By Lem Satterfield November 19 , 2021<\/p>\n
Jamar Williams\u2019 165-pound championship wrestling match in February was his life in microcosm.<\/p>\n
Tied at 3\u20133 with 24 seconds left and rival Chase Morgan of West Liberty University on the attack, Williams countered a double-leg takedown attempt on the edge of the mat by spinning behind for a 5\u20133 victory.<\/p>\n
Williams improved to 2\u20131 against Morgan, ended his season with a 6\u20131 record to lead Alderson Broaddus University to fourth place in the eight-team field, and became the Battlers\u2019 first Mountain East Conference champion.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt might have looked like he had me because he had my leg up in the air, but I\u2019ve always had a bull\u2019s-eye on my back,\u201d said Williams, who was named the Battlers\u2019 Athlete Of The Year for all sports. \u201cI was familiar with the positioning because I had worked on it several times in practice. Plus, with everything I\u2019ve been through, I\u2019m built for moments like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Born in an impoverished section of East Baltimore, a young Williams encountered financial difficulties while living with his mother and two older siblings. A self-proclaimed \u201cproblem child,\u201d Williams was removed from school several times for fighting before he was 12, and he lived in at least four different homes by the time he was 15.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy mom did her best to support us but would go on the corner and sell drugs. I was in trouble 24-7 and was basically told I would never succeed in life,\u201d Williams said. \u201cSometimes our lights would be cut off. We had no hot water and had to boil water on a stove. The biggest thing is, I didn\u2019t want my mom feeling like she ever had to deal with situations like that again.\u201d<\/p>\n
A 12-year-old Williams sounded the alarm \u2014 literally being \u201ckicked out of school for pulling a fire alarm.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI wouldn\u2019t call it a cry for help,\u201d said Williams of his seventh-grade year. \u201cIt was more like me trying to be something I\u2019m not, a fake gangster to impress older guys.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eleven years later, Williams has transformed into an altruistic warrior.<\/p>\n
Now a 23-year-old senior at Alderson Broaddus University in Philippi, West Virginia, Williams has a 6\u20130 wrestling record at 157 pounds and was recently honored for his accomplishments at a home basketball game.<\/p>\n
\u201cJamar became the first individual champion in the school\u2019s history last year, and he did it wrestling at 80 percent on a bad knee,\u201d said seventh-year coach Sam Gardner. \u201cJamar\u2019s been in some of the worst possible situations in life, yet he continues to do the right thing, achieving success and setting an example to the rest of the team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Set to graduate in May with a 3.6 grade average, Williams has a double-major in sports management and accounting, a minor in business administration, and a goal to earn a master\u2019s degree in education.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll hire Jamar to work for me after he graduates from college,\u201d said Bryan Hamper, a sports agent for mixed martial artists and baseball players who was Williams\u2019 wrestling coach at South Carroll High in Maryland. \u201cBy then, I\u2019ll be working with NFL players. Jamar can get his [sports agent] license and start representing athletes. There\u2019s a lot Jamar can share about being a good role model and human being.\u201d<\/p>\n
Williams graduated from high school in 2017, four years after Hamper became his legal guardian. On Williams\u2019 right thigh is a tattooed map of Baltimore beneath the word \u201cBuilt,\u201d and on his left, one of Carroll County beneath \u201cDifferent.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI say I\u2019m \u2018Built Different\u2019 because my life would be 100 percent different if I hadn\u2019t met coach Hamper in Carroll County and others in Baltimore City,\u201d said Williams, who still lives with Hamper, his wife and four sons. \u201cI want people to understand that a lot of us black men are often the first generation not only to succeed in school, but to go to college and advance beyond that.\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition to those at South Carroll and the McKim Center in Baltimore City, Williams mentors in programs at the Sykesville, Maryland-based Warhawks, Warriors and Winfield Cavs, as well as the Mount Airy-based Maniacs.<\/p>\n
