Williams Nwaneri says little, but makes a big statement
LEE'S SUMMIT, MO--There was so much noise for the last few weeks. Williams Nwaneri, the No. 3 player in the Class of 2024, was making his decision on August 14th. Once that date became public, the noise never stopped. Every day brought a new rumor, a new leader and an Internet full of speculation.
But quietly Nwaneri already knew what he was going to do. He said he told Eli Drinkwitz he was coming to Missouri two or three weeks ago.
"II had already been a silent commit," he told PowerMizzou.com after a ceremony televised live by ESPN. "I told them like three, four weeks ago probably."
"We gathered around, he said this is where he wanted to go and we support him," his father, Donatus Nwaneri, said. "I would say all along he knew he would go to Mizzou."
That doesn't mean nobody tried to change his mind. They did. A lot.
"You get phone calls from everywhere," his mother, Chijioke Nwaneri, Williams' mother, said. "I never knew that this was gonna go this way. For the last six months, even more, people calling him, coaches from all over the country I’m like oh my god nobody prepared me for this."
Mom called it "a problem, but a good problem."
Nwaneri rolled into the Lee's Summit North gym about 2:45 on Monday afternoon, a full hour before he would make his nationally televised announcement. Wearing a purple hoodie, he sat in the bleachers with a handful of teammates. More and more supporters began to show up, filling most of the bottom level of seats by the time Nwaneri began to talk. Between a dozen and two dozen reporters were there. If Nwaneri spoke before he took the microphone to address the crowd and make his choice, you couldn't have heard it if you were more than five feet away.
"He doesn’t say much," his mother said. "Very nonchalant about it, which is what I appreciate because some kids might be like it’’s gonna get to their head easily. You wouldn’t get that from him."
"He's a very quiet, humble type of guy," his high school coach, Jamar Mozee, said.
That's the understatement of the day. Following the ceremony and more rounds of interviews, his mom was asked, "Is he excited?" Barely a hint of a smile had cracked his lips and his voice never rose a decibel.
"He is really excited," Chijioke said. "But very nervous at the beginning. I keep trying to encourage him 'you can do this.' You have gotten to this point."
"It's like a weight lifted off my shoulders," Nwaneri said after donning a white Mizzou hat with gold stitching and telling the crowd very simple "I will be attending the University of Missouri."
Understated in his approach, potentially massive in his impact.
"Someone definitely with pro talent," Mozee said. "You've got to be careful saying that in high school. There’s just not many kids like him. He’s different than everybody I’ve ever seen."
For anyone at the announcement, maybe it shouldn't have been a surprise at all that the school Nwaneri chose was the closest option to Chijioke and Donatus.
"He's a home boy," his mother said.
"I’m very happy,' Donatus added. "I can go there every week, drive down an hour and a half and come back home."
Officially, he made the decision a few weeks ago. And while the noise and speculation reached ridiculous levels around him, Nwaneri stayed quiet. He said little. He slipped on the hat, waded through the interviews and said he would go to practice with the Lee's Summit North Broncos. What's Mizzou getting?
"You’re geting a great person, a caring person," the 6-foot-6, 265-pound manchild said. "A player that they can count on, a player that’s gonna show up every day and give them 100 percent."
Like anything else, if you're looking for bold words and big statements, you can't ask Nwaneri himself. But others know what could lie ahead.
"I believe that he’s going to go there and be a blessing for that school," Chijioke said.
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