Football | September 29, 2017
Jaison Williams is ready for whatever life throws at him.
The Austin Peay sophomore has it all sorted out on the football field. As one of the program cornerstones who arose from head coach Will Healy's first signing class, Williams has emerged as a pass-rushing force and a fixture in opposing backfields. In 13 games, he already has 9.5 tackles for loss, including two sacks against FBS Miami this season, carrying on a tradition of terrorizing opposing ballcarriers started at Hewitt-Trussville High School, where he notched 96 tackles as a senior and helped his high school squad advance to the state playoffs three times.
Judge Williams not only by his athletic prowess but also his overall All-American kid nature. Standing 6-1 and weighing 225 pounds, Williams is built like a Greek god, a goliath of the gridiron with an affable, easy way about him. He's all yes-sir, no-ma'am and quick-witted to boot. And he keeps the "student" in student-athlete first, earning a spot on the Athletic Director's Honor Roll last fall in his very first collegiate semester.
Maybe that's just naturally Williams' motif—some people are born to be gregarious, chiseled scholar-athletes, comfortable in the limelight and self-effacing away from it. But circumstance dictates character, to a certain extent, and it's hard to imagine that part of Williams' veneer has not been influenced by a hard-scrabble up-bringing that brought him to Clarksville by the most circuitous of paths.
Born in Birmingham, with a father who was not in the picture, Williams was the man of the house from a young age. His biological mother juggled raising him and his siblings—eight total, six in the house—with trying to provide a stable environment despite moving from place to place. Eventually, the situation grew untenable and at 11, the family unit as Williams knew it dissolved. His siblings were placed with their biological dads.
Without a biological father to go to, Williams stayed with a family friend in the short term before being placed in foster care, where he was then shuffled from home to home for the better part of three years, seven in all—some good, some not so good. He doesn't much like to talk about it, and it's hard to blame him—he had to grow up far quicker than is fair.
"My immediate family was all I had," he said of that time in his life. "It was a very lonely process. I had to grow up at a very young age. I had to learn to depend on God, and not necessarily myself or my family."
When seventh grade ended, Williams was in a pickle. His time with a foster family had run its course and he was about to be on the move again, either to Huntsville or another home far away from Birmingham and his biological siblings scattered around the city.
This is where a commingling of fate, a loving family and a wise guidance counselor intervened.
"My guidance counselor at Clay-Chalkville Middle School, her sister goes to First Baptist Trussville and knew a family who was looking to adopt," Williams said. "I moved in for a weekend to see if I liked it and see how things went. And as soon as I moved in, I knew and from that weekend, I never left."
That family was the Williamses—Dad Jamie, mom Ashley and Drew, Maggie and Jack. And in addition to giving Jaison a stable home life and the comfort of knowing where he'd lay his head down each night, they provided the loving, nurturing environment every child needs to succeed.
"Being older, realizing what I wanted with life, they showed me so much love and care and they were genuine, unlike some of the families I was with," Williams said. "I knew they were a family I could grow with and be with while still being able to love on my biological family."
Now, instead of bouncing from home to home, Jaison had stability. And in Jamie, he got a father to learn from at an integral point in his life.
"He was one of the first male figures in my life to show me how to be a man, how to treat your wife and how to treat your family," Williams said. "I was a random kid, you know? And he took me and showed me how take care of family."
Maybe it's not the Rockwellian vision of a family dynamic, but it works for Williams. His biological family remains, aside from a recently-married sister, located in the greater Birmingham area and the Williams' are always there—and sometimes here, making the trek to Clarksville for several Governor games.
As the oldest male, Williams felt—and still feels—some burden of responsibility for his biological family suddenly becoming scattered throughout Birmingham. As he moves forward, its become less about "What if?" and more in the realm of "What now?"
"Any kid (in that situation) wonders, 'Is there something I could've done better?,'" Williams said. "I still feel some responsibility as the head of the family in a lot of ways. Now it's more of a responsibility to put their burdens on me and make sure they don't have to worry and I can help put my brothers and sisters through college and help them become successful in life."
The future for Williams is very different than it once may have been, and it's very promising. He'll earn a college degree. There's always the chance the NFL will beckon. His faith in God, a rock during his turbulent childhood, is growing by the day.
And he has love and support on all sides with him wherever life eventually takes him.
"Now, my situation is very different," Williams said. "But I have support from all sides, with my biological and adoptive families, and I love that more than anything."
