Dear Friends of William & Mary Athletics,
 
Although the official start of spring is two weeks away, the Tribe's spring sports are in full swing.  Let's begin by congratulating our head baseball coach Mike McRae on his 500^th career victory, which came versus Marist in a 10-1 win.  Nice going, coach!

One of Coach McRae's players, Cory Wall, was honored as the CAA Pitcher of the Week, joining several other Tribe student-athletes who recently received accolades from the conference.  Kate Draddy was the CAA Rookie of the Week in lacrosse and Hedda Gurholt was a CAA's Women's Tennis Player of the Week.
 
And in breaking news this week, senior guard Riley Casey was named First Team All-CAA, as well as the CAA Scholar-Athlete of the Year, while her teammate Sydney Wagner was named Second Team All-CAA!   Well done, everyone!

Many of you attended our All In weekend and joined the fun at the Lord Botetourt Affair: An Auction for a Noble Cause, where Bobby Dwyer did his usual great job as auctioneer/emcee.  Those in attendance know there is a huge thermometer in the room that keeps tabs on donations to a "Noble Cause" that aren't linked to bidding on items.  As the night began to wrap, we realized that we had work to do, and the room was challenged to dig deep one last time.  As a result, we quickly moved from around $26K to $51K, thanks to the Green & Gold faithful!  Overall, we raised a record amount—more than $450,000 and every person in Athletics is grateful beyond words for your support and generosity!

Our student-athletes, coaches and staff are immersed each day in classes, study halls, workouts, practices and competition, but they also find time to work on initiatives on behalf of their sports and their communities.  On Feb. 1, the first day of Black History Month, W&M's Black Student-Athlete Alliance held its first meeting, led by women's basketball player Kayla Beckwith, who is the group's president.  The group will meet regularly and Athletics will sponsor up to three representatives to attend the Black Student-Athlete Summit in Los Angeles in May.
 
Previously I've mentioned an anti-racism program called "A Long Talk About the Uncomfortable Truth." What I didn't say was that the program was one of only four made possible by an IDEA (Innovative Diversity Efforts Awards) grant from the university's Office of Diversity and Inclusion, and major funding from our Chief Medical Officer Dr. Virginia Wells, thanks to her 2022 Plumeri Award.  Our coaches, staff and student-athletes have all participated.
 
In a tribute to his experience and influence in his sport, our Director of Gymnastics Mike Powell has been appointed to the NCAA Men's Gymnastics Committee, which is charged with advancing the sport's traditions, values and reputation.  Congratulations, Mike!  
 
Speaking of gymnastics, our women's team earned its highest score to date in 2023 but fell to Penn State, despite an energetic and vocal group of W&M fans in attendance.

Tribe football got a major shoutout when The Athletic called our offense the most creative in college football!  Head coach Mike London, who will be piloting our football program until 2027 since he recently signed a contract extension, has made a few staffing adjustments to ready the team for the fall campaign.  For a sneak preview, check out our spring game on Saturday, March 11.
 
Today our women's basketball team, which matched its record for regular-season conference wins, begins CAA Conference championship play.  The squad is the four-seed and earned a double bye, which means they are in the quarterfinals at SECU Arena in Towson. If you can't be there in person, you can follow the action here.

I plan on being in Towson as long as our team is there, and I'm hoping I don't get home until Sunday! Regardless, it's been a great inaugural season for Coach Erin Dickerson Davis, and I'm not forgetting that our men's program under Coach Dane Fischer made great strides this year, as we recorded a win over Elon in the CAA Championships and advanced to the quarterfinal.

Beyond basketball on the calendar, there's baseball, tennis, lacrosse, gymnastics, track and field and much, much more!  Check our schedule and make your plans to cheer us on!

Go Tribe!