There is a different buzz on a college campus during Homecoming week. From a full slate of events across campus and reunions with old classmates to the energy around tailgates and pregame in the stadium, it is a weekend that captures what a university is all about.
 
At William & Mary this year, that feeling carries extra meaning as the university celebrates its 100th Homecoming & Reunion Weekend. For some Tribe Athletics alumni, the weekend is an opportunity to return to the place where they made lasting memories. For others, coming home to W&M is part of their everyday lives.
 
The William & Mary Athletics staff directory is filled with former Tribe student-athletes who either returned or never left their alma mater to begin coaching and professional careers.
 
Prior to this year's 100^th Homecoming & Reunion Weekend celebration, TribeAthletics.com sat down with a handful of them to talk about their student-athlete experience, their homecoming memories and more.
 
Q: What led to your decision to come back and work at William & Mary?
 
Alex Heacock (Track & Field '09, Asst. AD for Athletics Advancement, Former. Dir. of T&F/XC): Obviously, my undergrad experience is one that shaped my life in quite a large way, and I met my wife here at William & Mary. Williamsburg is just an incredibly special place to us. The opportunity to coach here was one that I couldn't pass up. I always wanted to coach at a high-academic university because that was a part of my experience, and I felt like athletics and high-level academics go really well with one another. This campus is special. This athletic department is special. This university is incredibly special, and even more so than that, the community is fantastic. It's been an awesome place for my wife, Ashley, and me to raise our three girls. Being able to move into the advancement side of the house now is really cool. It's truly been a gift to be affiliated with this university as long as I have, and to continue to do work to grow the university and the department really is special to me.
 
Bo Revell (Football '15, Co-Defensive Coordinator): Well, funny story is I never really left. I actually went straight from playing into full-time coaching. I'd always loved the college, and I obviously met my wife here. She was a captain on the basketball team, and I was a captain on the football team, so we had a pretty nice college experience. An opportunity came open after my senior year. I was here volunteering for Coach (Jimmye) Laycock. One of our full-time staffers had left and taken another job, and because I'd been volunteering, he offered me the position. I was fortunate enough to take it, and I've been here ever since. Even when Coach Laycock retired and Coach (Mike) London came in, I was fortunate to stay on staff. It's been my home for the last 15 years, the last 11 as a coach, so it's been a really special place for me.

Michael Brown (Baseball '03, Senior Associate Athletics Director of Advancement): I've spent my entire career in the nonprofit sector, working for multiple organizations and raising money for them. I've built a great professional career in development and advancement, and I was at a time in my life when I wanted to do something that was a little bit more meaningful to me. I settled on the world of intercollegiate athletics with the determination and thought process of getting back to my home school, my alma mater, William & Mary. I learned pretty much everything about myself here at William & Mary – determination, grit and perseverance – during my time here and my time playing baseball. I felt it was a great way for me to be able to give back. It's always been a dream of mine to come back and give back to the student-athletes, hoping that they have the same or a similar experience that I had.

Al Albert (Men's Soccer '76, Associate Athletics Director for Advancement, Former Men's Soccer Head Coach): I've stayed here for a number of reasons, but I was always comfortable with the type of kids that we had here as a coach. Once I finished coaching, it just seemed like a natural segue into fundraising. My son went to school here and played soccer for me, which is sort of an ideal situation for a coach. My wife went to school here, and she didn't mind staying, so we just felt like it was home and there was no place really better to be.

Jeff Kader (Men's Tennis '05, Men's Tennis Head Coach): I think coming back to William & Mary was a pretty easy decision for me. I got into college coaching pretty quickly, and after that first year I realized this is what I wanted to do. But each place that I was at had a different feel than what I experienced when I was actually here. I could never really put a finger on it, but I do think it was the community aspect. Everybody here cares tremendously about each other. It's not just about one particular sport, and it's not just about one particular area. Everybody feels invested in each other, and that wasn't something I felt at the other places where I happened to work. So, I think that part made it pretty easy when the opportunity arose. Coming back here felt like home.
 
Q: What are some lessons you learned as a student-athlete here that you have adopted into your coaching style/professional life?
 
Jack Armstrong (Football '18, Offensive Line Coach): I learned how I wanted to be led as a player and try to do that same thing as a coach. I also learned a lot about different ways to handle different people. I played receiver here, and you get some colorful personalities in the receiver room. You learn how to handle different kinds of people, but also that sometimes there is a one-size-fits-all approach that's needed for certain standards and certain things you just won't let fall below a certain line. Learning from Coach Laycock and playing under him here was a key driver of that as well.

Kevin Jarrell (Football '22, Outside Linebackers Coach): I think the biggest one for me is probably just fighting through adversity. I came here as a quarterback out of high school. My freshman year, I was a scout team quarterback, and going into my second year, with Coach London coming in, I switched to linebacker for my last five years. That was a big transition for me and gave me a new perspective on the game. I kind of always knew I wanted to coach, and having that second perspective from the other side of the ball has allowed me to relate to players in that way. We have a lot of guys who change positions when they get here. They're recruited as one thing and come here and play something else. I think it's allowed me to build relationships with them and help them through those types of things.
 
