Former CRHS QB returns to gridiron to lead Titans

By: Jesse Baalman, Communication Specialist

With final board approval slated for the July 28, 2021 School Board Meeting, Crockett Williams will lead his football team onto the field at Coal Ridge High School and kick off the 2021-2022 season for the first time as Head Coach. It’s been a little over a decade since he played on that very team, but now he’s back and head-set on taking the Titans to new heights. Whether it’s in the classroom or on the field, Williams is determined to guide his students and players in the right direction.

Following his graduation in 2010, Williams went to the University of Colorado at Boulder and earned a degree in geography. He then enrolled in the Master of Education program at Colorado State University and later started his first teaching job in Thornton. After a brief stint at a middle school in California, the Coal Ridge alumnus returned to his former high school as a social studies teacher and assistant coach. Now, Williams is officially the head coach of Titan football.

How does he feel about coaching a team he used to play on? Well, it’s complicated.
Williams says his intention when he first started was to distance himself from the idea of playing here in the past. “I tried not to think about what could have been or what was and just see it as a totally separate experience,” says Williams. “There are definitely some things that come up, though. Like, walking out on the field for the first time in a game and seeing all the bright lights brings back a lot of memories.”

“I do think that I've done a good job of separating the two as far as not using the things I wish I would have done better or the things that I did really well in any way here. I try to focus more on the overall lessons from the past that I can teach to my players in the present.”

There is a lot to be excited about going into the upcoming season.  Not only is it the return of an alumnus, it’s a return to normal for the players, teachers and staff and Re-2 school district as a whole. 

“Well, and that's kind of the crazy thing,” says Williams. “It's like my only experience coaching so far has been in an entirely unordinary year. So I am excited to get to a longer season and a season where we actually get time to prepare.” 

Among other aspects of football that were taken for granted before the COVID-19 pandemic, Williams says everyone is excited to travel normally and shake hands after games again.

The team has been lifting and doing speed and agility training. Williams says they’ve also been implementing new offense and defense strategies with different teams in the valley during seven-on-seven games on Wednesday nights this month. “That's been a huge help,” says Williams. “It's also been really cool to meet the coaches and interact with them a little bit. We have a good group of kids that have been willing to be here and get to know each other even though it's not mandatory. So that's kind of what we've been doing.”

Williams says his particular coaching style is a mix between two coaches he played under in the past, one stern and detail-oriented and one more personable who he describes as a player’s coach that was willing to meet his kids in the middle. “I saw strengths and weaknesses in both of them, and so I've tried to kind of find a middle ground between the two,” says Williams. “I think over the past year, the kids have come to understand the hills that I'm willing to die on, if that makes sense.” 

Those hills, Williams says, are discipline, attitude and effort. Whether it’s on the field, in the weight room or in the film room, these three things are what the head coach sees as uncompromising keys to success.

A lot of who Williams will be as a coach comes from who he is as a teacher. “It’s not really that different,” says Williams. “I think that when you're talking about the sport of football you can be a little harder on certain things, but for the most part you still have to break things down to their simplest form like you do in the classroom. We have to be willing and able to break things down to the tiniest, most digestible chunks and then build off them. So to me, it's not a whole lot different from what I do in the classroom.”