A like-father-like-son story with an Arlington connection transpired this fall in two press boxes during football season in Northern Virginia.
At Yorktown High School in Arlington, with his enthusiastic yet professional and calm demeanor, Chris Williams worked his 23rd season as the Friday-night announcer of home varsity games for the Patriots.
“Touchdown Yorktown!” has long been Williams’ signature call.
On Thursday evenings, not far away at Annandale High School, Williams’ son, Riley, was a rookie announcer calling freshman-game football campaigns for the Atoms. The 14-year-old is a freshman at Annandale, where he is a member of the Atoms’ winter swim team and hopes to be a member of the baseball program in the spring.
Riley Williams was well-equipped to begin his public-address career. Since age 4, he learned by listening, watching and sometimes helping his father at Yorktown games, where both sported light blue Yorktown sweatshirts.
So when the Annandale freshman team scored, it came as no surprise that Riley’s TD call sounded similar: “Touchdown Annandale!”
After missing his son’s first game, Chris Williams didn’t let Riley fly solo in later contests. He was standing next to a seated Riley in the press box, serving as his son’s all-important spotter and wearing a matching red Annandale shirt.
“It has been a lot of fun,” said Riley, an all-star swimmer in the Northern Virginia Swimming League during the summer. “I have friends playing freshman football. Announcing the games is a way to stay involved with the team and watch my friends.”
Riley said the experience of watching his father call Yorktown games put him at ease when he first took the microphone.
“I definitely had some nerves doing this at first, but I learned a lot from my dad. He is my mentor,” Riley told ARLnow. “I tried to implement what he did. It can be a challenge to get it all correct. I looked forward to doing the games all week.”
By the freshman team’s final home contest, a 38-12 win over Mount Vernon, he was more relaxed and polished.
Riley also learned to prepare like his father by having printed rosters of both teams on hand, as well as photos of game officials’ hand signals of penalties.
Like his father, Riley would identify both home and opposing players by name on each play. Some high-school announcers take shortcuts and don’t ID visiting players, saying their uniform numbers instead.
Riley also provided all other important game information, like identifying specific penalties and other pertinent game and school announcements.
“We would talk about announcing, and I sort of mentored Riley over the years, kind of sheepishly about it at first,” Chris Williams said. “At Annandale he jumped right in, and without a spotter his first game, which is much harder. He did a great job.”
Chris Williams, a 1990 graduate of Yorktown — where he played football and basketball and ran track — has announced various other Yorktown sports over the years, as well as other district and region-wide high school sporting events. Combined with announcing duties at summer swimming and diving competitions, his voice is well known throughout Northern Virginia.
He called Yorktown freshman and junior varsity football games prior to being promoted to varsity contests. In addition, he has been a longtime disc jockey.
Chris Williams works for Arlington Public Schools as an assistant transition coordinator and is Yorktown’s longtime head golf coach.
Going forward, Riley Williams said he would like to continue announcing football games at Annandale. He has also been approached by school administrators to announce other school sporting events.
