JEANERETTE -- Jeanerette Senior High’s Anthony Williams burst on the prep football scene last year as a junior, rushing for 1,750 yards and 19 touchdowns. Those number alone were enough for college coaches to turn their attention to the JSH running back, who enters his senior season as a top Teche Area recruit.

And while the attention is nice, Williams is remaining very humble and taking a slow approach when it comes to possible colleges and his future in football.

“I attribute a lot of this to the coaching that I got last year,” said Williams. “It’s nice to be recruited but I’m more concerned about setting goals and reaching them. I set a goal last year and accomplished it. Now I want to set a bigger goal this year.”

Jeanerette senior Anthony Williams (4) has drawn the attention of college coaches after rushing for 1,750 yards and 19 touchdowns as a junior. - Lee Ball / The Daily Iberian Advertisement

Williams said that as the yards and touchdowns kept piling up last year, more and more attention was coming his way with letters from colleges and visits from coaches. Schools that took the time to come and see him or contact him included Tulsa, Illinois, Texas A&M and Memphis.

All are places that he would love to visit.

“I want to take trips to those places and see what they have to offer,” said Williams. “I know that making a decision to go and play at a college is a big step.”

But while Williams gets letters and visits from college coaches and concentrates on his senior season, it’s interim Jeanerette football coach Terry Lewis who is providing some much needed guidance when it comes to recruiting.

“All I’ve ever done from 1971 to 2004 was to coach college football,” said Lewis. “I was involved in it in every aspect. As a result of that, I know how the process goes and what it takes for a kid to not get so wrapped up in the process that it affects him in his senior year.”

Lewis’ extensive background in the college coaching ranks and the number of quality players he has been associated with allows him to see just what Williams has been able to accomplish so far, and just how far the JSH senior could possibly go.

“I’ve been fortunate in coaching to be around a bunch of tremendous running backs,” said Lewis, who rattles off names like LSU’s Dalton Hillliard and Garry James, Navy’s Napoleon McCallum and Colorado’s Rashaan Salaam, who won the Heisman Trophy in 1994. “Anthony Williams is a work in progress. He’s done well so far but his potential could be the same as all those running backs. He possesses that rare quality of speed and ability to make that one cut to get upfield.”

To that end, Williams has been working hard during the spring and summer in order to make himself a better all-around running back, one who not only can run the ball with authority but also catch passes out of the backfield.

The JSH senior back said Lewis has been invaluable in helping him in the recruiting process.

He also knows what he is looking for when it comes to making his college decision, which will most likely come after his senior season is completed.

“I want a school that is going to stand by me,” said Williams, whose favorites right now are Tulsa and Memphis. “I want to play for a good team that is going to allow me to play and that my family can come and see me play.”

Williams would like to stay as a running back in college and says that every coach who has recruited him so far has told him he would remain a running back.

“That’s motivation for me to keep performing,” said Williams. “I want to do more this year than I did last year.”

“I expect that he’ll have a better year this year,” said Lewis. “Maybe not so much in yardage but in the ability to solidify what he’s done as not being a hoax. That will make him an even more valuable prospect.”