HOUSTON - A former Liberty-Eylau High School track star is pursuing her dreams of bringing her love of athletics to the national stage.
Morgan Utsey-Williams, a 2015 L-EHS graduate who received full scholarships to the track program at Texas Southern University, has been chosen to travel to Atlanta, Georgia, this week to attend the National Football League's 2019 Historically Black Colleges and Universities Careers in Football Forum on Dec. 20.
She said she is excited to attend the conference, where she will get more information on a possible career path with the NFL, whether it's team operations or something else on the administrative side.
"I was so excited, I started crying when I heard I was going," she said. "It was very exciting."
Williams has a bachelor's degree in health studies and is pursuing a master's degree in health and kinesiology.
She was chosen to participate in the program through her job as an administrative assistant for TSU's football operations. Williams will attend the conference along with a TSU football player and students from the 10 HBCU's in the Southwestern Athletic Conference. While there, the students will also have the opportunity to apply for experienceship opportunities, which will allow those selected to participate in a job shadow opportunity at NFL tentpole events such as the Super bowl, Pro Bowl, Draft and the NFL Combine. On Dec. 21, the students will also attend the Celebration Bowl at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
"I always said I wanted to coach when I was done being an athlete," Williams said. "I accepted the job working with football basically get a feel of things. If I don't stay with football, I can always work in baseball or basketball in the administrative side because everything plays a role in that dynamic. Once you have the operation going, the whole program can continue to flow."
She said that although she grew up as an athlete and played sports, she didn't know anything about football, but quickly learned.
"Being an athlete myself, I feel like this is my calling," she said. I like to be the director of things and make things happen. In this setting, you have to make things happen or your program is not successful."
Williams said she does not know when the job shadowing opportunities will be assigned, but that she's looking forward to possibly working with one of the NFL teams.
Williams is the daughter of Lesa and Derrick Hill and the granddaughter of Dorothy and Robert Utsey.
She is scheduled to graduate in May 2020.