College Sports

Tribe Scribe: Here are 10 storylines from a memorable 2024-25 athletic season

Story Links By Dave Johnson W&M Athletics   Another season has come and gone for William & Mary athletics, and there were plenty of highlights. Teams and individuals made history, and Tribe athletes continued to shine both in their chosen sport and in the classroom.   Here are 10 highlights that will stick […]

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By Dave Johnson

W&M Athletics

 


Another season has come and gone for William & Mary athletics, and there were plenty of highlights. Teams and individuals made history, and Tribe athletes continued to shine both in their chosen sport and in the classroom.
 
Here are 10 highlights that will stick with us for a while.
 
Women’s basketball makes history.
Let’s face it: After losing six of its final seven games of the regular season, the Tribe wasn’t generating much buzz entering the Coastal Athletic Association tournament as the No. 9 seed. That only made its four-day championship run all the more remarkable.
 

In becoming the highest-seeded team to win the CAA title, W&M defeated four teams it had gone 0-5 against during the regular season. Tournament MVP Bella Nascimento capped it with a 33-point, 11-rebound masterpiece in W&M’s 66-63 win over Campbell in the final.
 
Not done yet, the Tribe became the first team with a sub-.500 record to win an NCAA tournament game with a 69-63 victory over High Point in the first round. The ride ended with a loss to No. 1 Texas, which advanced to the Final Four.
 
Charles Grant off to Vegas
Grant didn’t begin playing football until his junior year of high school, which led to very little recruiting attention. But he ended up starting 41 games for the Tribe, including his last 36, and became a consensus All-American left tackle as a senior.
 
Undoubtedly, he could have transferred to an FBS program for a higher profile. But he stayed, and his reward came when the Las Vegas Raiders chose him in the third round (99th overall) of the NFL Draft — by which point he had earned his degree in psychology.
 
“It felt great to accomplish that goal,” Grant said. “Now, it’s time to set new goals and get back to work.”
 
Ben Parker’s magical season.
From March 9 through May 7, Parker put together a 34-game hitting streak that broke the school’s modern-day record and tied the conference mark. He finished the season as the CAA’s leading hitter (and ninth nationally) at .407 with 94 hits, third in program history. He had 50 RBI at the lead-off spot.
 
And here’s a stat for the ages: Of the season’s 56 games, all of which he started, Parker had multiple hits in 31. That included 12 games with at least three base knocks. He went hitless only five times.
 
So it came as no surprise when Parker was named the CAA’s Co-Player of the Year and first team ABCA/Rawlings NCAA Division I Atlantic All-Region.
 
Tribe athletes continue to shine in the classroom.

In data released by the NCAA last fall, William & Mary athletics had the highest Federal Graduation Rate among public Division I institutions for the 19th time in 20 years. Tribe student athletes graduated at an 88% clip, 20 points higher than the national average.
 

In another release in May, W&M ranked second among national public schools in Academic Progress Rate scores and NCAA Public Recognition Awards. The college’s APR for 2023-24 was 996 among its 21 programs, 12 points above the national average. Tribe athletics won 14 awards, more than any other CAA or Virginia university.
 
This past spring, the department posted an overall GPA of 3.45. It was the seventh consecutive semester at 3.25 or better.
 
And all 21 programs had a GPA above 3.1 spring semester for the first time.
 
A banner year for men’s gymnastics
For the first time in program history, five gymnasts — Evan Wilkins, Sam Lee, Connor Barrow, Luke Tully and Niko Greenly — qualified for the finals in the NCAA Championships in Ann Arbor, Mich.
 
Wilkins tied for 19th on floor and 27th on parallel bars. Lee came in 20th on P-bars and tied for 22nd on vault. Barrow and Tully placed 20th on vault and high bar, respectively. Greenly tied for 25th on parallel bars.
 
As a team, the Tribe qualified for the Championships for the first time since 2021 as the No. 12 seed.
 
Hollis Mathis joins the 3X 1,000 club.

Mathis came to William & Mary as a celebrated dual-threat quarterback, and he immediately lived up to the hype. But a series of events, including a labral tear in his throwing shoulder and the emergence of Darius Wilson, would change his role.
 
Mathis never complained or entered the transfer portal. Instead, as the Tribe’s valuable Swiss Army Knife, he became the second player in college football history to have at least 1,000 career yards in passing (1,716), rushing (1,091) and receiving (1,005).
 
Mathis’ career didn’t go as envisioned, but he has no regrets. And because he stayed, he has two degrees from one of the nation’s premier colleges — a B.A. in kinesiology/exercise science and an M.B.A.
 
Mathis’ hometown team, the Pittsburgh Steelers, invited him to their rookie minicamp last month.
 
Gabe Dorsey fires his way to the record book
Although he played only three seasons after transferring from Vanderbilt, Dorsey became arguably the most prolific 3-point shooter in Tribe basketball history. His 292 career makes are second in program history behind Marcus Thornton, but his per-game average of 3.24 is first.
 
Also in the record book, Dorsey is first and second in most 3-pointers in a season — 113 in 2023-24 and 103 in 2024-25. His career percentage of .427 is second to Connor Burchfield but first among those who have at least 180 makes.
 
Dorsey is looking ahead to a career in professional basketball, including a pre-draft workout with the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks.
 
Ben Williamson has big debut in The Show
 
On April 15, Tax Day for those who celebrate, Williamson became the 11th player in Tribe baseball history to make his MLB debut. In his first plate appearance with the Seattle Mariners, facing the Reds in Cincinnati, he lined a single through the left side. It was 106 mph off the bat.
 
Since that night and through last weekend, Williamson had started 42 of the Mariners’ 49 games at third base. He was batting .259, third on the team among those with at least 150 plate appearances.
 
Williamson became the first Tribe alum to play in the MLB since Will Rhymes, who made his debut in 2010 and played his final game in ’12.
 
Three athletes qualify for NCAA prelims
Sophomore Elizabeth Strobach cleared 4.16 meters (13 feet, 7.75 inches) in the pole vault to qualify for the NCAA East Regional Preliminaries in late May. Her jump broke a school record that stood for 16 years by half a foot.
 
Joining her in Jacksonville, Fla., were Catherine Garrison and Arianna DeBoer. Garrison finished her junior season with a 17th-place finish in the steeplechase with a time of 10:07.98, less than a second off the school record she set in April.
 
DeBoer ran the 10,000 meters in 35:41.91 to finish 44th.
 
Daly joins Tribe alums Albert, Ellis in coaches Hall of Fame

In January, former W&M women’s soccer coach (and current volunteer assistant) John Daly was inducted into the United Soccer Coaches Hall of Fame. And to put it in soccer lingo, it gave the Tribe a hat trick.
 
Daly’s honor came a year after the induction of Jill Ellis ’88, who played for Daly and coached the U.S. National Team to FIFA World Cup championships in 2015 and ’19. It came two years after former men’s coach Al Albert ’69 got the call.
 

Daly won 413 games in his 31 seasons at W&M.
 



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