Sports360AZ
Note from Sports360AZ CEO Brad Cesmat:Wednesday is College Football National Letter of Intent Day. We asked Williams Field offensive lineman Noah Nelson, who’s signing with Oklahoma, to share his high school experiences on and off the field, as well as why OU was the best fit for him to continue his academic and athletic career.
As I look back at my time in high school and how God wrote that chapter of my life I definitely feel incredible gratitude to have been around such incredible coaches, teachers, administrators and friends who have shaped and prepared me for the next chapter of my life. I can think back to wanting to go to Williams Field because of their superior football program.
Walking into this superior football program as a freshman I looked up to the seniors like Max Fine, Justice Stokes and Keegan Hornung who took me under their wing and showed me how it’s done at Williams Field. As I dressed and played in a few games I got to see first-hand as we went undefeated and won the 5A state championship. This taught me a lot about the expectation of excellence at Williams field on the field, as well as in the class room.
I remember my freshman year when head coach Steve Campbell pulled myself and my parents aside at the freshman introduction potluck and told me grades are just as important as play on the field and as he said, “I have a lot of big guys I don’t need a big problem in the classroom kid.”
This message resonated with me as I kept A’s and B’s throughout high school, even taking extra classes to graduate early. At the time I had no idea about college football, nor was I thinking about that. All I wanted to do was be one of the Williams Field greats so when I saw these incredible athletes and role models to me get small Division-1 offers I figured if I worked hard enough I could be one of the Williams Field greats and go to a smaller college to continue my playing career. This thinking was then changed exponentially when I went to the ASU camp my freshman year to get extra coaching and ended up leaving with an ASU offer. This opened my eyes to the world of possibilities that were out there for me and made me want to work even harder to be the best offensive tackle to ever play.
Playing football with all my friends will definitely be something I will miss the most. Our freshman year we went 3-5-1 and were anointed as being the worst class in Williams Field history by our peers and some of the upper classmen which left a pretty big chip on our shoulders. We used this fuel and just like our 2016 class, we went and became the second class in WF history to win a state championship, also becoming one of the best teams in school history.
I know I will always be able to count on my brothers through life and I am very grateful I was able to play side-by-side with these young men. As my recruiting process went on and I continued to work hard on and off the field I ended my recruiting process with 28 offers, all from big D-I school from which I chose to go to The University of Oklahoma and continued to receive offers after my commitment but it didn’t mean a whole lot to me because I was already stuck on OU.
Congratulations to @NoahNelson70 on signing with Oklahoma! #Dominate #BlackHawkFootball #StateChamps @WFCoachCampbell @WFFootballTeam @OU_Football @OklahomaU pic.twitter.com/JX6OVtyoFh
— WF Football Boosters (@WFFootballTeam) December 18, 2019
When I visited Oklahoma for the first time I fell in love with everything they had to offer me and got to see first hand what they do for kids like me as their NFL combine was going on and there where scouts from every NFL team walking around the facility. Other schools showed me what they had done in the past and it was only a select few people but with OU I got to meet all four of the starting five linemen who got drafted very high, along with meeting Kyler Murray and Hollywood Brown.
I feel with this body and work ethic that God has given me, along with a powerful university like Oklahoma I feel special things will be happening in my future.
While I am sad my high school time is over I am very excited for my future and feel WF has prepared me for my future.