Taylor Frenia (Track & Field '17, T&F Assistant Coach, Throwing Events): In my time in school, we had a very competitive track group and a very competitive throws group, which I was a part of. I think the biggest thing is really owning what you want to accomplish and carrying yourself in a manner that helps you accomplish those things. Day in and day out, it can be pretty mundane when you're an athlete. You're doing pretty much the same things over and over, but treating everything with a level of respect, where everything is done with intention and you're deliberate even in the smallest things. I try to carry that over with my athletes as well. I understand we're doing a lot of the same things and hearing a lot of the same things day to day, but it's the level of intent we bring to everything we do that makes the biggest impact moving forward.

Lauren Curran (Field Hockey '23, Field Hockey Assistant Coach): It's a lot of time, hard work and effort, but it's really nice because I can relate to the girls. I get it — you might not want to get up at 6 a.m. to go to lift, then go to class and then go to practice for three hours. But it's really fun, and it should be the best part of your day. You get to do it with your best friends. I understand being able to help them with their time management, so it's really nice to be able to relate to them and help them through not just field hockey, but everyday issues they might have. I can say, "I dealt with this; it might be helpful to try this with this professor."

Marsha Lycan (Women's Soccer '87, Women's Soccer Associate Head Coach): I think being a student-athlete here is not easy, and it was one of the reasons Shacks (head coach Julie Shackford) and I were both drawn to it as young women because we wanted that challenge. That's probably the biggest thing we learned: the experience of going through it as a student-athlete and having to balance the rigors of academics and Division I athletics, but also knowing that it's a place where you can excel in both. We always like to say you can go big in both areas here, sports and school, and I think that's one of our biggest recruiting messages when we're trying to bring young women in. We did it ourselves, and we're trying to attract the same type of personalities.

Chris Norris (Men's Soccer '94, Men's Soccer Head Coach): Definitely one of the things I learned from Al (Albert) that we always try to keep in perspective is to maintain an even keel. You're never as good as you think you are, and you're never as bad as you think you are. When academics hit hard during the semester, it's never as challenging or difficult as you may make it out to be. If you can maintain perspective and take a step back from a situation that makes you feel emotional, you can usually navigate through tough moments, or even really good moments, with the right mentality.
 
Q: What are some Homecoming memories you have as a student-athlete or your first couple coming back as an alum?

Heacock: I remember generations of Tribe track and field athletes always stopping by the throws area of the track when we were training on Homecoming weekend, and that was unique. I still remember when I was just a couple of years out of college. I was living in Chicago, and Ashley and I came back for Homecoming. It was so special because the term "Homecoming," when you're in high school or a college athlete, doesn't really mean anything to you. But when we came back, it literally was like coming home. All of a sudden, you're walking through campus and floods of memories come through. You see familiar faces — professors, administrators, coaches, classmates and teammates — and it's really cool to think back on the times we had together and how that shaped us. It was unique years ago, and I'll tell you, it means even more to me now, the further removed I get from graduating.

Emma Minnick (Volleyball '23, Volleyball Assistant Coach): I remember my first year here, I think we had 40 or 50 alumni come back to our game. I'd never seen something like that before I got here, so seeing people so invested in it so many years later was special. People like Deb Hill (former head coach) are still at every single match and love on us so much. We still see her multiple times a year at her house. You can tell this place has left an impact, not only on volleyball but on William & Mary in general. Everyone who's come here decides to come back every year, support us and get to know us. They're cool people. They wanted great academics and to play at a high level, and they do a great job of supporting our girls, too, as they graduate and get into their careers.

Jarrell: It's always a fun game to play in as a player because you have the fans at the game and a lot of people here. Something for me as I got older was the opportunity to see teammates I maybe hadn't seen in three, four or five years. Now as a coach, looking back on all the guys I played with back in 2018, they're fathers now and bringing their kids back. It's really cool to reconnect with people you haven't seen in a while and see some of your best friends that you shared the field with as a player.

Brown: One of my favorite Homecoming memories is when I came back as an alum in 2014. There was a group of guys I hung around with who were really tight on the baseball team. It was the first time we'd all seen each other because we live on all corners of the U.S., and we got a chance to reconnect, bond and see how everybody was doing. It felt so good to be back. That was the first time I had come back since 2003, so Homecoming will always have a special place for me. It allows people to come back and reconnect with people they haven't seen in a while, but also to build on those relationships. The way William & Mary allows us to reconnect is significant and important in people's lives.

Julie Shackford (Women's Soccer '88, Women's Soccer Head Coach): It's all the people coming back. I have seven or eight people in my family who went to William & Mary, so I get to see them when they come back. You have all the players you played with intermingling with the current players, along with all the other athletes you spent time with. It's just a chance to kind of relive your glory years, really.

Lycan: I don't think I missed one for 10 years. I was 10 for 10 right out of William & Mary, and then I moved to Maine and don't think I went to another one for the next 20. Ironically enough, it was my 30th reunion when we came back, and it was my first volunteer season here. They all kind of run together because they're just all the same. It's the most epic weekend of fun, friends and family, and it seems like we always luck out with good weather. It's just a fabulous weekend that celebrates everything that's good about this place.