Ryan Herwig, a volunteer coach with the Warhawks in Sykesville, Maryland, sees Jamar \u201cone day being a phenomenal wrestling and life coach.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWrestling changed Jamar\u2019s life, helping him to stay off the streets and away from drugs,\u201d Herwig said. \u201cJamar is always giving back. He\u2019s always talking to and inspiring kids with stories about when he struggled the most. He\u2019ll never forget where he came from.\u201d<\/p>\n
Williams began playing football and wrestling at age 12 under coaches Kier Hicks and Gary Coleman for Charm City\u2019s gridiron program and wrestling at Baltimore\u2019s McKim Center.<\/p>\n
\u201cJamar\u2019s friend, Acoyea Ford, called me saying, \u2018my friend, Jamar, is struggling and needs help.\u2019 I said, \u2018I\u2019ll come get him and see what I can do,\u2019\u201d said Hicks, whose sons, Dequan and Kier Jr., befriended Williams. \u201cJamar\u2019s mom was doing all she could to take care of him, but he got in trouble and locked up over something having to do with a stolen car. After that, I wouldn\u2019t let him go back home.\u201d<\/p>\n
Williams moved in with Hicks, and, later, Acoyea\u2019s parents, Floyd Ford and Nakia Phillips, and remained active in football and wrestling. Williams was a ninth-grader at the city\u2019s Bluford Drew Jemison boys school when Hamper met him during a summer tournament.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of my wrestlers was a state champion as a freshman who didn\u2019t have a close match in Maryland,\u201d Hamper said. \u201cBut all of a sudden we go to a tournament and Jamar, wrestling for McKim, gives him all he can handle, losing, 1\u20130.\u201d<\/p>\n
After speaking with Williams\u2019 mother and McKim coaches Ron Jackson and Wilbert Summers, Hamper completed \u201chardship transfer\u201d paperwork with the Carroll County school system, facilitating Williams\u2019 transfer to South Carroll.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur move was completely documented and legitimate with the county and state,\u201d Hamper said. \u201cJamar has mild dyslexia and was able to participate in an IEP [Individualized Education Program.] He became an honor roll student, at one point achieving a 4.0.\u201d<\/p>\n
Williams was a member of three state tournament championship wrestling teams at South Carroll. Individually, he won three each in county and state titles as well as two regional crowns at 138, 160 and 170 pounds.<\/p>\n
As a senior running back and defensive back with 4.35-second speed in the 40-yard dash, Williams rushed for more than 2,000 yards and 29 touchdowns, leading the Cavaliers to county titles as a sophomore and junior.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy mom saw South Carroll as a good place for me to succeed,\u201d Williams said. \u201cCoach Hamper and his family welcomed me with open arms, helping me to succeed academically and become the man I am today.\u201d<\/p>\n
Williams\u2019 success has attracted other Marylanders to the Battlers\u2019 program, including freshman Josh Laubach (149 pounds), a graduate of Baltimore\u2019s Archbishop Curley, and junior Justin Henry (165), a graduate of Baltimore\u2019s Mount Saint Joseph.<\/p>\n
A two-time Maryland private schools state champion, Henry spent two years at Ellsworth Community College in Iowa Falls, Iowa, where he was an Iowa Community College Athletic Conference runner-up as a 174-pound sophomore after missing his freshman season with an injured right knee.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat really got me was seeing Jamar here,\u201d said Henry, who has an 8\u20131 record. \u201cJamar was my practice partner in junior leagues. I\u2018ve known Josh since I started wrestling, and I also knew a lot of other guys on the team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Laubach transferred from Campbell University in Buies Creek, North Carolina, having \u201cquit the team\u201d before the start of his freshman season, suffered from depression, and \u201cgained 35 pounds.\u201d But last year for the Battlers, Laubach went 9\u20132 as a conference runner-up, and is currently 9\u20130 after winning last weekend\u2019s Washington & Jefferson Invitational in Washington, Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n