Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BY DAN MURPHY B errien Springs (Mich.) High head coach Bill Bergan knew he had a football player the first time he saw Jhonathon Williams in pads. Williams, a tall and lanky basketball convert, had never stepped on a foot- ball field prior to his sophomore year of high school. When he did, he knew exactly what to do. Bergan recalls the crack Williams made in hitting drills during that first day of practice and the smile he dis- played immediately after. He knew right away that his new find from the basketball courts was a hitter. "He's a hitter, oh my goodness," Ber- gan said. "He didn't stop moving his feet. That was the one thing we noticed about Jhon. He never stopped his feet when he was making tackles." Williams said he always considered himself a basketball player growing up. He is on pace to finish his hoops career with more than 1,000 points. He didn't change his mind until last summer when college football coaches started showing up with scholarship offers after an impressive camp at Michigan State — the first and only scouting event he attended. The Berrien Springs staff convinced the 6-5, 230-pounder that he should try football after watching him workout with some of the older players in the weight room as a freshman. The sport would toughen him up for basketball, they told him. Instead, it was Williams' speed and good hands from the basketball court that translated to success on the grid- iron. He said he always embraced the hard work and discipline that came with football, and the results started to show this fall. "I've just been doing what I've been doing every year. I've been training hard. I prepared myself," he said. Bergan said his explosive defensive end was still learning exactly how to use his hands and how to stay low enough to create leverage. Those les- sons started to click in the middle of Jhonny Williams Shines After Late Start In Football Williams didn't start playing football until his soph- omore year in high school. Just over two years later, he was named to the Detroit Free Press 22-man Dream Team for the state of Michigan. PHOTO BY TOM LOY