Northside’s Williams named Gatorade Player of Year for Arkansas

While trying to find a place to work out during the nationwide health crisis, Razorbacks’ center commitment Jaylin Williams was named the Arkansas Gatorade Player of the Year on Thursday.

Williams, who can fill in a spot lacking warm bodies for the Hogs, had a solid senior season at Fort Smith Northside, but now is having to work outdoors a lot with gyms closed, according to his father Thursday.

That is due to the current social distancing recommendations and involves a lot of solo individual work.

He scored 19.6 points a game while pulling down 12.6 rebounds, getting 2.5 blocks, 2.7 assists and 1.1 steaks in a 20-10 season before falling to Little Rock Central in the semifinal.

Williams had 17 of the Grizzlies’ points in the 40-37 loss.

He completes a sweep of the player of the year honors for Northside as Jersey Wolfenbarger women the girls’ title and remains one of the Razorbacks’ top targets for the 2021 class.

Williams is the only one of four top commits for the highly-ranked 2020 class. Moses Moody, K.K. Robinson and Davote Davis have also committed, but only Davis has signed.

The regular signing date is April 15 and it’s not clear whether that will remain fixed or be moved due to the uncertainty over health concerns while campus visits and normal recruiting has been delayed.