The white jersey Anthony Williams wears during football practice contains snags, stains and a sizable hole along the right shoulder.
Greenwood’s starting fullback has a simple explanation for the latter.
“It’s a lot of face masks,” said Williams, a senior who teams with classmate Nick Willham to form the Woodmen’s old-school, between-the-tackles ground attack. “That’s where the rips come from.
“Some people have holes in their jersey, but not as big as mine.”
At 5-foot-8, 235 pounds, Williams is Greenwood’s version of a steel ball repeatedly being lowered into the side of a building for purposes of destruction. Williams squats as much as 525 pounds and can bench press 325.
“I’m more of a power runner,” Williams said. “I don’t have much speed.”
The Woodmen finished the regular season with a 2-7 record but have put together their first two-game win streak to qualify for tonight’s Class 4A sectional championship game at Mooresville.
The challenge is daunting. The Woodmen face the sixth-ranked Pioneers (10-1), who handed them a 49-14 loss on the same field in Week 4.
Williams rushed 12 times for 48 yards in the first meeting; Willham had 141 on 19 attempts. Greenwood must manufacture lengthy, time-consuming drives in order to keep the ball from the high-powered Pioneers, who average 41 points a game, if it is going to have a chance to spring the upset.
“It’s going to be a pretty big challenge for us,” Williams said. “Mooresville is a pretty good team, so we’ve just got to stay focused.”
Williams’ offseason focus centered on losing weight. He played at 265 pounds as a junior, but thought he could do better. He credits a dieting technique called intermittent fasting.
“You eat for an hourly time every day, so like five hours out of my day I’ll eat and then I won’t eat for the rest of that day,” he said.
Williams, who averaged 2.7 carries a contest for last season’s semistate qualifier, enters tonight’s game averaging 10.3 this fall. In sectional victories at New Castle and against Mt. Vernon, the senior has rushed the ball a total of 38 times.
Woodmen coach Mike Campbell used Williams mostly as a defensive end the first three games of the season. He played sparingly for the offense over that span, running the ball only 13 times before becoming a more integral part of the offense.
When not carrying the football, Williams is the lead blocker for Willham, who more than doubles his backfield mate in carries (277) and yards (1,457). Williams is second on the team in scoring with nine touchdowns, eight of those on the ground, and has made six receptions.
Campbell said losing weight was a decision the senior made on his own.
“Anthony wanted to get in better shape. He felt like losing some weight and trying to add some quickness would be a good thing for him,” Campbell said. “And adding some stamina to make it through football games. That’s still been a battle at times.
“He’ll get 10 carries some games, 15 another. Anthony’s just a big, powerful kid, so he’s hard to tackle.”
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TONIGHT’S SECTIONAL FINALS
Class 6A
Center Grove at Franklin Central, 7 p.m.
Class 4A
Greenwood at Mooresville, 7 p.m.
Class 3A
Bishop Chatard at Indian Creek, 7 p.m.
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