West Forsyth’s Williamson translating multi-sport prowess into versatile football play

Published 12:00 am Thursday, July 31, 2025

By Jay Spivey

For the Clemmons Courier

Max Williamson had never played football until his freshman year at West Forsyth.

Now, as he is about to enter his senior season with the Titans, he is attempting to play both as a punter and a receiver.

It all started because he wanted to follow in the footsteps of his elder brother, Dylan, who graduated from West Forsyth in 2024. He also has a younger sister named Gigi, who will be a junior at West Forsyth this year.

“It just seemed fun,” Williamson said. “You know, everybody was talking about it, so I wanted to try it.”

Having not played before, he stepped on the field as a freshman like a deer in the headlights.

“Scary, I guess, just because everybody out there, most of them have been playing since they were young.” Williamson said. “And I felt like I was far behind just because (of) never playing before. I don’t know anything.”

It took him some time to get comfortable.

“Probably my sophomore year because freshman year I was trying to play DB (defensive back), cornerback, but then I was about to quit,” Williamson said.

Compounding his level of anxiety, much like his brother, he was also competing in the track season. 

“Freshman year during track season, the hurdle coach (Chuck Lott) was also the (former) kicking coach and he knew I played soccer,” Williamson said. “He asked me if I could come out and try and kick.”

As that summer progressed he decided not to quit the football team and came back in the fall of his sophomore year as a punter and kicker for Titans on the JV team.

“I was backing up Kosta (Dupuy) on varsity, and now, since we’re both on varsity I just punt and he does kicking,” Williamson said. 

Still on the JV team as a sophomore, Williamson attempted to play receiver. However, last year as a junior he strictly punted. Now, he’s attempting to both punt and play receiver as a senior.

“Kind of hard just because like when we start practice during warm-ups, when we’re doing walk-throughs, I have to leave and warm up to kick,” he said. “And it’s just a lot of back and forth.”

As a junior last season Williamson had to learn to manage his time as a punter.

“You can’t kick all practice. Other positions, you have to learn plays and stuff. But kicking is kind of (just) kick,” he said. “But you can’t kick all practice, so it’s a lot of standing around and helping out (assistant coach Robert) Perez and stuff.”

The monotony is difficult to manage.

“Sometimes it’s boring, but just watching the team practice and talking to them is fun,” Williamson said. 

According to Williamson, Perez told him his punting average last season was around 42-43 yards per kick.

Williamson and Dupuy have worked all through the summer to prepare as the kickers for the upcoming season, which starts Aug. 22 at Davie County in a nonconference game.

“I think last year I didn’t have a single punt returned,” Williamson said. “Either they had a fair catch or they just let it drop.”

Directional kicking is a skill in itself.

“I think it’s the way we do it as a team,” Williamson said. “We roll out, so I shift right. And I see what the defense does based on that.”

This will be Williamson’s third season with Coach Kevin Wallace as head coach after he replaced Adrian Snow following the 2022 season. Wallace goes for it on fourth down quite often, so both Williamson and Dupuy have to understand that.

“Me and Kosta both kind of know,” Williamson said. “He’s probably going to go for it, but we learned to accept it. But when we’re up and we know we’ve got to do good or he won’t trust us again.”

Since Wallace was hired Williamson said he’s learned things off the field.

“Don’t talk back,” Williamson said. “Just do what you’re told. They’ve been doing this. They know what they’re talking about.”

There is, however, a good reason why he wants to play both positions this season.

“It’s my senior year in high school,” Williamson said. “It’d just be fun.”

According to Williamson, just because of numbers, it might be difficult to gain much playing time at receiver. However, that doesn’t faze him.

“We have a lot of good receivers this year,” he said. “Our starting receivers are really good. We don’t have that many, so I think just because of that I think I have a pretty good chance of playing a little bit.”

Even without this being his senior season, he’s always wanted to play receiver.

“My eighth-grade year, I played flag football,” Williamson said. “And I played receiver then. But it’s always just fun.”

Even though the football season hasn’t started Williamson already sees a silver lining.

“The way I see it, all the position groups, we’re all good,” he said. “From our O-line, to — even though we have a lot of new people, I think we already merge well together.”

Not only is Williamson planning on playing two positions for West Forsyth, he’s going to attempt to compete on both the indoor track-and-field team and swimming team in the winter, and the outdoor track-and-field team next spring before he graduates.

“Indoor practices are right after school at West,'” Williamson said. “And then swimming is later at night. I think it’s like 7:30-9 (p.m.).”

He has never swam for West Forsyth, but has swam for his neighborhood swim team for the past 10 years.

It’s possible that there could be scheduling conflicts with meets on the same night.

“I guess we’ll see if it happens,” Williamson said. 

Williamson has already made a name for himself in indoor and outdoor track and field. In indoor track and field, he competes in the long jump, triple jump, high jump, 110 hurdles, 300 hurdles, 100-, 200-, 400-meter dashes, the 4×200- and 4×400-meter relays.

Although outdoor track and field doesn’t start until next spring, Williamson wants to focus on middle-distance running — 300 hurdles, 400, and the relays.

Needless to say, Williamson is a good jumper.

“Probably long jump is my best jumping event and then hurdles,” he said. “I really just do hurdles for fun because we didn’t have people doing it. So, I just did it for some meets.”

Despite his prowess as an individual he likes being part of a team in track and field.

“I like the relays because it’s not all up to you,” Williamson said. “If you’re having a bad day somebody else can pick it up. And also, all of the adrenaline standing with everybody else and ready to run.”

In swimming, Williamson is attempting to compete in the shorter events in the butterfly and the freestyle.

“Swimming at West is different than summer swim,” he said.

As a multi-sport athlete in high school, Williamson sees the benefits.

“All of them translate, just me and like my work ethic and everything,” he said. “But I feel like swim and track can benefit each other, just like my stamina and strength-wise, strength endurance. And I guess that will help (in) football, too, just off running, like running routes and everything for football.”

Williamson still has a whole year of school remaining, but he already knows where he wants to go to college.

“I have a High Point (University) tour in September,” he said. “My brother already goes there. And my dad (Alftonza) works there (as the associate professor of general dentistry in the High Point University Dental School), so I’m probably going to try and do that.”