ON Air with 912 Sports

Written by Kevin Price

Photo courtesy of Michael Brinson

At 6-foot-7 and 240 pounds, Elyiss Williams stands out during a team’s pregame stretching routine on the football field when players spread out along the yard-lines or in a lay-up line during pregame warmups prior to tipoff for a basketball game. 

But once a football or basketball game starts and you see the 4.4 speed he possesses in the 40-yard dash and the overall athleticism he also has to go along with that massive body size as he makes a circus-catch in space, leaps to block a shot or snare a rebound off the rim, you instantly see why the Camden County senior is an elite player in both sports. 

“Oh, he’s the real deal,” Richmond Hill head football coach Matt LeZotte quickly exclaimed during a camp this summer when top area players were being discussed and Williams’ name came up. 

Williams is actually the No. 1 tight end prospect in the country in the Class of 2025, making him the most high-profile player in our Southeast Geogia coverage area this football season. That also made him an easy choice as our MVP feature athlete for the Preseason Football Issue of 912 Sports Magazine. 

He is rated a five-star recruit by 247Sports which also ranks him 21st overall in the nation and the seventh-best prospect in Georgia among this year’s senior players. 

Williams has been committed to the University of Georgia since last April and announced in June that he was “locked in” to his commitment to the Bulldogs while adding that he was shutting down his recruitment following his official visit to Georgia in late May. 

Thus, it appears the Camden standout is set to sign with the Bulldogs during the early signing period in December despite continued efforts by others, especially Florida State and Miami, to get Williams to change his mind about where he would play college football. 

“I grew up on Georgia. That was always my hometown team,” said Williams, who played his first two years of high school ball at Charlton County in Folkston before moving back to Camden and finishing out his prep career with the Wildcats. 

Williams also said he formed good relationships with Georgia tight end coach Todd Hartley and head coach Kirby Smart during the recruiting process which got going in earnest for him his sophomore year when as many as 15 offers rolled in from major colleges. 

He is also well aware of how the Bulldogs have used athletic tight ends such as himself in their offense in recent years, namely Brock Bowers and Darnell Washington, who were first- and third-round draft picks, respectively, in the last two NFL drafts, while helping UGA to back-to-back national championships in the 2021 and 2022 seasons. 

“I know they plan to use me in ways similar to other players they’ve had,” Williams said. “I feel like they’re gonna put me in the right position to make plays and showcase my talent on Saturdays.”

Williams first displayed his talents at Charlton, where he didn’t produce stats that jump off the page on the football field although his raw skills were visible as a pass-catcher and edge rusher on the defensive front. 

On the basketball court, his numbers were more impressive as he was named the Region 2-AA Player of the Year and led the Indians to the Class AA state championship game as a sophomore.

Last year at Camden, he flourished on the gridiron and continued to shine on the basketball floor as well. He caught 25 passes for 530 yards and seven touchdowns in the Wildcats’ run-oriented Wing-T offense while helping Camden advance to the semifinals in the Class AAAAAAA state playoffs for the first time since 2009.

His 25 receptions were a team-best as were his yardage and touchdown totals while his 37.9 yards-per catch average also was a team-high. 

“He’s a special player, a generational-type player, no question,” said Jeff Herron, Camden’s former head coach who announced his retirement in January. “The Georgia coaches told me when he moved in that I was gonna like him as much off the field as on the field, and no question, he is very humble and also hard-working. 

“But, he’s able to do some things on the field that you don’t see everyday. When he first got out there with us in the spring, I saw he was big, but really wasn’t sure what all the fuss was about. But after two weeks, I understood.”

In basketball last season, he was the Region 1-AAAAAAA Player of the Year while leading the Wildcats to the league title and a 21-7 season. Williams reached 1,000 points for his career during the season, and through three full years of prep hoops, he has averaged 15.5 points, 12.6 rebounds and 2.9 blocks per game. 

Williams has played under head coach David Bailey for each of his three high school seasons. Bailey was his coach at Charlton before accepting the head coaching position with the Wildcats prior to last season. 

“He’s just so athletic, so skilled,” Bailey says. “I really think he could be play in the NBA, and I’m not just saying that because I’m a basketball coach. I played and coached football, too. He’s just so big and physical and has so much touch and is so light on his feet.”

