Dear Friends of Tribe Athletics,

I am a positive guy, and accordingly, my glass is perpetually half full, but last week it was overflowing!  Commencement Weekend arrived, and celebrating with our 144 graduating student-athletes and their families emphasized why I love this time of year.

On Thursday, we hosted an event for the graduates to celebrate all that they accomplished during the years they wore the Green & Gold. As I stood at the podium and surveyed the happy faces in the audience, I couldn't help but think about what is ahead for these impressive young men and women. We've rooted for them for years and that will never stop. Please join me in congratulating them and look at the great piece Tribe Scribe Dave Johnson wrote about what is ahead for eight of our graduates.
 
New Tribe Golf Duo
Tim Pemberton '05 has been promoted to Director of Golf . He will also retain his role as head coach of Men's Golf, which he has had for the last five seasons, and he also served as interim director this spring. Last season, the Tribe men's program posted five top-five finishes. On the women's side, Tim helped W&M to a 17-shot improvement at the 2025 CAA Championships. Tim's teams have produced four top 10 season scoring averages in school history, including the top two. In the classroom, his teams have achieved a perfect 1,000 academic progress rate (APR) each year and posted one of the top GPAs in the Athletics Department.
 
Jonathan Howard also has a new position with the Tribe, as he has been named the new head coach of Women's Golf . He joined Green and Gold after spending the last three years as the head women's coach at Christopher Newport University, and five years as an assistant coach of both the men's and women's golf teams at CNU. He helped transform the women's golf program into a Top 25 team after the program started in the 2017-18 season. The Captains were ranked in the national Top 25 during two of Howard's three seasons at the helm.   

Keep It Going! 
It's hard to believe that the 24-'25 season is almost over, but there is still some Green & Gold action.   

A huge shout-out to Elizabeth Strobach of Track & Field, who turned in a school-record effort in the pole vault and punched her ticket to the NCAA Championships East Region Preliminaries at the Sunday Night Qualifier hosted by App State. She topped 4.16m (13' 7.75") on her second attempt to win the event and establish the school record height. The mark moved her to 34th in the East Region, securing a spot in the NCAA postseason May 28-31 in Jacksonville. Teammates Lauren Jones (4th in long jump), Jonathan Kumer (2nd in 800m), and Collin Walsh (6th in 3000m steeplechase) also competed at the Sunday Night Qualifier.

Tribe Baseball is also in the postseason for the sixth straight year! Earlier this week, the CAA announced league honors, and after a record-setting campaign, OF Ben Parker is a 2025 CAA Co-Player of the Year. Ben, who also earned First Team All-CAA honors, was one of five Tribe baseball players named to the all-conference squad: OF Lucas Carmichael, OF Christian Rush, and INF Jamie Laskofski were named Second Team All-CAA. At the same time, Jamie was also selected to the All-Rookie team.
 
Yesterday, the team played the first game in the CAA Conference Tournament at the Ballpark at Patriots Point in Mt. Pleasant, S.C. The Tribe lost vs. Charleston and lost to Elon today in the double elimination tournament. 

Notable

• Track & Field wrapped up the CAA Championships last week, with the men finishing third and the women fourth, with several podium finishes.  A highlight performance came from Brian Walsh, pictured below, who won gold in the decathlon with 7,076 points, which was the best CAA Championship meet performance ever in the decathlon.  The Tribe won gold in both 3000m steeplechases.  Congratulations to Catherine Garrison and Collin Walsh! For a full recap, click here.

• Football Head Coach Mike London was honored May 9 with the prestigious Plumeri Award for Athletics Leadership Excellence. Established by Joseph J. Plumeri '66, D.P.S. '11, the award recognizes outstanding coaches and staff whose core virtues and accomplishments help to define excellence in Tribe Athletics. 

• Tribe volleyball added Kayla Carrell to their staff as an assistant coach after her decorated five-year playing career in volleyball and beach volleyball at UT Martin.
• Five Women's Tennis players earned All-CAA honors, including a conference-best three First Team selections. Hedda Gurholt and Alessandra Anghel earned All-CAA First Team distinction in singles, while Hedda and Ine Stange were named to the first team in doubles. Sia Chaudry was selected to the All-CAA Third Team in singles, and Alessandra and Francesca Davis received third-team honors in doubles.
• Men's Tennis' Gur Trakhtenberg was named to the All-CAA Second Team.
• Seventeen Men's Gymnastics team members were named to the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) All-Academic Team (read more here).
• Congratulations to 228 student-athletes who have won the Provost Award, which recognizes athletes with over a 3.5 GPA. The Athletics Department held a breakfast event to honor these student-athletes, which was attended by the honorees, coaches, and administrators and featured comments from Vice Provost David Yalof. 

A Final Round of Applause
On May 10, we held the Hall of Fame Spring Induction Ceremony for celebrated coaches John Daly (women's soccer), Cliff Gauthier (men's gymnastics) and Jimmye Laycock (football). It was a fantastic evening of camaraderie and school spirit.  Below is a photo of our latest Hall of Famers.
 
A Foundation for the Future
I am delighted to share some exciting news that will have an important and positive impact on Tribe Athletics. 

Earlier today, the W&M Foundation Board voted to bring with the W&M Athletics Foundation under their corporate structure as a subsidiary member. The move will consolidate many of our administrative functions while increasing efficiencies, lowering costs, and bringing key operational support under one umbrella. 

The W&M Foundation already manages Athletics' endowments, and this corporate restructuring allows the Athletics Foundation and our Board of Directors, wo will remain in place, to be laser focused on philanthropy. The change is going to be greatly beneficial for Tribe Athletics, and I very much appreciate the support from President Katherine A. Rowe and Matthew Lambert, senior vice president of university advancement. 

End of the Year
While competition is coming to a close, our fiscal year also comes to a close on June 30. If you missed One Tribe One Day, you can still make a gift that will have a significant impact this year.  While supporting your favorite team is always an option, consider making a gift to the Athletics Impact Fund, which helps us support areas such as sports medicine and student services.  As always, every gift makes a difference, and we are extremely grateful for each one.

Go, Tribe!

Brian D. Mann
Director of Athletics