His final season on the Middlebury College men’s lacrosse team was his best.
As a senior captain, Cal Williams helped propel the Panthers (13-6) into the second round of the NCAA Division 3 tournament while earning first-team All-New England Small College Athletic Conference, All-New England, and All-Academic New England honors.
A 6-foot, 190-pound defender, the Wayland High graduate led Middlebury with 27 caused turnovers and was second with 88 ground balls, while chipping in with a goal and four assists.
In his first full season as a starter last spring, he accounted for 41 ground balls and 13 caused turnovers.
“Cal’s passion for the game became increasingly evident his junior and senior seasons and he’s a player whose stick skills, speed, and strength were at a Division 1 level,’’ said Middlebury’s head coach, Dave Campbell. “Because of his great stick and hard shot, we encouraged him to run the field and our guys trusted him. He was disruptive on defense and our best wing player.’’
An environmental management major who spent the fall semester of his junior year taking liberal arts courses at Charles University in Prague, the 21-year-0ld Williams has been nominated by Campbell for Middlebury’s senior male athlete academic award.
At Wayland High, Williams captained the football and lacrosse teams, and was a Dual County League all-star in both sports.
His father, Russell, was football captain at Trinity College, his older brother, Ryan, was a multisport athlete at the Middlesex School in Concord and his younger brother, Roby, who attends the University of Virginia, was a three-sport standout at Wayland High.
Q. Talk about growing up in a family of athletes.
A. There was never a question of finding someone to play ball with and enjoying some competition. We have very close relationships and our parents have always been supportive. They came to every one of my games this year and I couldn’t have asked for more.
Marvin Pave can be reached at marvin.pave@rcn.com.