What is your current job title and what does that entail?
I am a Math Teacher at George Washington High School, teaching Integrated Math 1 and IB Math. This is my first year at GW; for the previous four years, I was a 7^th grade math teacher at Hamilton Middle School. Right now school obviously looks very different so I'll speak to both. The past four years my class sizes averaged between 33-35. I had two core math classes (7^th graders taking Pre-Algebra) and one Honors class of 7^th graders taking algebra (8^th grade math material). I also had a daily 30-minute reading class/advisory. Hamilton is in southeast Denver and is a very diverse population. In each of my classes, I had several students whose home language was not English and a handful who we call our "Newcomers," meaning they moved to the US in the past 12 months and speak very little English. Hamilton is also a Title 1 school, serving students in grades 6-8. I could go on and on about how much I loved teaching at Hamilton, but the reason I switched to a high school for this year is for coaching. I was coaching five sports at Hamilton but really want to be coaching at a higher level. At Hamilton, I was also a New Teacher Ambassador (helping transition the new teachers to the building and mentor them). With my new role at George Washington, I have four classes. Two of them are primarily 9^th graders taking Integrated Math 1; one class is IB Math (grades 9-11) and I have a Community Learning class that meets every day as well. With the new online schedule, classes are 50 minutes of live instruction and then 40 minutes of individual practice immediately after.
 
How did your athletic involvement at RWU help you with your path to coaching?
I coach at Hamilton Middle School and have been for the past four years. I have coached softball for the past four years (I have some pretty funny stories from how we moved from a squad who didn't know what a glove was and wearing gloves on our dominant hands to winning the championship last year and being the best in Denver Public Schools), basketball, and floor hockey. Also just last year I picked up coaching flag football and baseball. The most accomplished I've ever felt was this past year when my softball girls won the championship for the district. In the championship game, we faced the only team we had lost to in the regular season and came back fighting. Each of the girls on the team we faced had their own gloves, bats, batting gloves, you name it. The team showed up with just about every type of softball equipment you could think of, while several of our girls were in gym shoes and borrowing the gloves I had accumulated over the years for them. It felt like a Cinderella story but we had great team chemistry and that's what prevailed in the end. Most of my coaching techniques stem from what I learned from Coach Thompson and have converted into each sport I coach. I also work outside of school with several of my basketball girls and have been for years, so now seeing them develop and watching them play in high school and keeping up with them is very rewarding.
 
My coach Kelly Thompson was a huge influence. Besides my dad as a coach when I was little, she was the only coach I had who cared about who I was off the court. After playing for her for four years, I knew I wanted to take what I learned from her into my career. In the classroom and the teams I coach, I always make it a priority to make sure each student/player knows I care and love them as more than just a person in my classroom or a kid on my team.
 
What is your most fond memory of RWU Athletics?
Our Mike's Bike trip in Germany with our basketball team. Essentially our whole basketball team (and coaching staff and parents who joined) rode bikes on a tour, stopping by some pretty cool places. We went through a nude-ish park, went to a surf spot on a river, and just got to spend some quality time outside of basketball together.
 
What would you say were your greatest athletic and academic accomplishments during your time at RWU?
Athletic – Practice player of the year for our team. Practices were always so important to me to always go 100% and knowing my teammates and coaches recognized that and saw my effort level every day.
 
Academic – The 5^th grade social studies unit I created for part of my teaching portfolio that was based on Colt State Park and the people and community of Bristol, R.I.
 
Why did you choose to attend RWU?
I knew I wanted to play basketball in college and blue was/is my favorite color, so if I was going to wear a uniform to represent my school, I wanted to also like the jersey. I knew I had to go to a school that had blue as dominant color, and it was a huge plus the school was right on the water.
 
Were you involved in any extracurricular activities outside of athletics?
I was a member of SAAC and I also spent one season on the Club Crew team.
 
What piece of advice would you have for current RWU student-athletes?
Wear a mask, make sure to vote, and soak up every bit of time with your teammates and coaches because they will become your lifelong friends/family.
 

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Are you a former RWU student-athlete interested in being part of our Alumni Profile series? If so, please contact Athletic Communication Director at nwilliams@rwu.edu for more information!