It was 7 a.m., and Fremont High’s Andrew Williams was sleeping at his grandmother’s house in South Los Angeles when she woke him up to tell him a USC football coach wanted to speak to him on her cellphone before he went to school.
Williams will never forget that moment on Feb. 12. Defensive line coach Eric Henderson was calling to officially offer him a scholarship to play for the Trojans.
“You don’t believe it until you see it,” he said. “When he told me in his tone and how serious he was, I knew it was real. It was destiny calling. It took me a couple hours to reflect what was going on. I was stunned.”
By lunch time in the school quad, while surrounded by friends and classmates, the 6-foot-5, 220-pound Williams was calling Henderson to tell him, “I’m ready to become a Trojan.”
Henderson replied, “Hold on. I have someone who wants to speak to you.”
Coach Lincoln Riley joined the called.
“He said, ‘We’re so excited to have you here.’ It was genuine,” he said.
Williams was so unknown in the recruiting world before committing to USC last February that he said, “I wasn’t mentioned by any recruiting sites. I had no stars. Honestly it didn’t make me feel any different. I was the same player before the stars and without the stars. Most people still don’t know about me.”
He said a three-touchdown, 10-tackle performance as a junior against L.A. Jordan last fall while playing fullback, defensive end and receiver caught the attention of Colorado State assistant Chad Savage, who later joined USC as an assistant.
Recruiting players from inner city Los Angeles used to be a priority for USC and UCLA. Fremont grad Ricky Bell, a star running back for USC, has his name on the Pathfinders’ stadium. Fremont grad Mark Bradford was a star receiver at Stanford. Crenshaw has sent numerous players to USC and UCLA. Dorsey’s head coach, Stafon Johnson, was a standout running back for the Trojans.
But a drop in talent in the City Section has made identifying potential success stories more difficult. Williams, who has a 3.8 grade point average and plans to graduate in December, said he hopes to be part of the start of a rebirth in championing players from the inner city.
“I’m comfortable with people looking up to me,” he said. “Somebody in the city is actually doing it. Just as I can do it, so can you.”
He doesn’t doubt the road ahead remains difficult.
“I feel I was one of the least privileged kids,” he said. “To have the opportunity I’m doing now. … If I was another 6-5 kid that wasn’t from South Central, I would have been known. They would have shot me up the rankings. They don’t show that in the city I love. That’s cool. That’s for them to keep sleeping on us.”
Living 10 blocks from Fremont with his grandmother since he was 7, Williams said he didn’t discover football until his freshman year. He said he had too much free time until reaching high school and finding something to focus on.
“Have you heard the saying, ‘People get stuck and lost in the system?’ People become a product of their environment,” he said. “I needed time to figure my way out. I came to a realization when I came to high school that something was going to have to happen.”
With his height, athleticism — he can dunk — and agility — he also ran track — USC will watch him this fall to see whether his position will be tight end or defensive end. He’s a raw, intriguing prospect with lots of room to become stronger.
First-year Fremont coach Derek Benton was the coach at Jordan last season when Williams had his big game.
“He made his mark against me, then I knew and heard about him and it was one of the attractions coming here,” he said. “I’m very impressed with Andrew as a person.”
All Williams wanted was an opportunity to get a degree in college. He wants to study communications and learn about sports broadcasting. He said he didn’t need to visit multiple colleges or seek attention from social media. The USC offer was enough.
“Football teaches you can’t expect results without work,” he said. “People expect things in life, but they don’t put the work in. That’s a lesson football teaches you. It teaches unity, leadership, how to treat others.”
He has been rewarded for making good decisions and surrounding himself with people who want to see him succeed. All he’s ever wanted was a chance to prove himself.
“I’m doing my thing,” he said.
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