JAG freshman Jaden Williams supports the community that bolstered him through adversity

This article is part of a 2023 series about outstanding youth who are making a positive impact on their community in Montgomery.

During his formative years, Jaden Williams chugged down the Montgomery Public Schools tracks toward a magnet high school. Education meant everything to his mom, so even before he understood its true importance, it meant everything to him too.

The goal was Loveless Academic Magnet Program High School, the best public high school in Alabama that ranks among the nation’s top 1%.

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The path was charted, and everything was going to plan — then Williams’s dad died.

“Jaden was just seven years old at the time, and it was really hard for him,” said his mother, Lakesia Williams. “He started playing football because of his dad, and he kept playing because of him, too.”

Now, freshman Jaden Williams plays left tackle for the JAG High School Jaguars. Before the start of this school year, he faced the difficult decision to either attend one of the best high schools in the country or pursue his and his dad’s dream of becoming a professional football player. The athletics structure at MPS meant he had to choose one or the other.

None of Montgomery’s magnet high schools have football programs, though the middle schools do. That meant that if Williams wanted a future in football beyond the eighth grade, he had to deviate from the plan he had been following since kindergarten.

He’s taking the chance.

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Still, Williams and the mentors in his life know his hard work will pay off in all aspects of life. Outside of athletics, Williams is enrolled in honors classes at JAG, regularly delivers meals to the elderly with his family, helps cultivate the community garden in West Montgomery and is a dedicated member of the nonprofit Young Men on a Mission.

His mom started taking him to YMOAM events right after his dad died. She didn’t want him to miss out on having consistent male role models, and she figured the program would “keep him on the straight and narrow.”

It worked exactly as it was supposed to.

“The organization helps me grow, and it helps me understand certain parts of life, like how to overcome obstacles,” Williams said. “I used to be shy. I didn’t really want to speak around them or anyone, but it’s like a brotherhood. We all comfort each other and laugh together, but when it’s time to do what we’ve got to do in the community, we do it.”

In recent years, Williams has helped organize numerous food drives, public area cleanups and school supply drives.

One memorable moment during a school supply drive this year was when one of his friends and classmates showed up in need of notebooks, pencils, folders and a backpack to start the school year.

“I didn’t know he needed things like that,” Williams said.

His work with YMOAM even inspired his mom to get involved with the group. She now serves as the nonprofit's treasurer.

Some of the role models that stepped up in Williams’ life after his dad’s death were YMOAM founder Nick Rankins and youth football coach Terrence “Coach T” Cobb.

Rankins said Williams is someone who is “willing to put in the work” and “always ready when you call upon” him. Cobb described him as one of the best kids he’s known.

“It just was a feeling I had that I needed to be there for him when his dad died,” Cobb said. “My mom passed when I was young, so I understand. To be somebody for him that I didn’t have, that’s all I wanted.”

At the age of 14, Williams said he recognizes how every one of his actions can impact the people around him. He’s trying his hardest to pass on the kindness that people like Cobb and Rankins have shown him.

Nowadays, he’s no longer one of the youngest kids in YMOAM. He’s the one setting the example and putting himself in a position to be part of a support system for little boys who need it.

“Being there for them, it makes me feel better,” Williams said. “Getting older, now I’m really able to speak what I want to speak. I can use my voice.”

Hadley Hitson covers children's health, education and welfare for the Montgomery Advertiser. She can be reached at hhitson@gannett.com. To support her work, subscribe to the Advertiser.

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: JAG freshman found lifelong role models through local mentor program