On eve of opener, Greencastle's Williams poised for big season
Greencastle senior Dustin Williams is used to getting attention. Throughout most of his life, whenever he walks into a room, he's going to get noticed.
At 6-2, 270 pounds, he's kind of hard to miss.
"Off the field, you walk in and everyone is staring at you because you're the big guy and think, 'Don't mess with him,'" Williams said. "On the field, you've got a lot of other big guys around you so it's just, who is the best? You can get lost in between them."
Staying anonymous off the field is nearly impossible, no matter how hard he tries. He's quiet in class, passive in the hall. Before a game, when his teams are jumping around, yelling and trying to get fired up, he sits calmly in his locker, listening to music; reflecting on his assignments and visualizing what he'll have to do.
Williams is a defensive tackle for the Tiger Cubs, charged with pushing bodies around and diagnosing plays while large boys smack, prod and try to distract him, and last year he did it well enough for the Putnam County coaches to select him as the 2012 Defensive Player of the Year.
It's tough to get a lot of stats when your job is to occupy blockers and direct the offense into areas they don't want to go, but Williams' dominance isn't measured by stats, Greencastle coach Josh Buis said.
"He's a dedicated player," Buis said. "He's the type of kid you want to coach. He does the right things both on and off the field."
Buis is married to Williams' aunt, so the coach and player have known each other for a while. That doesn't mean the Tiger Cubs' coach is willing to take it easy on his nephew.
Williams, also the Tiger Cubs starting center, has taken all the extra coaching to heart and always been ready to work. Even when he should be at play.
"He's heard it from me from Sunday dinner at his grandma's house all the way to the practice field," Buis said. "When we're around at family functions, football is all we talk about.
"I remember (in 2011) we went to spring break together. I had him snapping the ball in the sand. He didn't get to enjoy the ocean because we were doing football on vacation."
After beginning his first year of high school football on the freshman team, the coaches noticed in him a talent that was too hard to pass up. He played guard on the freshmen and JV team, than moved to left tackle when he got to varsity late in his first year.
The transition was a little difficult, particularly since he prefers defense.
"As a freshman out there, playing left tackle on varsity," he said. "'Oh my god.' For me it was a humbling experience because you've got these guys, juniors and seniors who have been playing for a while and you've got to really step up and get your job done."
Now in his third season as Greencastle's center, he is charged with making calls and adjusting protections on the fly. The same thing happens on defense.
This comes easy to him, Buis said, because he has such an easy time thinking like the offense.
"He's got a great nose for the football and he's a cerebral player," he said. "He's a student of the game. He understands what offenses are trying to do -- he understands blocking schemes -- so he does a great job getting to the football."
Greencastle's balanced offense allows its lineman ample opportunities to pass block and run block, but that is just a little to passive for Williams.
Though he is calm, polite and well spoken off the field, he flips a switch on it. As his ambivalent ability to attract attention decreases, his desire to hit goes up.
"I just like being able to hit people," he said. "I like finding where the ball is at and getting to it. Most of the time I'm lined up the gap (between center and guard) and I'm trying to shoot off the ball, get my hands on the blocker and read where the offense is going. At the same time, I look to see what the backfield is doing, then from whatever I read I just go."
While he didn't participate in any linemen camps this summer, a traditional way to get on the radar of college coaches, he has heard from a number of schools, including one in Division I.
Still, it's nice to have options and the better he plays this year -- and the better the Tiger Cubs play -- the more coaches at the next level will take notice.
"He's the type of kid that you look for in a high school player and in a college player," Buis said. "He's a high-motor kid. He weighs 270 pounds but if you see him in person he looks like he's 250. He's lean, he's athletic. He's got small ankles.
Greencastle will count on Williams to perform as it chases a trip to the IHSAA state championship game, though he certainly won't be alone.
He's not the only player who has put in the work, on and off the field, as he grew up chasing the dream of becoming a Tiger Cub and a champion.
"I would love to play in college ... but I just have to depend on having a great senior year and my coach helping me get my name out there," Williams said. "I would love to go through, win all our regular season games, get through sectionals and make it all the way to state. I've been playing with these guys -- this senior class -- since I was four.
"We've grown close and I want to win with them."