From Ball Boy to Ball Carrier : Watching His Brother Play Football Sparked the Interest of Daniel Murphy’s Williams

Luis Williams did not know much about football the first time he attended a game as a seventh-grader.

Luis went only because his older brother, Jesus, who was playing for Daniel Murphy High, had asked him to be the team’s ball boy.

“I just wanted to be around Jesus, so I told him I’d do it,” Williams said. “When I started, I was kind of scared to go out on the field and give the referee the ball. I thought that I’d get run over. Everyone looked so big.”

Now Williams is the player everyone is watching.

Williams, a senior captain at Murphy, became the school’s career rushing leader on Friday when he gained XXX yards to improve his career total to 1,549.

Not bad for someone who didn’t play football until he arrived at Murphy as a freshman.

“Luis’ strengths are his speed and hard running ability. . . . He is a power runner who will carry guys into the end zone,” second-year Murphy Coach Greg Dixon said.

Williams has been a football fan ever since he watched his brother play. His friends realized that he wanted to play football when he started to compete in games in his Culver City neighborhood.

“He just loved to play football when no one else liked to,” said Jose Valle, who has known Williams since kindergarten and is a senior teammate at Murphy. “I knew then that football was for him.”

When it came time for Williams to go to high school, he selected Murphy. Williams believed he would fit in perfectly at a school where athletics are second to academics.

Murphy, which is located near the corner of La Brea Boulevard and 3rd Street, does not have its own football field. The team practices at Pan Pacific Park, which is five blocks west of the school, and plays its home games at Jackie Robinson Stadium.

“I’m glad that I decided to attend Murphy because everyone is like family here,” said Williams, whose father is from Ohio and mother is from El Salvador. “Everyone knows each other and the faculty treats everyone like friends.”

Williams, 17, has done well on and off the football field. He has a 2.76 grade-point average and plans to study physical therapy in college.

“Luis is one of the hardest workers we have in the school,” Murphy assistant Mike Henry said. “And I am not only talking about the football field. I mean he does everything asked of him.”

It is this attitude that opened the door for Williams to play varsity as a sophomore. When several players in the defensive secondary were injured, he was summoned to play safety, even though he had never played the position before.

He played most of the season on defense, but was also used as a running back the last five games.

“That first season, teams were not keying on me like they do now,” Williams said. “I was getting a lot of (rushing) yards and I think that surprised teams.”

Williams, who also plays basketball and competes on the track team, was a two-way starter as a junior and helped Murphy qualify for the playoffs.

“(In 1991,) people did not give us the respect we deserve,” Williams said. “We’re a small school, but we play hard and have a lot of pride. This year we want to show them that we are for real.”

Because he is only 5-foot-9 and 160 pounds, Williams realizes that his football playing days may be numbered after high school. However, that will not stop him from trying.

“I will play in college, but I don’t know where,” he said. “I would like to go to the University of Pacific, but I’ve heard from several schools like Washington State and San Jose State. Wherever I go the school has to have a physical therapy program.”

But before he leaves Murphy, Williams has a few more goals to reach.

His first goal is to lead Murphy to its second consecutive Santa Fe League title, which may be decided on Halloween when the team travels to play Cathedral High.

“Cathedral is our main competition, and in my three years playing here we haven’t lost to them and we don’t plan on doing so this year,” Williams said.

His second goal is to gain more yards than he did as a sophomore, when he was an honorable mention All-Santa Fe selection. He finished that season with 696 yards.

After six games this season, Murphy is 4-2 and Williams has gained 355 yards in 75 carries. He has scored four touchdowns.

“He isn’t getting the big numbers because we have a very inexperienced line in front of him,” said Dixon, who last season led Murphy to its first league title in 22 years. “We lost four starters on the line from a year ago and he can’t do it all by himself.”

Williams has taken his share of hits, but he has gained a reputation for never getting down.

“I just tell the line to give me a gap and that’s all I need,” he said. “I think that I’m very determined and I know that I never quit.”