Gator Country

In the midst of a historic basketball run, Hoover (AL) Spain Park’s William Green is a special player on the hard court or the gridiron. He scored 14 points Friday night to help lead Spain Park to their first ever final four appearance in the Alabama playoffs. Yet it is his ability on the football field that has college coaches lining up to sign the big time defensive end.

At 6-5, and 208 pounds William Green is an exceptional athlete. With his weight down for basketball and track, Green is a great all-around athlete at the high school level. Last season Green placed third in the state in the high jump with a 6’4” mark. He also placed 10th in the triple jump going over 22 feet.

However, it is likely his football prowess that will be paying for college tuition in 2008 and beyond. It is games like he had against Bob Jones high school that have college coaches in the southeast lining up to get him signed on the dotted line. For Green, that night and especially one play was something to remember.

“I just thought I could get to the quarterback as much as I wanted to,” Green said about the game before he went into his description of his best play of the year. “In the Bob Jones game, the tight end and tackle tried to block me. I ran over them two, then ran over the running back and got a quarterback pressure. The pass went incomplete.”

Plays like that and his 64 tackles and eight sacks have Green with a who’s who list of scholarship offers from schools in the Southeast. Some of these coaches from these schools have been letting him know what they like about him.

“I have been offered by Florida, Alabama, Auburn, Georgia Tech, Ole Miss, Miss. State, Arkansas, Vanderbilt, Iowa State, and Duke,” he said. “Some people say that I remind them of Quentin Groves. It is the way I rush the quarterback and just get back there. I think my speed and motor are my best attributes. I am non-stop every play.”

Those are words from college coaches. Getting Green to talk about himself is a little difficult. He is modest and would rather just let his play do his talking for him.

“I am a real humble guy,” he said. “I think being humble is the reason I have all these offers today. When I got the first one I was so happy and I didn’t go around bragging to all my friends that didn’t get them. Now I have all these offers.”

That isn’t to say that he doesn’t enjoy when his opponent gets a little uppity and wants to show him up. In that case, Green usually gets the final word albeit, not from his mouth.

“I like to keep my focus in the game,” he said. “If my opponent talks big I thrive off of it. I love when they trash talk to me.”

His hometown of Hoover is not far from the campus of the University of Alabama. As a matter of fact, Green grew up a fan of the Crimson Tide, but insists that won’t hold much influence when it comes time to make a college decision.

“Growing up, my favorite player was Shaun Alexander,” he said. “I liked Alabama and he was always my favorite player. But I have to put all that behind me. I just got offered by them this past weekend and I am going to visit them this weekend.

He also has a couple of other places he would like to visit this spring.

“I will go to Auburn in March,” he said. “I am going to Florida sometime, but I haven’t figured that out yet.

Right now he is open to all comers but when asked to list a top seven at the moment, Green came up with some big time southern names.

Right now a top seven would be Florida, Alabama, Auburn, Georgia Tech, Ole Miss, Arkansas, and Mississippi State,” he said. “I really need to go to these schools that I am interested in and see what they are like.

“I went to a couple of junior days at Georgia Tech and Vanderbilt. I liked the way the campuses were and liked both programs. It was good to see them.”

It is really early in the process for juniors like Green, but there are already some things that have really caught him off-guard a little bit. One such thing is the text messaging from the college coaches. The University of Florida with Head Coach Urban Meyer and assistant coach John Hevesy are certainly keeping the cell phone connections busy.

“All the text messaging is a little more than I thought it would be,” he said. “Florida does it a great deal. I get them from Coach Hevesy, Coach Meyer, and a few others. Coach Hevesy is pretty cool I like him.”

With all of the physical ability in the world and 3.0 grade average William Green seems to have a smooth trail to a bright future. The near future entails a lot of phone calls and trips to learn about big time institutions and in the mean time, we will get to know a lot more about this big time player in the heart of football country.

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