Unlike many other players on the Antioch football team’s roster, junior defensive lineman Willie Hamilton didn’t go through the town’s robust feeder program with the dream of playing under the bright lights in high school.

Hamilton didn’t play football at all while he was growing up, and he needed a nudge to even consider the idea as a freshman.

“My friend was encouraging me to play, but I was totally against it,” he said. “I never really watched football on TV, so I didn’t really know what I was getting into. At first, it was too much.”

Hamilton enjoyed his first season and showed enough potential to be promoted to the varsity team as a sophomore, but he still had to be convinced to return. His health was the deciding factor. He estimates that he weighed around 240 pounds at his heavie

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