When Jonah Williams was about 12, he began building a weight room in his parents
basement in suburban Atlanta.
Cheap Swingman Nets Jerseys .The tall preteen
was all elbows and kneecaps back then. He thought he was too skinny, and rather
than wait for nature to run its course, he decided to escalate the
process.Katherine, his mother, said he would eat and eat and eat. And before
long, her quiet, introspective son had morphed into someone different. He was
born big -- just shy of 11 pounds and 22 inches long -- but suddenly he was
growing in leaps and bounds into the 6-foot-5, 290-pound behemoth hed become.Hed
always had an intensity about him, but Katherine started to sense an aggression
in him when he played sports. Seeing him defend the net as a fullback in soccer,
guard the rim as a center in basketball or shield the quarterback at offensive
tackle in football, she began to put two and two together.Put him on [the]
athletic field and it comes out: the protection, she said.Alabama fans have seen
it during every one of the Crimson Tides 13 games this season: Williams
protecting fellow freshman Jalen Hurts. Hurts has gotten all the acclaim as a
true freshman QB starting on the No. 1-ranked team in college football, but
Williams has been arguably the more consistent player. It feels as if every week
the right tackle has been part of the staffs players of the week. Hes already a
member of the SEC All-Freshman Team and is a mortal lock to become a consensus
freshman All-American.But neither Williams, his mother nor his former high
school coach are shocked that he has been able to have this much success so
soon. When asked whether they were even a little bit surprised, their response
inevitably began with, No, but ...If Jonah sets a goal, Katherine said, its hard
to deter him from that.Said Williams: Ive always wanted to compete and just work
to earn everything.That competitiveness, Katherine said, is innate. But it was
also nurtured by a mother who played tennis and a father who swam and played
offensive line in high school. She went to school at Auburn and he at Georgia,
so college football has always been a part of the familys life.A job opportunity
led the family to move from Atlanta to California after Williams freshman year
of high school, and he settled in at Folsom High after a semester at another
local high school.When Folsom football coach Kris Richardson first laid eyes on
Williams, he was stunned.You could see right away he had the physical tools:
quick feet, an explosive lower body, a freak in the weight room, Richardson
said. But he was really raw and didnt have a lot of technique. ... His idea of
football was to grab and kick and throw people to the ground. Im like, Jonah,
for one, these are your own teammates. Lets not throw our own guys to the ground
all the time. And two, when you throw kids thats not really blocking.Even if he
didnt want to become a technician, Richardson said Williams would have been fine
living off his natural ability. In fact, before his first game on varsity, Cal
was so impressed that it offered him a scholarship on the spot.But Williams did
want to learn the finer points of playing the position. By Saturday morning, hed
already be done watching the game tape from the night before and Richardson
would wake to a dozen or so text messages from his star left tackle.On play 22,
I took my step wrong, Williams would write, according to Richardson. On play 25,
my hands werent inside.Richardson would reply, and Williams would inevitably be
in the weight room working out. Richardson held him back as best he could, but
he still benched more than 500 pounds and squatted more than 600.Very serious.
Very mature, Richardson said of Williams. His work ethic is off the charts.
Thats just who he is as a person.During Williams junior season, he would protect
the blindside of future Washington quarterback Jake Browning. Folsom won the
state title that year and Williams wound up with scholarship offers from every
school that saw him play, Richardson said.If you want to entertain yourself,
pull up his high school highlight tape, Richardson said. He was killing kids. It
was not fair.He even played defensive line on occasion and dominated there,
too.Hes going to go down as one of Sacramentos all-time greatest, said
Richardson, who has been head coach at Folsom for 12 years and was an assistant
there for nearly a decade before that.But the best thing about Williams,
Richardson said, was how he handled the recruiting process. He had one tweet
about it, and it was the one where he announced his commitment to Alabama. And
before he sent that out, he called every head coach who offered him a
scholarship to personally relay his decision.Williams graduated early and
enrolled at Alabama in January.I came in and found a place that suits me and my
personality, my work ethic, Williams said.In a bit of foreshadowing, he said
that, I wouldnt recommend someone come here if theyre not willing to work
hard.If there was one thing players noticed about Williams right away, it was
his attitude in the weight room. He didnt chafe at the shrill whistle of
strength coach Scott Cochran at 6:30 a.m. Instead, he seemed to love it.He lives
in there, said veteran guard Ross Pierschbacher, and it shows.Williams and
Pierschabacher would become workout buddies as well as friends off the
field.Pierschabacher said that hell try to watch other college football games as
a fan and inevitably Williams will spoil it, yapping in his ear about, Oh, they
ran this blitz and that stunt and they should have done this.Its like watching
film next to [offensive line coach Brent Key], Pierschabacher said. I just want
to relax a little bit.He added: I just think thats how hes built and thats whats
making him so successful; hes just got that great football mind.Senior defensive
tackle Jonathan Allen marvels at Williams technique and said that he plays
beyond his age.Junior defensive end DaShawn Hand said there are times when he
forgets that hes a freshman, too.That dude is going to be a monster, Hand said.
