ALBANY HERALD PEOPLE’S CHOICE PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Mitchell County’s Kentre’vious Williams did little of everything

CAMILLA — His name is spelled Kentre’vious Williams and he promises that he won’t bite your head off if you mispronounce or misspell it.

The senior is a jolly and humble fellow, just loving life and enjoying football.

After the season he produced as an all-everything player at Mitchell County High School, most learned how to pronounce and some even learned how to spell his name correctly.

The senior standout earned the Albany Herald’s People’s Choice Player of the Year award after a phenomenal season in which he helped the Eagles finish 9-3 and make the second round of the Georgia High School Association Class A public school state football playoffs.

Williams has a unique first name the athlete has had fun with — sometimes at his mother’s expense.

“My mom was in labor for like 14 hours, so maybe her thought process wasn’t clear when she named me,” Williams joked. “At one time when I was in elementary school, my teachers didn’t even call me by my real name. They called my Trey so much that, at one point, I had to spell my name out and I almost forgot how to spell it.”

When he transferred to Mitchell from nearby Baconton Charter after his sophomore season, he wasn’t ruled eligible by the GHSA until a few days before the last game of the 2015 season.

Mitchell County football coaches even struggled spelling his name.

“When I first got to Mitchell County, Coach C (head coach Larry Cornelius) put an ‘a’ in my name,” Williams said. “I said ‘It’s an ‘e’ coach and just one apostrophe, not two.’”

One thing is for certain. There is no disputing Williams’ numbers this season. The senior played quarterback, returned some kickoffs, served as the long-snapper and played defensive back, safety and cornerback

He passed for 1,509 yards on 100 completions and threw 20 touchdown passes. Williams also rushed for 798 yards on 68 carries and scored 11 touchdowns.

He also scored 10 two-point conversion attempts and threw for 12 more.

Williams said he even had a hard time believing the numbers.

“When I saw the voting (in The Albany Herald), I was like, ‘Man those were my stats?’ ” he said. “I didn’t know that about all those two-point conversions. I knew I had quite a bit of rushing yards, but I didn’t know about the passing. But the season was great. It was fun.”

One stat that didn’t get mentioned was his long-snapping abilities. Out of 21 snaps, Williams had just one that went high.

Mitchell coach Larry Cornelius said he believed Williams could be a special player.

“He has a high learning curve and you can throw a lot of stuff at him,” Cornelius said. “I just wished I would have had him for four years. I hate to see him go, but it’s going to be awesome to see him go on to the next level.”

Williams has gotten some looks from Samford and Kennesaw State as well as a handful of other schools. He said one is interested in him as a quarterback, while another is interested in him as a wide receiver. He is also receiving some interest as an athlete and a defensive back.

“I don’t know, where ever they put me at, I’m just going to do my best,” he said. “Hopefully, I can get a scholarship somewhere; it doesn’t really matter. I love football so much, I just want to go play somewhere. Then again, I don’t want to have to have my parents pay for college.”

Regardless, Cornelius knows his star pupil will do well.

“He’s a great reflection on his parents,” Cornelius said. “He’s one of those kids who is very respectful, gives you a firm handshake and looks you in the eye. You can tell his parents are very involved in his life.”