Williamsburg Hornets Football and Cheerleading Name New President

WILLIAMSBURG — Brandon Woods grew up playing football, spent a good portion of his adult life coaching, and now finds himself as the new president of the Williamsburg Hornets Youth Football and Cheerleading organization.

Woods, who originally hails from Houston, played youth football and hopes to instill the values he learned in the next generation of players in Williamsburg.

“Not only did youth football keep me out of trouble, but it also taught me the concepts of teamwork, prioritizing, responsibility, and being the best version of myself,” Woods said.

He was a four-year starter for his high school football team before playing college football. Even before graduating from high school, Woods found himself on the sidelines as a coach — but not for football.

“My first coaching gig was as a basketball coach. I would coach the basketball team in the offseason and I fell in love with coaching right then and there. My team would always say that they saw my future as a coach,” Woods said. “Being a head coach, it’s on you. Everything is on you. The safety of the kids, your philosophy is installed in them. The buck stops with you. If your program is successful, it’s you. If your program is not successful, it’s also on you. There are no excuses when you are in charge.”

After moving to the area with his wife, who is active-duty military, Woods enrolled his kids in youth football. He was approached by the organization at first to volunteer in the concession stand. After working the stand for a season, Hornets leadership asked if he would consider serving as the organization’s president.

After his presidency was announced in January, Woods has taken over and has started rebuilding. He hopes to accomplish a few things during his tenure.

“We’re not coaching kids to go to the NFL. We are coaching the next chief of police, we are coaching the next servicemember. We are coaching the next nurses, and doctors, and teachers, store managers. We want to promote good citizenship. We want to coach the best citizens that we can build,” Woods said.

To accomplish that, Woods is encouraging all coaches to make community service a big part of both the season and offseason. On the field, Woods wants the Hornets to fight for a championship.

“We want to be a program that people fear playing us, but they love playing with us. When the name Hornets comes up, I want the first thought to be those guys are everywhere. That football team, those cheerleaders, these people are everywhere and they are doing anything and everything in the community,” Woods said.

The Hornets will kick off the spring season in March and the fall season will begin in August. For more information on the Hornets, visit williamsburghornets.com.