Oak Ridge,<\/a> ranked as one of the best players in the country
\n
\u00a0He is back in Orlando after spending his junior season at Oak Ridge Academy in Virginia
\n
\u00a0Williams has played for his high school coach since the third grade<\/p>\n\u201cSpecial talent, can really score. Can get after you defensively. Just a great kid off the court,”\u00a0Oak Ridge boys basketball coach Steve Reece said. “We’ve been excited to have Donovan. I’ve been coaching Donovan since third grade. He’s a joy to be around. Teammates love him and we\u2019re happy to have him.”<\/p>\n
Donovan is playing his senior year at Oak Ridge after spending his junior year at Oak Hill Academy in Virginia. In the summer, he has been playing travel ball for his now high school coach, competing against top-tier competition while averaging over 17 points a game.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have to take on it because I’m really a point guard. The point guard role, I\u2019ve got to lead the team and get them to where we need to be. It\u2019s getting a championship this year,\u201d Williams said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s been special. To see his growth and maturity on the court. He’s a harder worker. It has been a joy, man. Pleasure just to be a part of his journey,\u201d Reece said.<\/p>\n
Williams is signed to play at UCF next year, staying home with a program that has had a lot of success this season, especially at the point guard position, where the knights see Donovan playing at the next level.<\/p>\n
\u201cI watch basically every game, so it’s like I can really be like, I can take on that role next year,\u201d Williams said.<\/p>\n
\u201cGreat shooter. A winner. Guy that likes to compete on both ends of the floor. And most importantly a great kid,\u201d Reece said.<\/p>\n
Before he heads off to the next level, Williams is trying to end his high school career on a high note, winning a state championship at Oak Ridge.<\/p>\n
\u201cGoing into the playoffs, I think we’re going to get to 100% leading up to the Final Four and into that state championship,\u201d Williams said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat’s where I’ve seen the most growth in his game. To be able to lead a young group that hasn’t been together, and to put his imprint on the team in the way we’ve been playing lately,\u201d Reece said.<\/p>\n
Williams has played for his high school coach since the third grade, and attributed his success to the support and love he’s received.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014\u00a0From a young age, Donavan Williams has been a special player on the basketball court. He…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":159173,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[1747,3745,115,1335,139,141,140,110,1746,835],"class_list":["post-159172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-app-high-school-sports","tag-high-school-sports","tag-news","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-sports","tag-thomas-cook","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=159172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159172\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/159173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}