West's Williams Ranked Among NJ's Best Football Players

Cherry Hill West’s football team will go into the 2013 season with one of the top players in the state, according to multiple preseason rankings.

Senior quarterback/defensive back Rodney Williams, who started off last year injured before coming back midway though the season, is in the top 50 players in the state, going by the rankings at both NJ.com and Scout.com.

Ranked No. 29 by Scout.com and No. 39 by NJ.com, Williams, who already has given a verbal commitment to Syracuse University, is one of a handful of South Jersey players included on both lists.

Recruited more on the defensive side of the ball, Williams is slotted in the secondary in both rankings, and Scout.com rates him just outside the top 100 safeties nationwide.

The speedy defender isn’t just a gridiron star—Williams also scored his 1,000th career point for the Lions’ basketball team this past winter, as the team made a run into the playoffs.

The consensus best player from South Jersey in both the Scout.com and NJ.com rankings is Gerald Owens (No. 10 in NJ.com, No. 13 in Scout.com), a bruising fullback from West Deptford who’s scored a total of eight touchdowns in the last two Group 2 state title games, both won by the Eagles.

Of all the southern counties, Camden County has the most players in both rankings, including Adonis Jenkins of Timber Creek (No. 12 in NJ.com, No. 22 in Scout.com) and Sean Chandler of Camden (No. 28 in NJ.com, No. 39 in Scout.com).