Triton junior Nick Williams has been honing his skills in wrestling for a while now.
“My wrestling career really started at the Dunn PAL about 8 years ago when I was 8 years old,” he said. “Officer (Nick) Parrilla came in one day and was like ‘Hey guys, I’m trying to start a wrestling team’ and I was like ‘Yeah sure, why not?’”
This year, Nick was a third-string outside linebacker for the Hawks’ varsity football squad as well as a co-captain for the wrestling team, where he competes in the 145-pound weight class. He had lofty goals for his wrestling season this year.
“This year, my plan was to come in hitting hard, wrestling hard, and above all, working hard. I knew what challenges I would be up against this year, so I wanted to mentally, physically, and emotionally prepare myself. In order to be the best, you gotta train like you’re the best.”
Nick and the Hawks had their focus set on tougher competition all season long.
“This year we’ve focused on wrestling guys that were much better than us so we could get that experience to use heading into regionals. We’ve been to a lot of 4A schools and wrestled in those tournaments. For example, we went to a tournament in Cary, (Sgt. Mark Adams Christmas Invitational at Cary High School) where most of the guys had proper high-level training and they’re doing really well for themselves and we’re there as a small 3A school, but we pulled through. Some of our guys, including myself, were able to get into the medals.”
Last month, Triton beat Harnett Central to earn a spot in the playoffs, a historic accomplishment for the Hawks.
“Just yesterday we had our first round of the playoffs against Chapel Hill. We lost but we still made it to the playoffs and it’s been about 17 years since Triton has been there. We made our statement and I’m proud of that. Next week, we’ll be attending regionals at Cape Fear High School and the top 4 schools there go on to the state competition so that’s my goal right now.”
As well as training for his athletic ambitions, Nick works hard on his academics as well. Recently, he entered into the 2020 American Legion Oratorical Competition for the Dunn branch.
“Recently, Captain Rodney Rowland (Executive Director of Dunn PAL) asked me if I was interested in earning scholarship money for college. I had to write five speeches, one being the main speech, an 8-10 minute talk about the U.S. Constitution, and the other 4 being about different amendments within the Constitution.”
Last week, Nick was successful in his first stage of the competition.
“So far, I’m at the regional level and if I win first there, I get to move on. So wish me luck because I’ve been studying and I really want that scholarship money.”
Below is a list of some of Nick’s favorite things, as well as his ideal dinner guest list and whom he’d want with him to survive a zombie apocalypse.
Favorite Color: Blue
Favorite Food: Cheeseburgers
Favorite Restaurant: McDonald’s
Favorite Music Genre: R&B
Favorite Artist: Jalyn Sanders
Favorite Subject: Math
Favorite Teacher: Major Steve L. Jones
Favorite Sport: Wrestling
Favorite Athlete: Jordan Burroughs
Favorite Team: Tennessee Titans
Ideal Dinner Guest List: Courage the Cowardly Dog and Ed, Edd, & Eddy
Ideal Group to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse: Michael Carvin, Ro’mello Cowan, and Taylor Jones