David Lott remembers the first practice under new UMS-Wright coach Sam Williams.
After getting in the gym and working out a bit, the defensive back gathered fellow seniors Caplyn Reed and Perry Hand to lead a team meeting.
“We were like, ‘You’re either going to buy in or you’re going to quit,’” he said he told his team. “‘We’re going to do whatever he says, no matter what we were told before.’ We just had to get the team ready. Everybody’s on board now, so we’re ready to go.”
After being announced as the historic program’s next head coach in March, the trio can say with confidence that everyone is bought in.
“I’ve really enjoyed the change,” senior Perry Hand said on Monday at Mobile County High School media day. “We’ve definitely gotten a lot closer as a group. We’ve been really competitive this year, and it’s been different. We haven’t been able to get in pads, but we’ve definitely done a lot of competing this summer, so that’s good.
“We’re all excited to pad up Wednesday.”
A Mississippi native, Williams was brought to UMS-Wright out of Brandon (Miss.) High School, where he compiled a 45-10 record and played for three state titles. The former Mississippi State football player accumulated an 82-24 overall record at three stops before coming to Alabama.
He replaced Hall of Fame coach Terry Curtis, who led the Bulldogs to eight state championships across 26 years as the program’s head coach.
“It’s been awesome,” the coach said. “I was talking about this the other day with my dad. It’s been four months now, so not a whole lot of time when you really think about it. I’m one of those guys that I want it to be a certain way right now, so I’m not going to accept it being anything less. I think they’ve picked up on that really quickly, I’ve seen a lot of growth.
“I think we’ve been really intentional about everything we’ve done, from the weight room to character development on the field, whenever we’ve had an opportunity to do that. As we finally get to get out of shorts and t-shirts and put pads on in two days, it’s going to really show up the hard work we put in. Hopefully it’ll translate to some physicality as well.”
Despite the shift to a new head coach from their longtime leader, athletes credited Williams for making the transition easy as a new — but somewhat similar — winning culture has been implemented.
“The tradition hadn’t changed at all,” Lott said. “It’s still UMS, we’ve got a different way of doing things; we’re morning, now we used to be afternoon, and we’ve still got the same tradition. There wasn’t much change. You’ve got two great leaders at head coach from coach Curtis to coach Williams, so it’s pretty much the same thing.”
Senior Caplyn Reed, who was a Class 3A all-state pick last season at linebacker, said that the intensity from the previous coaching staff is still present, with everyone on the team getting closer and excited to come in and work every day.
“I didn’t know what to expect,” Reed said of his first impression of Williams. “I’ve heard the stories about what he did at Brandon, and I knew that when I got to know, I understood that he was going to do great things for UMS-Wright, he was going to put us in the right position to make plays and he was going to instill a work ethic in us that we haven’t had in a minute.
“We just took that and ran with it, and we’ve been getting better and better every step of the way.”
UMS-Wright will open the season at home against St. Paul’s on Friday, Aug. 22, in the Battle of Old Shell Road for Williams’ debut as head football coach.
“He was very confident when he came, which is a great thing,” Hand said. “He already had high expectations coming in, he knew exactly what he wanted to do and everybody was ready to get on board with that.
“When you have somebody like a leader like coach Williams that comes in and knows exactly what he expects from our football team, it was so easy for everybody to get on board. Our team has really bought in and we’re ready to go.”
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