Bailey understands why people believe Williams has more long-term upside in football, however. “I was the track coach at Charlton, and he was my anchor man on our 4x400 and 4x200 relay teams, and we were one of the best in the state at the time,” the coach notes. “Just at his size and with his speed and the way he can finish blocks, he’s a mismatch for a lot of guys. There are a lot of 6-7, 6-8 basketball players, but there aren’t a lot of 6-8 football players who can run and catch like him.”

What has always impressed Bailey the most about Williams, though, isn’t his physical talents. It’s his character and work habits. 

“I don’t know if I have ever coached a kid like him,” Bailey says. “Just the type of kid he is, he’s so humble. It’s how he was raised. He does the work in the classroom, the weight room. He doesn’t like to be talked about as the No. 1 tight end in the country or a five-star recruit or being committed to UGA. He doesn’t like that kind of attention. 

“He wants to be coached. He wants to be coached hard. He doesn’t want to be told how good he is. He’s a perfectionist. He wants to be perfect.”

Looking at the upcoming football season, Williams and the rest of the Wildcats will have another new head coach with Herron deciding to retire after last season’s playoff run. Camden’s new coach is Travis Roland who led Mainland (Fla.) to a state title last season. 

Roland has installed a spread offense in Kingsland as he tries to keep Camden competitive in Georgia’s largest classification. 

Williams expects to have the ball thrown his way a lot. He also could line up in various places, he notes.

“I feel like I’m gonna be almost everywhere, except quarterback,” he quips. 

And this fall, Williams also might be taking a spot in the kitchen on Thanksgiving day helping prepare the family feast. He says he typically helps his mom prepare the macaroni and cheese and also keeps an eye on the ham as it bakes in the oven. 

He noted that he actually enjoys cooking from time to time. His speciality dish is shrimp alfredo. 

Williams also said that he enjoys reading while relaxing at home. 

Of course, between playing football and basketball and doing schoolwork, there hasn’t been a lot of downtime for the Camden standout the last several years. 

“High school has gone by really fast,” Williams says. 

Written by Kevin Price

Photo courtesy of Charles Smith

It’s hard to believe Rashawn Truell was considered a question mark for New Hampstead’s offense going into last season. 

But with more experienced players around him on the offense, the first-year starting quarterback for the Phoenix was certainly an unproven commodity for a unit that was otherwise a well-oiled machine.

Truell was more than ready to be the trigger-man, though, for what turned out to be another explosive New Hampstead offense as he blossomed into one of the state’s best quarterbacks during the 2023 season. 

Our featured Scholar-Athlete for the Preseason Football Issue of 912 Sports Magazine, Truell posted eye-popping numbers last fall as he passed for 3,302 yards and 38 touchdowns while the Phoenix went 6-5 overall and hosted their first home playoff game which they won before falling in the second round of the state playoffs the following week. 

Now, the senior college prospect is the unquestioned starting quarterback for the Phoenix who are rebuilding on the offensive side of the ball going into the 2024 campaign which opens in mid-August for high-school teams around the state. 

This time a year ago, people wondered how good New Hampstead might be offensively after losing standout signal-caller Pauly Seeley who started five games as a freshman last fall at Wofford College after throwing for more than 7,000 yards as a three-year starter for the Phoenix. 

But, New Hampstead head coach Kyle Hockman wasn’t one of those who had questions about his new starting quarterback. The veteran head coach knew what Truell was capable of and the talents he possessed. 

It didn’t take long for others to find out that the new guy was pretty good, too. 

“He waited his turn and knew he was ready,” Hockman said. “He probably was ready his sophomore year, but he waited and got his chance. He knew we had a good offense coming back. 

“He was just patient and came out gun-slinging. He threw four touchdowns the first game, three more the second game, and it was game on at that point.”

Truell, who is 6-foot-1 and weighs 210 pounds, admits he was anxious to play and show what he had going into last season, but knew he couldn’t be too eager to prove himself when he took the field as the starter. 

He did put up good numbers from the outset, but Truell said it took him a few games to really feel comfortable under the Friday night lights. 

