Chase Williams Article

Sand Mountain Reporter.com reports Chase Williams signing with JSU.

Chase's dream comes true

By Shannon J. Allen
The Reporter

Published February 6, 2010

Boaz senior Chase Williams woke up Wednesday morning to one of the biggest days of his football career.

“It was a pretty nice feeling waking up knowing that I had a scholarship waiting on me at Boaz,” said Williams, the two-time defensive most valuable player in Marshall County.

Wednesday afternoon, Williams put his signature on a letter-of-intent to Jacksonville State, making good on the verbal commitment he gave the Gamecocks last fall.

Head coach Jack Crowe said the 2010 Jacksonville State signees are the best he has ever signed.

“We’re very excited about the class that we’ve signed,” Crowe said in a statement.

“We feel like we’ve met all our needs for next season and the years to follow with this talented group of recruits.”

Williams will have an opportunity to make an impact as a freshman.

“Whenever I went down there on my official visit, me and Coach Crowe talked and he said that me and him both would know if I needed to be redshirted or not,” Williams said.

“So, I can probably decide if I want to be redshirted or not.”

Max Thurmond coaches outside linebackers for the Gamecocks, and Williams said Thurmond wants him to play the “bandit” position in JSU’s “30” scheme.

Jacksonville State, which finished with the best record in the Ohio Valley Conference with an 8-3 mark and a final national ranking of 16th in 2009, is scheduled to begin spring practice on March 3 and will play its annual spring game on April 10.

Williams described his scholarship as a dream come true, especially in light of the fact he almost gave up football before the start of his sophomore season.

“Coach (Jeff) Johnson said before this I had to buy him a steak, because he and (Head) Coach (Drew) Noles are the ones who talked me into playing,” Williams said. “I said, ‘Look, I’ll buy you three steaks.’”

Johnson now serves as assistant principal at Boaz Middle School.

One of Williams’ special memories from his prep career is something Noles told him about his performance at linebacker.

“Coach always told me that I was the person who never gave up on a play. If they’re inbounds, I’m always going to get them,” he said.

“Just being on the team and having the coaches that we had, just really like Christian coaches that we had, was special.

“It was just a good impact on our lives how Coach Noles was and how all our coaches were, and that’s going to impact me throughout college.

“Every night it was just fun. The fans were crazy. Even if we lost, our teammates would pick us up and stuff.

“It was always a fun game, and then beating Albertville seven times (in a row), that’s even better just to say that.”

Williams was one of three Pirates to sign Wednesday. Teammates Drew Phillips (BYU) and John Coby (Faulkner) also participated in the ceremony in the BHS library.

“I think Coach Noles said today that this is the first time three people have ever signed in one day,” Williams said.

“That’s a big deal, and it shows what our athletic ability is coming through this program. It’s just the athletes coming through, and then there’s more coming up that will probably be better than us.”