Just wait. Youll see.According to Pro Football Focus, Williams graded higher
than Alabamas junior left tackle?Cam Robinson, a player many expect to be taken
in the first round of next years draftThe future finance major isnt done yet. On
Dec. 31, Williams will introduce himself to an even larger audience when No.
1-ranked Alabama plays in the College Football Playoff semifinal game at the
Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl in Atlanta (3 p.m. ET, ESPN).The opponent: No. 4
Washington and Williams former teammate, Browning.Theyre good friends, Katherine
said. Hes excited about it. Hes proud of Jake and his accomplishments, but at
the same time this is going to be fun. This is the Pac-12 versus the
SEC.Katherine said she was thankful that since Williams and Browning both play
offense, there wont be any physical altercation between the friends. Not that
Williams wouldnt be ready.When Katherine spoke for this story, Alabama had just
ended its fall semester and players were able to go home before practice started
back up. And where was Williams on his day off? At the local recreation center
lifting weights.When he got home, Katherine said that her son, an avid reader,
would start his next book: Meditations by Marcus Aurelius.Its heady stuff for a
freshman in college, but Williams isnt your typical freshman.Hes like a
28-year-old man and not an 18-year-old kid, Richardson said.
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Masters champion and winner of last weeks Australian PGA has a three-round total
of 14-under 199 at Royal Melbourne. "Im in a really good position for tomorrow,"
Scott said. When Dominic Moore took a year away from the NHL, he did so with
little to no fanfare. Moores wife Katie was diagnosed with a rare form of liver
cancer in April 2012 and died Jan. 7, 2013, at the age of 32. The lockout had
just ended, and his mind wasnt on hockey. There was no formal announcement, just
the eventual realization that the free-agent centre wouldnt be playing. "It was
a very difficult decision to decide to take some time away from the game," he
said in an interview last week. "At the same time it was the right decision. I
didnt want to do anything where I wasnt going to be able to give it my full
attention or focus." Fast-forward six months and Moore is ready to resume his
career after signing a one-year, US$1-million deal with the New York Rangers.
Moore hopes he can re-establish himself as an NHL regular and also use that
stage to promote the Katie Moore Foundation and other charitable efforts. "I
think Dom is a 100-per-center. If he does something, hes a 100-per-cent
committed. I dont think he wouldve been a 100 per cent committed to playing
hockey at that time," former Tampa Bay Lightning teammate and friend
Marty St. Louis said in an interview Monday. "Im so glad that hes back playing
next year." Moore, who has been able to work out and train aggressively in
recent months, could fill a third- or fourth-line role with the Rangers, but he
could have greater impact off the ice. And thats before the 2013-14 season even
begins. Moore is hosting the second "Smashfest Charity Ping-Pong Challenge" July
25 in Toronto to raise money for the Katie Moore Foundation and some
brain-injury and concussion-research groups. St. Louis, Logan Couture of the San
Jose Sharks, Joel Ward of the Washington Capitals, George Parros of the Montreal
Canadiens and David Clarkson of the Toronto Maple Leafs are among the current
players set to take part, in addition to former players like Eric Lindros,
Mathieu Schneider and Kevin Weekes. Its a ping-pong event because, Moore said,
theres a table in every NHL locker-room and its a major part of NHL players
culture. Several players from the Toronto area and beyond will be there because
thats what a fraternity like this does. "The support through the hockey world is
great,," Moore said.
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up, you see how people come together to support each other, and Im grateful for
that." When Moore first got involved in charitable endeavours, it was with the
hope of raising money and awareness for concussion research. His brother Steves
career ended after he suffered a concussion and neck injury when Todd Bertuzzi
violently attacked him from behind in 2004. "The concussion stuff is obvious --
were hockey players," Moore said. "Obviously thats an important issue for the
hockey world." Over the past five months, the Thornhill native has tried to
jump-start the Katie Moore Foundation for a very specific cause. Katie died of
fibrolamellar hepatocellular carcinoma after a nine-month battle. "Its geared
towards rare cancers," Moore said. "Obviously theres a lot of money thats been
thrown around for cancer research and whatnot, but most of it goes to the big
ones: breast cancer and lung cancer and things like that. There are a lot of
people out there that are suffering from another rare disease. There a ton of
these different less-common diseases that are not getting the attention or
funding that maybe they could or should. Thats the intention behind what were
doing." The focus of the Katie Moore Foundation is funding primarily
non-traditional cancer-research projects in the Boston area, where Dominic and
Katie met while at Harvard University. Itll be roughly nine months from the time
Moore decided to take the lockout-shortened season off until he plays another
game for the Rangers, the team that drafted him and gave him his NHL start. "The
Rangers for a variety of reasons were my first choice. Im glad that came to
fruition," Moore said. "It feels like coming home for me given thats where I
started my career, and I always felt New York had a special place for me." That
hes playing anywhere in the NHL next season is special for those in hockey who
know Moore and tried to help however possible in the past year or so. "I love
the way he plays the game, and I love what hes done away from the game," St.
Louis said. "What hes gone through, to come back from that, playing hockey at
the highest level again, Im looking forward to watching him play again." ' ' '