caption: HEADING NORTH: Tim Williams makes a point in action last winter as the boys’ basketball head coach at the Louisville Collegiate School. After spending his life in the south, Williams has headed north to serve as the new Athletic Director at Princeton Day School.

Breaking Away From Southern Comfort Zone, Williams Takes Helm as PDS Athletic Director

Bill Alden

Tim Williams hasn’t fully decorated his office yet as he gets settled in as the new Athletic Director (AD) at Princeton Day School but there is no doubt about his roots.

While there are boxes to be unpacked, there is a University of North Carolina baseball jersey already on the wall along with an etching of UNC and a framed clipping of Williams in action on the sidelines during a big victory in the Kentucky high school basketball tournament.

For the first 42 years of his life, Williams has essentially hop-scotched across the south.

Born in Johnson City, Tenn., Williams went to Millsaps College in Mississippi before transferring to UNC-Chapel Hill.

After graduating from UNC, Williams got a graduate degree from North Carolina-Greensboro in exercise and sports science. Williams stayed in town to teach and coach at Greensboro Day School.

He then headed to Richmond,Va. to the Collegiate School, where he taught physical education, coached basketball and baseball, and served as assistant athletic director.

Williams then moved back to his native Tennessee where he directed the operations of the student center at the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga to hone his administrative skills.

Missing the prep school environment, Williams left Tennessee for Kentucky to become athletic director and head basketball coach at the Louisville Collegiate School.

After a successful nine-year tenure there, Williams decided to break out of his southern comfort zone and accepted the job as athletic director at PDS.

Williams sees the move north as an adventure for him and his wife Kristin, and children Betsy (age 9), Benjamin (7), and Bailey (3).

“I think it was time to try to make a step; this is an incredible school with a great reputation,” said Williams in his southern drawl.

“It is familiar back for us back in Louisville, we could have stayed there and kept doing the same thing. Would we grow quite as much? No. Once you get into this, it is really good.”

It didn’t take long in the search process for Williams to develop a good feeling about PDS and its approach.

“I had been contacted by a few jobs and we came up here first, I was very impressed by the way the school went about the search,” said Williams.

“It was very efficient. They knew what they wanted and went after it. I appreciated that because I think sometimes in the south, people can be wishy-washy.”

There has been nothing wishy-washy about Williams’ love of sports. “My dad got us all involved early,” said Williams who has a younger brother and notes that both of his parents worked at East Tennessee State.

“I would say I was probably six or seven; I was playing flag football and basketball and T-ball and it just kind of went from there.”

After playing basketball and baseball at University High in Johnson City, Williams went to Millsaps College in Jackson, Miss. where he continued to play both sports. Looking to get closer to home, Williams transferred to UNC and had a stint as an outfielder for the school’s storied baseball program.

Graduating with a degree in psychology, Williams originally planned to build a career in that field.

“I worked in the mental health industry for little over a year before I decided I wanted to go back to school,” said Williams.

“I went to UNC-G to get a masters degree in exercise science but sports psychology was what it was in. I was either going to become a sports psychologist or get into coaching.”

Williams ended up pursuing the latter path, getting a job with Greensboro Day School, where he coached basketball, lacrosse, volleyball, and soccer.

“It was a really strong independent school,” recalled Williams. “I was the JV basketball coach and then the AD said what else would you like to do. They had me doing everything; it was great. That was what whet my appetite for independent schools because I hadn’t had much affiliation with them up to that point. I just really fell in love with the whole atmosphere and decided that was what I wanted to do.”

Acting on that new-found passion, Williams went to the Collegiate School in Richmond where he supplemented coaching by getting his first taste of athletic administration.

“They let me start doing some stuff for the middle school and start doing some scheduling,” recalled Williams. “I was helping them out where I could when my schedule permitted; that kind of started me on the path to be an athletic director.”

After moving from Richmond to Tennessee where he ran the student center at UT-Chattanooga, Williams was ready to get back on the athletic director path and jumped at the chance to be the AD and head basketball coach at the Louisville Collegiate School.

“When I first started there, we were known as a field hockey school,” said Williams.

“It was thought of as a girls school because it had been an all girls school for a long while. They had had boys there for probably 15 years but the upper school was still pretty lean on boys. Louisville was a pretty competitive market for students and we got branded as a girls’ school that had some boys there too. Trying to elevate our boys athletic program to reach the heights that our girls had reached in field hockey was really a major challenge.”

Under Williams’ guidance, the program was able to meet that challenge. “We upgraded some of our facilities and hired some good coaches on the staff that helped bring up the level of competition,” added Williams.

“The last two years I was there, our boys and girls cross country teams both won their region. Our boys soccer won the regional. We brought in lacrosse about six years ago for boys and girls and our girls ended up winning a state championship in that time.”

Closest to Williams’ heart was the progress made by the boys’ hoops squad.

“Basketball-wise, we started out with 11 guys total in the program, there was no JV, no nothing else,” said Williams.

“By the time I left, we had 28-30 kids with full varsity, JV, and freshmen teams. I think in four of the last five years I was there, we won 15 games which I thought was incredible.”

In Williams’ view, he experienced some incredible growth as an administrator during his tenure at Louisville Collegiate.

“We had to insert a lot of processes that weren’t in place,” said Williams.

“It was my first job as AD and I didn’t do everything right. We were learning as we went; it was truly ground level. I feel like I know athletic directing from the inside out because I literally had done every job, from selling popcorn, doing game admissions, cleaning the restrooms, mopping the gym floor, to announcing games.”

As Williams takes the helm at PDS, he will be applying that hard-earned knowledge.

“I think getting to know the area, getting to know the other ADs and the other schools is important,” said Williams, reflecting on early challenges he faces in following previous AD John Levandowski and Scott Bertoli, who served as interim athletic director last school year during the search for Levandowski’s successor.

“I want to have a chance to evaluate our programs, our coaches and our facilities. There are some immediate things that need some touching up, like our website. I think we can do that, enhancing some of the communications.”

While Williams will put his stamp on things, he doesn’t see any need for wholesale change.

“I think that we have a very strong foundation here,” asserted Williams. “The traditions here are strong and people want to see a lot of those continue and I am not one that is going to be like ‘I am here now, this is the Williams era and this is how we are going to change this tradition or change that tradition.’ I want the school and the institution to be the one that is out in the forefront, not Tim Williams. It is about the school, not me.”

PDS has given Williams a positive reception so far. “The people here at school have been unbelievable,” said Williams. “We have probably done more going out and hanging out with families in last two and a half weeks since we have been here than we had in the last couple of months.”

As an example of the collegiality he has already found at PDS, Williams points to junior Panther basketball star Davon Reed.

“Davon is as involved in the all the other aspects of the school as any other kid,” said Williams.

“I saw him working summer camps, playing ultimate frisbee with the little kids. I talked to Davon yesterday about the classes he is taking in the fall. He talked about how comfortable he is with his teachers; he said they want you to go up and ask them things. They know that they are pushing you at a hard rate and you are going to have questions. This is what really sold me about independent schools, the community rallies around you.”

Although Williams and his family have only been north for a few weeks, they are already enjoying the Princeton community.

“In my opinion, it is the best of both worlds,” said Williams. “I grew up in a small town and Princeton is a small town but it is nestled in between some gigantic places. My wife, being a city girl, can have her city fix as well. I am excited for the possibilities and the things I know are in store here.”

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