The legend of Landen Williams-Callis began in the Greater Houston youth football circuit, then morphed into a folk tale when an announcer at his 11U Championship Game in AT&T Stadium proclaimed the running back was “walking on water.” 

That reputation pulled Richmond Randle head coach Brian Randle to a Navarro Middle School P.E. class. He was on a mission to meet the sixth-grader whom everyone spoke of as if he were a grown man.

“He comes around the corner, and all you see are calves,” Randle said. “He’s got these giant calf muscles.”

Those legs have powered Williams-Callis to 4,915 career rushing yards and 81 touchdowns midway through his junior year. He won a Class 5A DII State Championship, Offensive Player of the Year honors and reeled in 62 scholarship offers - all before he became an upperclassman. Since Randle High began varsity football in 2022, Williams-Callis is the first name in the program’s record book. But he’s set the bar so high he might never rescind the crown.

“The Good Lord made him to play football,” Randle said.

Of course, many of Williams’ talents are God-given. Randle jokes that the coaching staff doesn’t let him lift like the other kids because his genetics allow him to put on five pounds of muscle just by sitting in the weight room. 

But plenty of those jukes, spins and truck-sticks were honed from the time he was three years old, when he started tagging along for training sessions with his father, Cornelius. 

“Young Landen started running before he started walking,” Cornelius said.

Every day, he’d challenge his nearly decade-older brother, Kisean, to a race that he’d inevitably lose. Landen swore one day he’d beat him. In a way, he’s still chasing him to this day. Landen has four siblings on his father’s side and two on his mother’s. According to Cornelius, none of them can match Landen’s competitive streak. 

By the time he started playing little league football for the Richmond Oilers, years of training with his family and binge-watching Reggie Bush YouTube highlights had other coaches taking notice.

“Man, we need to check that kid’s ID,” said Donnie Avery, an NFL veteran who coached the Sugarland Cowboys. “He is not in the same age group. This is a middle schooler playing against elementary kids.”

Williams-Callis has always been physically mature for his age. He plays for a city school, but he’s country strong. Growing up, he would visit his grandparents’ ranch and help his father load hay onto the truck for the cows. Then, while his father drove around, he’d sweep the ranch house and feed the pigs. 

But he’s also displayed a mental maturity beyond his years, which explains how he was able to earn the respect of his senior teammates as a freshman on varsity. Coach Randle tells his kids they live in a capitalist society, so the kids who perform will play regardless of age. Williams-Callis earned the starting job and then picked the No.1 jersey, two things plenty of seniors desperately wanted. 

After Week 1 of his freshman season, Williams-Callis put his pads and jersey on the bus to save his seat. When he returned, he couldn’t find his equipment because the seniors had hidden it. Williams-Callis got so heated that Randle made him ride back home in his truck. He told Landen that night that this wouldn’t be the first time he had to deal with jealousy, and he could only combat it with his play. 

“By Week 3, those same kids who were bothering him were now carrying his stuff,” Randle said. “You have to respect his game. That was a neat thing to watch, how he won over the locker room.” 

Once the other players saw how hard he worked, they realized Williams-Callis wasn’t given anything. Back when he was in little league, his coach, Donnie Avery, remembers taking a Sunday stroll through Seabourne Park and seeing Williams-Callis running hills with his dad. 

“Bro, he just scored eight touchdowns yesterday,” Avery said.

“I’m not forcing him to do this,” Cornelius said. “He’s asking to go run the hills.”

Williams-Callis is motivated by the thought of becoming the best running back in Randle history. But he’s also motivated by the memory of his grandmother, Debra Williams. She used to pick him up from the bus stop and take him to McDonald’s. He heard stories stories about how Debra used to raise his mother and uncles despite not having a car. When she passed, Williams-Callis had to miss her funeral to play in his little league Super Bowl. That day, he vowed to play for her, and he’s kept that vow ever since.

“That was my favorite person on this earth,” Williams-Callis said. “I just want to do everything for her, because she did everything for me. She showed favoritism. I was her favorite.”

His grandmother’s character lives on through him. Randle says his favorite part of coaching Landen isn’t watching him score touchdowns. It’s watching him tell the college recruiters they have to check out his teammate, and the fact that he looks out for those who can’t look out for themselves.

And, of course, Williams-Callis has had lapses like any other kid. But his parents have always kept him humble. In Little League, Landen once walked back to the huddle after scoring a touchdown while his teammates tried to chest bump him. He was gassed from playing every snap of the game, but it looked like he was ignoring his teammates. Cornelius almost pulled him off the field; he was so mad. Landen has celebrated every touchdown, whether it was his or not, with his teammates since.

That’s why coaches are comfortable telling Williams-Callis he will go to the NFL. They know he will continue working, as if he hasn’t proven anything. 

“I played in the NFL for almost eight years,” Avery said. “I always tell him, ‘Bro, you’re going to the NFL, man. Just stay healthy and keep your head on right.’”

Coach Randle has also opened up to the Williams-Callis family on where he sees Landen’s future leading. 

“I have four kids who I’ve had the opportunity to coach who went to the NFL,” Randle said. “At Landen’s age, they weren’t anything like him.”

People have assumed Williams-Callis is older than he is for his entire life. It started in little league with the jokes about checking his ID. Randle says there were plenty of times during his freshman and sophomore years when he had to remind his coaching staff that Williams-Callis was still 15 years old when he made a 15-year-old’s mistake on the field. Williams-Callis himself says he feels older than he actually is. 

But they don’t think he’s older just because he’s accomplished more at a younger age, it’s because of how he’s handled it.

“Landen’s been on this planet before,” Randle said. “When you look at the Lebron Jameses of the world, guys like that who just kind of have it figured out from an early age, he’s kind of like one of those guys.”

Really, the only person who sees Landen as he is - a high school junior - is his father.

“When the kids and parents come up to him like, ‘Man, this is Landen!’ I still see my son,” Cornelius said. 

But on a Friday night, he sits in the Randle stands and gets to watch the young man he’s raised through everyone else’s eyes. And as Landen takes off for another touchdown, the community rises as he runs from the ten, to the five, to the future.