Kaitlyn Williams: Joining the team before stepping onto the field
Kaitlyn Williams was a high school sophomore at Greater Atlanta Christian School when she visited Brown the first time for a soccer tryout.
It was love at first sight for the Peachtree Corners, Georgia, native, who was smitten with Brown’s “beautiful” archtecture, the enthusiasm the students had for learning, and the coaches and players who, three years later, she would join on the varsity women’s soccer team.
“I could tell that they really loved the team and loved each other,” she said. “It just seemed like a great opportunity to be a part of a community that strives to make each other better.”
Like her fellow first-year students at Brown, Williams was asked to postpone the official start of her school year to the spring term. But she has already become part of the women’s soccer community she so admired.
Each week this fall, Coach Kia McNeill sent the team a series of training activities — dubbed a PACT plan — focused on developing the team’s physical conditioning, attitude and character, and technical skills and tactical prowess. Weekly activities included community-building activities — like playing games and cooking a teammates’ favorite recipe, virtually — and panels with team alumni and professional players, all held over Zoom.
One panel featured the captains from Brown’s Ivy League championship-winning women’s soccer teams, who spoke to current players about how their team experience had shaped their professional trajectories.
“It was really cool to see how connected they still were, even the ones who hadn’t played together in 30 or 40 years,” Williams said. “You could see the impact the team has had on them — not just because they made close friendships, but also because the connections they made helped them excel in their professional worlds, and it also allowed us to create those connections with them.”
She also got a jump start on her coursework this fall. As part of the University’s offer for first-year students to remotely enroll in a fall course, free of charge, Williams took Intermediate Calculus, a requirement for her concentration in applied mathematics.
“It was a really good way to meet other people,” she said. “And it gave me the chance to exercise my mind a bit before starting in the spring.”
Now that Williams is finally on campus, she is looking forward to embarking upon a full course load that will allow her to complement her math studies with courses like Principles of Economics and Sport in American History.
“I’ve never thought about sports from the perspective of the effect they have had on American history,” she said. “I’m excited to explore that more deeply.”
Williams also looks forward to having the opportunity this term to deepen the connections that she made with her teammates virtually last fall.
“I’ve only met a handful of them in person,” she said. “I’m really excited to meet the team.”
Source: Brown University
