Forest Football sets sights on huge season under Williams

Robin Williams, the head football coach for the Forest Wildcats, poses for a photo in the weight room at Forest High School in Ocala, Fla. on Tuesday, July 20, 2021. [Bruce Ackerman/Ocala Gazette] 2021.

Robin Williams, the head football coach for the Forest Wildcats, poses for a photo in the weight room at Forest High School. [Bruce Ackerman/OG]

The journey to becoming head football coach at Forest High School has included several stops over the past 15 years.

Robin Williams, going into his third season as the head football coach at Forest, started out playing his high school football for Vanguard High School.

“I played quarterback at Vanguard for (then head coach) Phillip Yancey,” Williams said.

He was the starting quarterback for the Knights from 2002-04.

After graduating, Williams signed to play college football at Charleston Southern, where he redshirted his first season. He left the school after one year due to personal reasons.

From there, Williams began his coaching career. He has been coaching high school football in some capacity since 2006.

Multiple coaching stops as an assistant at Forest, Belleview, Vanguard and Admiral Farragut Academy in St. Petersburg have helped prepare Williams for his current role.

Experience as an offensive and defensive coordinator and strength and conditioning coach have given Williams invaluable experience across the coaching spectrum.

“I learned a lot along the way from a number of different coaches in different roles,” Williams said.

A promising 2020 season has given Williams and his staff a lot to be excited about. The Wildcats lost three regular season games by a total of 15 points.

“Our coaching staff is going to bring high energy to our players,” Williams said.  “We need to bring it every day, practice hard every day, encourage our younger players to put in the work… We like our district, and our numbers (of players) are going to be good.”

Forest opens their 2021 campaign against Belleview. The teams will play in a kickoff classic on Aug. 19 at 7:30 p.m.