Basha’s Williams Jr. and the making of a star QB prospect
The first time Chris McDonald met Demond Williams Jr., Demond was just 7-years old.
McDonald, then the head football coach at Maricopa, was running a youth camp for local second- and third-graders. And Demond was the best of the lot. He won camp MVP for his efforts, taking home the grand prize of one Gatorade bottle.
Five years later, Demond, then a seventh grader, came back onto McDonald’s radar, this time as a high priority recruit for his Chandler Basha program. Already, he was working with renowned quarterbacks coach Mike Giovando, who runs the Elev8 quarterback academy in Phoenix. At 12 years old, he had his pick of high school programs.
Williams Jr., now is 15 and starring for the Basha Bears high school team, which is undefeated this season. But his father doesn’t see that camp as a 7-year-old the beginning of his son’s football story.
The beginning, Demond Williams Sr. says, is when his son was five years old. Williams Sr. was the head coach at Maricopa Sequoia Pathway at the time, and when he would come home and break down film on his team or upcoming opponents, little Demond would sit by his side, asking questions and learning about the game.
“He had a GM type of mentality,” Williams Sr. said. That stood out to his father, who starred at cornerback at Michigan State and tested the NFL waters in the mid-2000s.
“When you think like that,” he said, “you’re able to overcome a lot of things, even in kids who are a little bit bigger than you or a little bit faster than you.”
Williams Jr., who is now 5-foot-11 as a high school sophomore, wasn’t as big as many other kids growing up. But were they faster than him? Never.
His speed is what has Power Five coaches across the country salivating. The Republic’s top-ranked Arizona recruit in the class of 2024, Demond Williams Jr. is considered one of the best sophomore quarterback prospects in the nation. In seven games this season, he’s passed for 1,672 yards, 13 touchdowns and three interceptions while rushing for 496 yards and 11 scores.
TCU, Louisville, Arizona and Iowa State are among the Power Five schools that have made offers.
When he first started playing football, that speed created an unfair advantage. In his first game of flag football as a 6year-old, Demond scored six touchdowns.
At the next practice, he moved his son to the program’s youngest tackle team, with kids two years his senior.
“My first year was rough,” Demond said, remembering a time when he barely saw playing time and got beat up on by older players when he did. Eventually, he realized “it was a good learning experience.”
It was also the last time he ever didn’t enjoy playing football.
“Growing up, that’s all it’s ever been was football, football, football, football,” Demond said.
Around fourth grade Demond — also a talented safety in youth football — decided to focus exclusively on playing quarterback.
“You have the option to do whatever with the ball,” he said of playing the position.
As a quarterback, Williams Jr. became one of the state’s most sought-after seventh graders in 2018.