Zereoue Williams could have left months ago to enroll early at the University of Utah and get his college football career started early, but he had a commitment to his brothers on the Mountain Pointe Pride boys basketball team that he was determined to uphold.
Williams was possibly the biggest surprise of the 2020 Arizona high school football season, playing offensive lineman as a senior for the Pride after years away from the sport and focusing solely on basketball. After just a single scrimmage, scholarship offers for major college football programs began rolling in. Mere months after deciding to don the pads, Williams committed to play for the Utah Utes.
While many of the other high-level college football prospects left for their schools after their senior seasons and the conclusion of fall semester, Williams wanted to attempt a run at the AIA 6A basketball title that just barely eluded the Pride last season. Mountain Pointe reached the 6A final, but was ousted by cross-town rival Desert Vista.
“I am enjoying myself, but I feel like it’s that I need to do this for my team because I’ve been here this whole time. If I just went off to Utah I’d be leaving them in the water when we can try to go get a championship," Williams said.
“Obviously I’m having fun doing it, but I feel like it’s my duty to do it.”
There was no question Williams would be back for his final basketball campaign, coach Kaimarr Price said. Right after committing to play for the Utes in the 2021 season 'Big Z' reached out to his coach to let him know he was not leaving.
And to say the Pride are happy to have their center manning the paint would be an understatement.
“He’s the most important part of everything we do offensively and defensively," Price said.
The Pride's roster is filled with several talented guards that can both score from and defend the perimeter. Williams plays off of them. He sets screens and gets the occasional post touch, but his eight points per game often come from rebounds and cleaning up the misses of his teammates and drawing fouls.
Defense is where Williams truly makes his mark, though.
"It allows us to play aggressively on the ball handlers outside, and it allows us to press because we know he’s back there. And then we know he’ll usually get the rebound so we can leak out on the fast break, he just does so much for us," Price said.
But even more importantly, Williams is the AIA's fiercest paint defender. Part of his football recruitment came because of his size and length - he is listed at six-foot-eight, 253 pounds, though basketball cardio exercise may have temporarily slimmed him down - which is used to protect the rim and finish defensive possessions with rebounds.
Williams leads 6A in rebounds (13.4). He also averages a 6A high 4.8 blocks. MaxPreps statistic leaders must have played at least 13 games, otherwise his block average would be top-ten in the United States.
What really makes Williams feel accomplished, though, is an opponent passes up a shot or avoid driving to the paint entirely after seeing him in the way.
"I’d rather them not shoot, knowing they can’t get past me. Whenever I get a block I just think, ‘Please stay out of my paint,’ and that’s what drives me," he said.
A strength of the Pride, and a major reason Williams stuck around for his final semester, was the chemistry he has with senior guard Jason Kimbrough. The two have known each other since playing on the same youth football team at eight years-old.
Since then they played on the same AAU basketball club team for several seasons and were major factors in reaching last year's state title game as the No. 11 seed.
“There’s that chemistry from nine-ten years together, we know where he wants the ball, where I want to get screens, stuff like that. And I know I can let somebody get by sometimes because he will pick it up, or he knows not to help sometimes when he trusts I can guard someone," Kimbrough said.
The pair are key pieces for the Pride not just for their talent, but for their experience and leadership.
Despite their overall skill, the Pride are still relatively young. Kimbrough and Williams are the two lone seniors on the starting roster, while the rest of the team's main contributors still have a season or two left to play.
Price said the team is slowly building its maturity, and the two senior captains are at the heart of it.
“When you have two guys that have done it at a high level and produced for us these years, and you know what they’re going to bring, it helps us. And everyone else sees it," he said.
The duo's production and leadership will be necessary for the Pride to reach their goal of a 6A title. Mountain Pointe has reached the championship game in two of the past three seasons, but fell short both times.
Williams has a promising football career ahead of him at Utah, but in the meantime his short-term goal is to help propel the Pride to their first championship banner.
“This year we feel like we have to go do it. It would feel so good to win one,” Williams said.
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