Caleb Williams, the star quarterback on the University of Southern California who won the Heisman Trophy Dec. 10, earlier made his mark at two Washington-area Catholic schools he attended for middle school and highschool.
Before graduating from Gonzaga College High School in Washington in 2021, Williams attended St. Pius X Regional School in Bowie, Maryland, a D.C. suburb.
“We love Caleb!” a gaggle of purple-clad Gonzaga students chanted during a Heisman Trophy watch party on the Jesuit boys’ highschool, with a few of them jumping up and hugging one another after Williams had accepted his award.
Williams had just turn out to be the primary Washington-area native to win the Heisman Trophy.
“We love Caleb!” a gaggle of purple-clad Gonzaga students chanted during a Heisman Trophy watch party on the Jesuit boys’ highschool.
4 years earlier in November 2018, Williams, as Gonzaga’s sophomore quarterback, had lifted the Eagles to their first Washington Catholic Athletic Conference football title since 2002 with an improbable 46-43 win over DeMatha.
The stunning game included a last-second 53-yard “Hail Mary” touchdown pass from Williams to leaping wide receiver John Marshall to seal the victory at The Catholic University of America’s Cardinal Stadium.
After a yearlong stay on the University of Oklahoma, where Williams led the Sooners to a come-from-behind win over archrival Texas, Williams transferred to USC. This season, he threw for greater than 4,000 yards with a 66% pass completion rate, 37 touchdowns and only 4 interceptions in leading the Trojans to a No. 8 AP rating and an 11-2 record.
During this, his first yr at USC, he helped restore a few of the glory to a Pac-12 program that had struggled to fulfill its formerly elite status after Coach Pete Carroll left in 2009 to guide the Seattle Seahawks.
Williams had transferred from Norman, Oklahoma, home of the Sooners, to USC in Los Angeles, after former OU coach Lincoln Riley took the highest job at USC in 2021. The Heisman Trophy victory likely took away a few of the pain of the Trojans’ 47-24 loss to Utah within the Pac-12 title game on Dec. 2, which cost USC a spot within the College Football Playoff.
Debbie Corradini, a resource teacher at St. Pius X Regional School, remembers Williams for his qualities off the gridiron from when he attended St. Pius within the seventh and eighth grade.
“We taught him, but in a whole lot of ways, he taught us (more) about being hardworking, kind and humble,” she told the Catholic Standard, Washington’s archdiocesan newspaper. “He was very well-mannered and sort to his peers.”
“We taught him, but in a whole lot of ways, he taught us (more) about being hardworking, kind and humble.”
A 36-year veteran of the St. Pius X Regional School staff and the mother of 4 children, Corradini cried in the course of the Heisman presentation, feeling pleased with Williams.
She recalled Williams during his middle school years as “having the drive to be the best possible at all the pieces he did.”
He enjoyed other activities, similar to biking, fishing and swimming, but paradoxically found leisure within the rough and tumble contact sport of football, she recalled.
Corradini remembered him overcoming doubts about whether he was sufficiently big to be an efficient quarterback.
During his middle school years, Williams decided to give attention to football as a sport, and he and his father, Carl Williams, would enterprise out for five:30 a.m. workouts on the Prince George’s Sports and Learning Complex in Landover, Maryland, not removed from FedEx Field, the house stadium of the Washington Commanders.
“He has a fantastic mom and pop,” Corradini said. “They did a fantastic job keeping him humble.”
Even in middle school, Williams had set his sights on winning a Heisman Trophy and eventually becoming an expert football player.
Even in middle school, Williams had set his sights on winning a Heisman Trophy and eventually becoming an expert football player, something she sometimes hears from young students, Corradini recalled.
During recess, she remembers Williams “throwing the football together with his buddies,” including a pair who matriculated to Gonzaga and played football with him there.
Luke Casey, a fifth-grade teacher at St. Pius and an assistant football coach at DeMatha, helped privately coach Williams within the quarterback position, which requires a fantastic deal of athleticism, leadership and mental dexterity.
In an interview with WTTG-TV Channel 5 after the Heisman Trophy award presentation, Randy Trivers, the football coach at Gonzaga, praised Williams’ athletic ability, saying: “He has exceptional arm talent … and exceptional foot speed. … he has the correct amount of poise and confidence.”
Trivers paid tribute to Williams’ preparation for games as being a part of what sets him other than other quarterbacks.
“On behalf of all the Gonzaga community, congratulations Caleb! You’ll at all times be an Eagle!”
Jesuit Father Joseph Lingan, who became president of Gonzaga in 2021, paid tribute to “Caleb’s leadership each on and off the sphere, his charitable nature, and his gracious and humble character,” in a press release the varsity released after the Heisman Trophy announcement.
“Caleb and his parents embraced all that Gonzaga has to supply,” the priest said. “He graduated as an integral community member who each contributed to and benefited from our extraordinary school.”
“On behalf of all the Gonzaga community, congratulations Caleb! You’ll at all times be an Eagle! Proceed to make us proud!” Father Lingan added.
Students at St. Pius are inspired by Williams’ success, and lots of of them got to fulfill the quarterback when he visited St. Pius a few yr ago, Corradini said.
She admired the leadership Williams showed in speaking with many students and never boasting or bragging about his success.
“I need to be the following Caleb Williams,” one student told her.
