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The first time Jamel Richardson saw Trill Williams, his new star player dove over a trash can. 

It was Trill’s first practice for the Yonkers Knights, a Pop Warner team in Westchester County, and the players were practicing on a converted baseball field with trash cans as pylon markers. 

Trill, a rising eighth grader at the time, took a sweep right, dashed past the defense and leaped from the half-dirt, half-grass field into the end zone. In disbelief, Richardson called a huddle to question the new player.

“‘Is this kid out of his damn mind?” Richardson remembered asking.

“I know, coach, but I’m competitive,” Trill replied. “I’m having fun.”

Jaw-dropping touchdowns, like that run, blowout victories and dominant defensive performances headlined Trill’s youth football career. He played almost every position and constantly faced opponents above his age or weight class. While Trill’s plays were surprising to some, Tre Williams, his father, watched him prepare for each one.

His big-play reputation has continued at Syracuse, when Trill stripped Wake Forest receiver Kendall Hinton in overtime in the 2019 season finale and returned it for a touchdown. He also earned ACC player of the week following Syracuse’s (1-2, 1-2 Atlantic Coast) 37-20 victory over Georgia Tech, which included a lateral and 43-yard touchdown runback off a Ja’Had Carter interception. Trill, who’s fourth in tackles for the Orange, has drawn little attention from opposing quarterbacks, Tre and Trill said, but still deflected two passes and intercepted another through three games this year.

“There was never any doubt in his mind that this was what he was going to do. Nobody was going to outwork him,” Tre said. “Everything for him was, ‘I’m going to the NFL.’”

Ron Gunther, Trill’s coach for the Eastchester Blue Devils, didn’t need much convincing to let a 7-year-old Trill play with 10-year-olds, he said. After all, Trill was outperforming the older kids, Gunter said. 

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In the annual draft to decide the two Eastchester travel teams, Gunther allowed the other coach to take three 10-year-olds as long as he could select Trill. His change of direction, backpedaling and reaction speed were advanced for his age, and he could break runs that other players couldn’t.

“He never stumbled and never seemed awkward,” Gunther said. “Trill did drills like he’s done them before.”

That’s because Trill had practiced all those exercises before. He did them with his father every day. Sometimes, they did pushups, squats and pullups — only bodyweight lifting at that age. Other times, Trill ran with a parachute attached to his back to work on increasing his explosiveness.

When he learned how to properly catch a football, Trill would lie with his back on the ground and Tre would circle around him, throwing ball after ball. If Trill didn’t catch one, his dad would start over.

Even before Trill was born, Tre knew he was unique. One night when Tre’s wife, Yolanda, was pregnant, the words “a trillion” repeatedly appeared in his dream. He woke up the next morning convinced that should be his future son’s name. His wife agreed and the name Atrilleon, Trill for short, was born.

Opponents and coaches soon realized he was unique, too. For Gunther’s team, Trill — who was second on the team in touchdowns — was one of the only 7-year-olds routinely on the field in the fourth quarter, Gunther said. One game, Trill ran down a sprinting opposing running back in the final minutes, stripped him of the ball and helped his team score a game-winning touchdown.

“He had been dominating for Eastchester for so long that scoring touchdowns didn’t excite him as much anymore,” Tre said. “He switched over in eighth grade because he didn’t feel like there was enough competition.”

Trill found Richardson and the Yonkers Knights, a team with a 1-9 record the year before. From that first practice, when Trill leaped over the trash can pylon, he electrified his teammates. In Trill’s first year, the Knights went undefeated. 

In the first scrimmage, he took a sweep right for a 50-plus-yard touchdown untouched. Then, a sweep left untouched. Then, one up the middle untouched. During the regular season, Trill scored so many points and created so many turnovers that his team won games by 70 points. He was forced to sit out second halves or his coaches risked suspension, Richardson said. 

Trill’s “big play ability” caught the attention of Don Bosco, Paramus Catholic, Archbishop Stepinac and multiple other private high schools, Tre said. Multiple kids from his neighborhood attended Stepinac, and it was closer to home.

Trill struggled to adjust from the slower-paced JV to varsity level, squaring off against Division I bound seniors as a sophomore. He started the first two games due to an injury to star cornerback TJ Morrison. His talent was evident, but he was often in the wrong positions, unable to make plays on the ball.

Not many youth teams introduce complex schemes or play zone coverage, Richardson said. So he, Tre and Trill watched film together that showed the sophomore where to stand, how to outmuscle receivers and when he could break on the ball. Gunther, who also served as Stepinac’s JV football coach, said he saw Trill working on his hand placement after one practice. 

In the third game of the 2015 season, Trill jumped a curl route and picked off a pass for a touchdown. Teammates mobbed him, coaches slapped his helmet, and Tre smiled from the stands. 

“That’s when everything took off,” Richardson said.

Trill split time with Morrison once the original starter returned, and by Trill’s junior year, he received offers from Rutgers and Syracuse. Penn State, Michigan State and Michigan, among many others, were interested. 

A torn left ACL sidelined him for six months his junior season, but Tre said Trill returned his senior year a better player. He broke out for long touchdown after long touchdown, catching five interceptions in 12 games and leading Archbishop Stepinac to its third straight state title game. 

Facing Canisius in that championship and ahead by three scores, Trill launched into a deep crossing route. As he entered the end zone, he tripped, falling onto the turf. From the ground, he saw the ball flying toward him and stuck out his arms, hauling it in on his back like Tre taught him ten years prior. 

“When I looked up, I saw you throwing that football at me,” Trill told Tre. “To me, it was a natural catch.”

For Syracuse, Trill continued making highlight plays, landing on SportsCenter’s Top 10 plays twice. The first, a walk off strip-and-score against Wake Forest at the end of 2019. The second, the lateral touchdown against Georgia Tech last week.

On that lateral, Carter, a freshman safety, snatched an underthrown ball by Jeff Sims. But when he ran into tacklers at the 40-yard line, Trill was standing right behind him — prepared, like always.

“Me and Ja’Had, we’re roommates, so we talked about, ‘Hey, if you catch a pick and you’re about to get tackled, just pitch it back,’” Trill said after the game. 

Carter did just that. The two made eye contact and the ball was in Trill’s arms as he dashed toward his second career Syracuse touchdown. The play was just another highlight in an already deep vault.

Published on October 8, 2020 at 12:07 am

Contact Adam: adhillma@syr.edu | @_adamhillman