Orange junior Maurice Williams is shown last season. (Photo Courtesy of Maurice Williams)
ORANGE, NJ — Maurice Williams has been the starting quarterback for the Orange High School since his freshman year.
Entering his senior year in the fall, Tornado fans will notice that Williams will be wearing a different uniform number.
But it’s not just any number. It’s the No. 3, which was worn by former OHS standouts Willie Graves, Cory Boyd and Robert Wright.
After Graves – a slotback and cornerback – was tragically killed by gun violence on Dec. 21, 1996 at the age of 18, Orange retired the No. 3. But it was taken out of retirement by Boyd in 2001. Wright was the next and last person to wear that number in 2005.
Williams, who wore No. 1 last season, was recently bestowed the honor of switching to No. 3 after he talked to Wright and Boyd. According to Williams, the two former OHS standouts gave their blessing.
“It feels great that my city believes in me enough to think I can unretire such a great number at Orange High, the greatest number to unretire. It’s a surreal feeling,” Williams said on Thursday, May 4.
Boyd is one of the greatest athletes in OHS history. The running back led Orange, under then head coach Randy Daniel, to its first state sectional championship game as a junior in 2001. Boyd, who also was a standout basketball player at OHS, continued his career at the University of South Carolina and was drafted by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the seventh round in 2008. He also spent a few seasons in the Canadian Football League.
Wright, a 2006 OHS graduate and quarterback for the Tornadoes, played in the annual New Jersey North–South All-Star Football Classic.
Williams enjoyed a great season last fall, passing for 20 touchdowns and running for four scores in just six games to earn second-team honors in both the All–Super Football Conference–Patriot Red Division and the All–Essex County, as selected by the divisional and county coaches. He said he could have broken the school record of 28 passing touchdowns, set by 2000 graduate Abbri Jones, had he not missed the first few weeks of the season because of a back injury sustained during a camp in Maryland last summer.
Under head coach and 2001 OHS graduate Khalfani Alleyne, the Tornadoes last season played in the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association’s North Jersey, Group 4 regional invitational tournament, losing to top-seeded Bergenfield to finish 4-5 in Alleyne’s second season at the helm. The regional invitational tournaments were for teams that just missed qualifying for the state sectional playoffs.
Williams, 17, has attracted strong interest from several big-time colleges including Syracuse, Temple, Monmouth, New Hampshire, Wagner and Towson.
Williams’ big influence is his brother Lamar Williams, a 2007 OHS graduate who also played quarterback for the Tornadoes.
Williams is looking forward to his senior season, hoping to lead the Tornadoes to a conference championship and the state sectional playoffs.
“I think we are going to be pretty good,” he said. “We got some guys coming in, and I am also self-improving not only on the field, but board work, dissecting defenses, and elevating my game, not only for my senior season, but for college.”
Team chemistry will play a big role in accomplishing the Tornadoes’ goals.
“It’s going to take all of us on the field being active, just all of us playing together,” Williams said.
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