By Brad Greer

Only on rare occurrences can a player in any sport end their high school career with three straight district championships.

For North Panola’s Eric Williams that is his extra motivation during this 2019 football season. With six games under his belt, Williams has 36 solo tackles and leads the Cougars with 5.5 sacks.

“One of our team goals is to win district and hopefully make a run deep into the playoffs. It just makes us want to go that much harder at practice and get better,” Williams said.

As a junior last season, the defensive end accounted for 37 tackles and 13 quarterback sacks that was good for second best on the team. It also led to Williams being named to the All-District team.

“Eric is one of our team captains this year. He is a vocal leader and just a fun young man to be around. The other guys love him.  He doesn’t have any enemies on the team,” said head coach Carl Diffee.

“He played on the basketball team two years ago and decided to give football a shot and experienced a great deal of success his junior season. He’s having a great senior season.”

Diffee says Williams reminds him of former North Panola standout Demarco Smith in the terms of size and his playing ability.

Williams said he recognizes how much physicality first-year defensive line coach Terrance “Flutie” Pope has brought to the workouts since joining the coaching staff in the spring.

“He makes you work that’s for sure. I had heard about him before he got here that he was part of some championship teams and he had sent a bunch of guys onto the the college level,”  Williams said.

Two weeks ago, Williams learned he has earned a spot on the North Roster for the Bernard Blackwell All-Star game scheduled for Dec. 21 in Gulfport.

Aside from playing defense, Williams has seen a little action at tight end.

CUTLINE:  Senior defensive end Eric Williams makes a tackle earlier this season. He leads the Cougar defense with 5.5 sacks through six games. (Glennie Pou)