Frenia: Going to the football game with my teammates really sticks out. We had the same exact spot where we'd set up every single time and sit and watch the game. Around that time, we'd also do a lot of fundraising activities, including a bake sale in front of the Sadler Center. We'd have the bake sale set up, trying to raise money, and inevitably we'd get hungry, so occasionally some of those cookies and baked goods would get eaten. Those are places where we forged a lot of good memories and built relationships. Those things stick out, along with some of the events we'd do with alumni who graduated years before us. It's a community and a family, and that's really the biggest thing that sticks out about coming back and being part of that family.
 
Q: What does Homecoming mean to you now in your current role?

Albert: For the last 23 years, it's been fun to be involved as a development officer and see all these people come back. Some of them haven't been back in literally 50 years, and they're coming back for their big reunion. Seeing the enjoyment people get from coming back, seeing their classmates and teammates, and seeing what the campus is like now, I think that's the coolest thing for me about Homecoming.

Mike Powell (Men's Gymnastics '04, Director of Gymnastics): It's fantastic. The gymnastics program, like most of the athletic teams here, is a brotherhood or a sisterhood. They're relationships for a lifetime. To have people I got to compete with and grow with now coming back with their families and meeting my family is fantastic. Shout-out this year to the Class of 2006 that's coming back. Ramon Jackson won NCAA championships, and he'll be here to celebrate with his whole class, so I'm excited to see him again.

Kader: I view it differently now, just at a different stage in life, realizing how special this place is to so many people. When you're at the school as a student, you don't necessarily take the time to realize this place has had an impact on so many people. Look at how many people are coming back and the school spirit we have. The traditions around here are incredible, but seeing everybody excited to come back for Homecoming and seeing generations of alumni return with that same school camaraderie and pride is something pretty special.

Norris: It's great to see old friends. When we're here, I'm focused on trying to keep my guys focused on our game that weekend, and I'm trying not to answer my phone from all my former teammates who are trying to get me to go out to the delis, which I don't do anymore. Homecoming has a different feel now. I look forward to hopefully many years from now, when I'm retired, getting the opportunity to experience Homecoming in a different way.

Kelley Crisci (Women's Swimming '94, Executive Director of Athletics Advancement, Former Assistant Swimming Coach): It's amazing. When I was coaching, I told the kids they're stuck with me forever, and I want them to believe that, and I think they do. I communicate with them throughout the year. It's also amazing to see my old teammates come back when they haven't been here in 20 or 30 years. That area hasn't changed a bit. A lot around campus has, but the pool hasn't. Things that were so pivotal to all of us have stayed the same.

Heacock: After having coached here for over a decade, the most special thing is seeing these student-athletes who were once kids to me. In my mind, they're now full-fledged grownups. They have families and established careers, and they've been incredibly successful in their areas of professional expertise. That brings an incredible amount of joy and gratitude to my heart, to see them and see how they're thriving in these next phases of their lives.

Q: When you hear that this is the 100th Homecoming & Reunion Weekend and all the history that the school has, what comes to mind?

Crisci: I love that it's the 100th year of Tribe swimming as well. I think it's tradition, culture, belonging, and really, it is home and an anchor for so many of us. It's about celebrating that, because I don't feel like Homecoming is the same at a lot of other schools we've been affiliated with. But here, it truly is coming home.

Minnick: I think 100 years seems like nothing considering we have the second-oldest university in the U.S., but there's so much history here. Every time I'm in Zable or Kaplan, I think about all the people who continue to come back and coach and be a part of it, whether across campus or on the athletic side. Everyone chooses to come back, it seems like, so there's a lot of good history and a lot of good memories for everyone. People keep coming back and pouring into the next generation. That's a lot of time for people to be investing in something like this, and every year there are so many people here celebrating the university and everything we've accomplished. I think it's really cool.

Revell: I think that's pretty William & Mary — the second-oldest college in the country, so of course we'd have 100 years of Homecoming tradition. I think that's pretty special, and it folds into everything about this place. There's a lot of tradition, a lot of history, and a lot of beautiful things in the foundation that's been laid for all of us to enjoy now. I'm hopeful there's another 100 years we can enjoy.

Powell: If you think of all the lives that have been impacted, the athletic program in particular, you think about the people who have grown and gone on to do other things, then continued to support the next generation. They recognize the opportunity they had here and keep pushing it forward, wanting to share this great place and these great opportunities with others. One hundred years is a heck of a long time.

Armstrong: This is my 13th Homecoming, so I'm putting a pretty big chunk into that, which is crazy to think about. There's so much about this place that's special, and its history is one of the things at the top of that list for me. You think about the number of people who have been involved and how many have come back year after year, and how cool that tradition is. I just hope we never lose that, people wanting to come back here and be a part of this, no matter how far removed they get.

Shackford: It goes along with the history and legacy of the place. Founded in 1693, we're always in the headlines for being the first at so many different things, and we're really proud to be a part of the 100th Homecoming. We can't wait to celebrate.