Williams brings home the hardware from state tournament
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Chris Collins, the head basketball coach at Northwestern and a former Duke Blue Devil presents Jacob Williams, of Winchester, with his first place trophy at the National Hoops Shoot in Chicago. Another regional winner, Emma Kunzman, Franklin, won the 8-9 division for the girls. (Submitted photo)
By BETH ZUMWALT
Jacob Williams, 9, son of Sean Williams and Katie McGuire was following in the some pretty big footsteps when he decided to enter the Elks Hoop Shoot earlier this spring in Jacksonville. Competitors shot to see how many free throws they can make. He made some tracks of his own as he won the competition.
“A friend of mine did it last year,” Jacob Williams said.
Williams’ babysitter, Annika Kauffmann, and his brother have also competed in years past. Kauffman won the event in the 2011-12 competition. His brother missed by one shot.
Williams started his trek to the nationals by winning the event, sponsored by the Elks Club, in the Bowl at Jacksonville. With a win there, he moved on to Springfield.
“Then we went to Iowa City,” Jacob said. “From there we went to Chicago for nationals.”
While the Bowl in Jacksonville may have seemed enormous for a nine-year old, the nationals were held in Winters Arena, home of the WNBA Chicago Sky and the DePaul Blue Demons
The regional in Iowa City was a nail biter as Williams and another boy tied.
But Williams was clutch, making all of his tie-breaker shots, while his competitor missed only one, sending Williams to the Nationals.
“There is a thin line between under preparing and doing too much,” Sean Williams said. “After he won in Iowa we had a break before he want to Nationals. We didn’t even talk about it during that period, no processing, no anything. Then about 10 days before, we eased back into shooting and practicing.”
Jacob Wiliams comes from a long line of athletes, his grandfather, father and brother were/are all very athletic and his grandfather and father played for Bluffs before the consolidation.
Jacob Williams said he enjoyed the string of competition, but, is ready to move on to baseball now.
Sean Willams said he can not thank the Elks Club of Jacksonville enough for giving his boys this opportunity.
“The Elks don’t get enough recognition,” he said.
