should evolve with a passing attack that’s geared to feature Mahan’s talents.
Junior running back Amarion Richmond becomes the headliner among running backs after making a fair share of big splashes last year.
“It’s his turn,” Stokes said.
Smith said the Bulldogs have to become stin gier on defense.
“The offense put the defense on their back last year,” he said.
Nose guard Nazir Currie, who missed last season with a broken collarbone, could be an anchor on the defensive front.
Stokes, who’s in his fourth season in charge at his alma mater, said the pieces are in place for this to shape up as something special.
“This is my first complete cycle,” he said of players in the system. “This is the only Williams football that they’ve known. They’ve done what it takes to embrace it. It’s good.”
Williams’ quarterback Dan Mahan on the (relatively small) size of the dogs on the line: https://alamancenews.com/qb-says-hes-not-worried-about-the-relatively-small-size-of-the-dogs-on-the-line/
