Dimitri Williams still tells people he’s from Louisiana. He can’t help it, he said, and “sometimes they can tell anyway when the accent comes out.”

But Williams doesn’t remember much of his home state — just vague snippets of his family, his home, his school and, of course, the hurricane that took it all away eight years ago.

“I was still really young, so I didn’t really understand what was going on,” he said. “But the wind — everything was just blowing all over the place, and there was water coming up everywhere.”

Williams was 8 when Hurricane Katrina forced him and his older brother, Jiren, to leave their New Orleans-area home. Williams hasn’t been back, or seen his mother in person, since settling into a new life in Minnesota in 2006.

Now a junior at Rosemount, Williams said his home always will be in Louisiana, but the football field has been where he’s found himself. The running back has 399 yards rushing, 265 yards receiving and scored eight touchdowns this season.

“He’s very comfortable out there,” Rosemount coach Jeff Erdmann said. “From the first time we got to see him as a ninth-grader, you could just tell that he was going to be a player. It’s been really exciting to see him grow [as a person] the way he has.”

At 5-11 and 170 pounds, the shifty Williams slips tackles and makes defenders miss. On Sept. 20 against Prior Lake, Williams touched the ball on all but three of Rosemount’s offensive plays in the first half. He had nearly 300 all-purpose yards in the Irish’s 24-13 victory.

But it’s Williams’ demeanor and attitude that stands out most to his teammates. After the Prior Lake game, Williams seemed embarrassed about the amount of touches he had.

“That’s just him,” senior captain Gabe Ehlers said after the game. “He’s a great player, but you won’t hear it from him.”

Family first

To make it easier for people to understand, Williams will tell people he lives with his grandfather — or even “great grandpa.” Williams just calls him “King.”

“It’s a long story and pretty confusing,” he said. “It’s my grandfather’s wife’s parents.”

Williams and his brother moved in with Steven King and his wife five years ago, after spending two years with his grandfather in Lakeville. He also spent some time with a more distant relative of Williams’ mother. King’s wife died in June.

“They’re like our parents,” Williams said, alluding to their actual relationship rather than King’s legal rights as a guardian. “We’re a family.”

That extends to football, too. Jiren, 18, is also on the Rosemount team. Also a junior (the two Williams boys were placed in the same grade after arriving from Louisiana), Jiren plays middle linebacker.

“[Football] was always something that was just fun, and I didn’t think of it too much more than playing with some friends,” Williams said. “Then I came [to Rosemount] and everyone was telling me I could actually play pretty well.”

Williams played substantial varsity minutes as a sophomore. As a junior he is the focal point of the run-heavy Irish offense. Division I recruiting letters have starting to trickle in, but Williams said he’s not thinking about anything beyond his next game.

His only goal for now, he said, is to see his mom again in Louisiana, a reunion nearly seven years in the making. Williams speaks or texts with his mom every day.

“She’ll text me every night to ask how my day was and stuff like that,” he said. “We’re close. … It’s just I haven’t seen her in a while. It’s still home, though. It’ll always be my home state.”