“Dominant” is a word that is usually reserved for a team that has controlled the pace of play, or just keeps winning during its season. At Arthur Williams Middle School in Jesup, the athletic teams were dominant.
During the 2014-2015 school year the AWMS football team, baseball team, and track teams all won conference titles.
Athletic director Jordan Mullis can certainly look back on the year with success, but he also knows all of the hard work and help it took to get the programs to the next level.
“In 2010, Coach Mullis established a middle school strength and conditioning program for our student-athletes,” said AWMS principal, Dr. Reggie Burgess. “The hard work those students have put in since then has translated into accomplishments in high school and on into college, with many of our former students earning college scholarships in football, softball, baseball, basketball, soccer, and golf. In recent years, alums have gone on to college careers at the University of Georgia, the University of Kentucky, the University of Virginia, the University of Wisconsin, the University of Oklahoma, North Carolina State, Georgia Southern, Valdosta State, UT-Chattanooga, the College of Coastal Georgia, and many others.”
Over the past couple of years, the school has doubled its number of football players. Led by eighth-grade quarterback Nolan Grooms, a former In the Game Rising Star, the team went 8-0, winning the school’s first conference championship.
Grooms tossed a school-record 21 touchdowns with a speedy offense that produced nearly 35 points a game.
The most points that the defense gave up all year was 18 and had 3 shutouts.
“I got to hire a few football coaches, and they did a great job. Our head coach, Coach Rothwell, is the engine. He is hard-working, loyal, and extremely organized, and getting him on our campus has translated to our success,” Mullis said.
Rothwell also won another conference title in the spring as head track coach.
AWMS took control of the sprint events at the conference track meet. The track team took first in the 400 meter, where Kevionte Nix set a school record. Demaurio Nelson also added points with a 19’5” long jump. Nix, Nelson, Conelious Pittman, and Michael Jernigan won first with a 3:55 in the 4×400, also a new school record.
Another In the Game Rising Star, Gant Starling, was integral among a large group of eighth-graders that took a conference title in baseball. This group has been playing together since sixth grade.
“The baseball team worked really hard in the weight room; they would even lift weights on game days,” Mullis said. “Our athletic success this year is changing our culture. It has created work-ethic, discipline, and confidence in many kids that teachers thought would not make it 3 years ago. Everybody knows this group was special athletically, what they don’t know is that we had 249 kids make honor roll in a 600 student school. That’s the most we have ever had. Success breeds success.”
Special Feature
Arthur Williams Middle School
By John Wood