“The game was faster than I thought it was, and I wasn’t trusting what I was seeing early on,” Truell said. “Once I caught my stride and trusted what I was seeing, that’s where all the numbers I put up really came from.”

Truell’s biggest game came in late September against perennial power and defending Class AAAA champion Benedictine. New Hampstead lost that Region 2-AAAA contest by a 39-31 final score, but it was a night to remember for Truell who passed for a school-record 533 yards and four touchdowns in the shootout with the Cadets. 

The game was an offensive shootout that became one big blur for Truell who just kept taking snaps and throwing the football play after play. 

“I didn’t remember a lot from the game. It was like an out-of-body experience for me,” he said. “I thought we fought hard. I know we lost, but I felt good about how we played, so I wasn’t too bummed out, too mad about it right after the game. 

“I didn’t know my stats. The 500 yards were a shock to me when I saw the stats on my phone later that night. I didn’t think I had anywhere near that passing. But that game, we had a bye-week the week before, we drilled all that week, the week of the game and just executed that night. The credit goes to our coaches for the game plan. We just went out and attacked, and the offensive line played great that night, too.”

Prior to last season, there were family members and friends who bent Truell’s ears about transferring to another area school so he could play sooner rather than being stuck behind Seely on the depth chart at New Hampstead. 

Hockman mentioned meeting with Truell and his mother about that very subject as well while being interviewed for this story. Truell says he never gave that option much thought. He said he always felt New Hampstead was the best place for him. 

“I wanted to stick with the program. I thought Coach Hockman was the best at coaching quarterbacks, and I wanted to stay with the guys I’d played with since little-league.”

So following his freshman season, while others thought he could be a starting varsity quarterback somewhere else, he played for the New Hampstead junior varsity as a sophomore while seeing limited time mostly in mop-up duty on Friday nights with the varsity squad. 

All the while, he listened in meetings, stayed tuned in during games and stayed close to Seeley while trying to learn what he could from the New Hampstead first-stringer. 

Truell also continued to absorb Hockman’s coaching in practice and apply what he was learning about playing quarterback in the sub-varsity games. He elaborated more on what he liked about Hockman when asked about his head coach. 

“He’s very detailed when coaching quarterbacks. He teaches you to be a next-level quarterback starting at a young age. That’s what kept me here the most, how he develops quarterbacks,” Truell said. 

Hockman, who was hired by New Hampstead prior to the 2019 season, had seven consecutive quarterbacks sign college scholarships before coming to coach in Southeast Georgia. One of those signees was his son Bailey who played quarterback for his dad at McEachern where Hockman coached previously before taking the job with the Phoenix. 

Truell is set to play beyond high school, too. Currently, he has scholarship offers from Bucknell and Arkansas State among others. Hockman thinks Truell’s offers list could grow throughout the fall. 

“He’s a really smart kid, and that translates on the field,” the coach said. “He learned our system and didn’t get ahead of himself. He got the keys to Cadillac last year and drove it well. 

“He’s just a joy to coach. I ask him a lot of questions. Do you like this or that? Do you want to do this or that? We’re putting even more on him like protection calls, different audibles and so forth and he’s handling it all really well.

“He’s got a big arm, can throw it 75 yards, but he also has good touch and can throw the intermediate passes, too.”

Truell also plays basketball for the Phoenix who went 23-6 last season and a perfect 10-0 in their region before advancing to the Elite 8 of the state tournament. A starting guard, he hit a couple of game-winning shots for the basketball team as well last season. 

Truell also played baseball as a freshman and sophomore. 

He signed an NIL deal last October with Quarteback Keeper which does quarterback training in the Savannah area. Truell signed the deal just a few weeks after the Georgia High School Association approved student-athletes benefiting from their name, image and likeness, making him one of the first student-athletes in the state to sign an NIL deal. 

The quarterback excells in the classroom, too. He holds a 3.9 grade-point average going in his senior year. He has taken several Advanced Placement courses already and will take two more this year. Those will be a history course and also a calculus class. 

Truell noted that math is his favorite subject in school. “I’ve always been good at math since I was young. I don’t really know why,” he said. 

Truell is also a member of National Honor Society and has served as a mentor to other students while being involved in his church as well.

“He’s just an all-around good kid,” Hockman said.