Morning sports: Watertown’s new coach

WATERTOWN, New York (WWNY) - As the 2023 high school football season approaches, some area teams will have new coaches roaming the sidelines.

One of those teams the Watertown Cyclones, who welcome back a familiar face to the program.

A new face will be guiding the Watertown Cyclones football team this season, but it’s a familiar face to the program.

Vince Williams, who was the head coach of the Cyclones once before, is back leading the program, taking over for Kyle LaLonde.

Williams is happy to get another chance to be head coach of a program that has special meaning to him.

“This is my alma mater,” he said.

“I teach here at Case Middle School, so I have a direct line to the kids. I know seeing the modified team. Watertown’s modified football team this past year had a ton of ability, ton of talent. Watertown is always known to have a lot of athletic kids, it’s just putting all the pieces together and translating it on to the football field.”

Williams had been coaching modified football at South Jeff the past two seasons, last coached the Cyclones in 2013 and says the lure of being back on the sidelines on Friday nights was hard for him to pass up.

”Just for me personally, getting back into the game of football, I need the game of football. It’s an important part of my life, it put me the person I am today, it teaches you so many things.”

“The game of football, discipline, accountability, time management. I think it’s important to translate that onto our kids.”

Williams says fans who come to the games this season will notice a different approach on the offensive side of the football, one he used when he last coached the Cyclones a decade ago.

”We’re gonna change things up here at Watertown. When I did it 10, 12 years ago, we’re gonna stay with the spread. We’re gonna put our athletes in space, give them the ball in space and take advantage of our speed and our athletic ability.”

So what do the players think of the new coach and his style of coaching?

”He’s coming in and doing a lot of different things our old coaches didn’t do. We’re learning different formations and different plays and things like that. It’s all a learning process for everybody,” said John Flowers, quarterback.

“I had him as a coach back in Case. He was a pretty good coach and now he’s taking over for football. I’ve known him since probably 2010. He was a good coach. He took us to the Dome for 3 years straight and I think we’re gonna have a good team this year,” said Marqel Jefferson, wide receiver and linebacker.

Williams hopes to get the Watertown Cyclones back near the top of Section 3′s class A in 2023.

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