By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
After a big junior year, Geivonnii Williams’ senior football season couldn’t have gone a whole lot worse.
But the final season of Williams’ high school basketball career couldn’t have started a whole lot better.
Former Topeka High two-sport standout Geivonnii Williams (right) is off to a hot start for Hayden’s basketball team, including a career-high 35-point outing in a 66-58 road win at Manhattan. [Photograph by Rick Peterson]
After earning first-team All-Centennial League honors on both offense and defense as a junior wide receiver/defensive back/returner for Topeka High, Williams made the difficult decision in preseason to transfer to city power Hayden after USD 501 delayed the start of the 2020 season for High, Topeka West and Highland Park.
Williams, who had a procedure just before the start of the season to remove an ingrown toenail, made an immediate impact for the Class 3A Wildcats in a 42-28 win over 6A Manhattan, but after just two games, Williams contracted a staph infection that put him in the hospital and sidelined him for the remainder of the season.
Williams admitted that being on the sidelines as a senior after rarely coming off the field as a junior was tough to swallow, but he said he did his best to maintain a positive attitude during his long recovery.
“I’ve got a good support system around me and they’ve just been telling me that I’ve just got to work even harder because God’s got a plan for me and things happen for a reason,’’ Williams said.
But Williams admitted there were also rare instances when he wondered ‘Why me?’ as he struggled to get better.
“It was a lot of back and forth, like asking the man up above, ‘Why at this time, why at this moment?’ because I know I had a lot going on for me my senior year, but it just didn’t work out how I planned for it to work out,’’ Williams said.
After battling back from a staph infection that limited him to just two football games, Hayden senior Geivonnii Williams is back in action for the Wildcats, averaging 19.7 points over his first four games. [Photograph by Rick Peterson]
While Williams still may not be 100 percent physically, he has bounced back with a vengeance in basketball as Hayden broke for the holidays with a 2-2 record after posting just four wins a year ago.
“Gradually, it just gets better and better every day, but I still get sore a lot, too, so I’ve got to be careful with that,’’ Williams said.
Williams scored 17 points in his Hayden debut against Highland Park, a 54-40 Wildcat win, and then had the game of his life in a 66-58 win at Manhattan, scoring 35 points and hitting 6 of 8 3-point attempts.
Through four games the 6-foot-1 guard is averaging 19.7 points.
“I’m having a lot of fun,’’ Williams said. “I’ve known these guys ever since i was a little kid. Basically I started playing sports with the guys at this school, but I never really got the chance to come to this school. My senior year I decided to finish off who I started with.’’
Williams plans to play football in college, and although some of the college recruiters shied away from him during his long layoff, he’s confident that everything will work out for the best.
“God will work his magic on me,’’ Williams said. “It will just take time and more effort than I thought it would, but I’m back and I’ve just got to say that I’m ready for anything.’’
And no matter what the future holds, Williams is more thankful than ever for every opportunity he’s afforded.
“Yeah, because I realized that it can be taken away from me in the snap of a finger.’’
