STAMPS ROOKIE MAINTAINS FOCUS WITH TIGHT GAME-DAY RITUAL
By kickoff, Ucambre Williams will have used more towels than vowels.
Because, for the Calgary Stampeders rookie offensive lineman, game-day preparation must feature:
■ Two showers — one when he gets out of bed, another before tugging on pads.
■ Zero conversations — with anyone.
OK, Williams does reach out long-distance to his mother, Clautretta, in the morning. But that is it. “Nothing else,” says Williams. “I like to focus in on my job, you know. I feel like (everything else) can wait till after the game.”
So, arriving at the stadium, he buttons his lip and clamps on headphones. Gospel songs soothe his soul.
“I like listening to calm music,” Williams says. “Some guys like the heavy rock or the rap to get excited … but I like to have it cool, calm, collected.”
He developed this curious routine — hot water for him, cold shoulder to others — during his days at the University of South Alabama. Why? “A great way to focus.” In fact, he’s expanding the ritual.
Now, in the locker-room before even practice, he clams up, soaking up inspirational tunes, hand-picked by Mom. No one is allowed into this world.
“The O-line, they joke on me,” says Williams, smiling. “It’s not that I’m being rude. I just like to focus up before I do anything.”
Although, if he ever felt like it, the young man does have plenty to crow about.
Overcoming blown knees, left and right, in college; being snubbed in the 2015 National Football League draft; working at Best Buy; keeping his profootball aspirations alive with tryouts and workouts; hearing that former college teammate and current Stamps linebacker Maleki Harris got his film into the hands of Calgary staffers; showing enough at the team’s springtime identification camp in Tampa, Fla., to earn a contract; paying dues on the practice roster for more than a month; and, now, making his first appearance in the Canadian Football League.
“A couple times I wanted to give up,” he says. “But I just stayed hungry, stayed prepared. I knew my opportunity was going to come. My parents, coaches, teammates … knew I had the potential to play on a big stage like this.
“They made it easier to come out here and do the work.”
Opportunity arrived — Dan Federkeil’s upper-body issues opened Friday’s door against the visiting B.C. Lions — and now it’s up to No. 61.
“This is the best birthday present,” says Williams, who turns 24 on Monday. “I’m a little nervous, a little butterflies, but that comes with it. Once I get out there I’ll be fine.”
Before making the northward trek to Calgary, Williams had received a blessing from his hometown mayor — the Honourable Eddie Lowe, who’s been perched upon the Phenix City, Ala., throne since 2012. That name should be familiar. Lowe enjoyed a fine linebacking career with the Saskatchewan Roughriders, a nine-year term that included a couple of campaigns alongside Stamps boss John Hufnagel. Not surprisingly, the man got wind of Williams’ destination.
“He gave me a little pep talk,” Williams says.
“He told me to keep focused, to outwork everybody. Coming from the situation I came from, everybody wants to see you work and not give up. He gave me great advice. I paid heed.”
Lowe checked in again during camp — this time in part to make sure that Williams, from Canada, would be able to cast a vote in Phenix City’s election Aug. 30.
The rookie, by that date, hopes to be prepping madly for the Labour Day Classic. Now, though, his mind is trained solely on right-tackle duties. For the first time ever. A longtime left tackle, he’s confident of making the adjustment.
“But there’s more to (the move than you’d think),” says Williams. “Just shifting your mind to playing the other side, realizing that everything you did on the left side is opposite. But Coach Pat (DelMonaco) was always in my ear, ‘Stay ready, stay ready, because you’re going to play this year.’ So I had to stay ready. And here I am.”
This — safeguarding star passer Bo Levi Mitchell, being part of a unit that’s permitted a league-low four sacks — stands as a rewarding moment for Williams.
“I think my mom is more excited than I am,” he says. “I called her and she was ecstatic … with everything I’ve been through.”
It’s a measure of respect that, on a day when he steadfastly stays mum, it’s Mom who gets the only day-time dingle — and, naturally, the first post-game shout. Even though it’ll be well past bed time back home, he knows the lady who named him Ucambre Jakieron Thembiance Williams will be wide awake. So he’ll be speed-dialing her.
Williams, smiling, offers a what-are-you-gonna-do shrug.
“I’m a mama’s boy.”