Williamson Taking It One Step At A Time

William Penn Women’s Basketball Head Coach Steve Williamson.

Oskaloosa, Iowa – The echoes from the #18 William Penn Women’s game defeating #6 Mid-American Nazarene, the echo’s of victory had started to be drowned out in Penn Gymnasium as them men started to warm up. Those echoes were making their way into Heart of America conference gyms around the midwest.

William Penn had just served notice they intended to win the conference, something not done in decades. The Statesmen own a 21-2 record overall, with a conference record of 16-2.

William Penn Women’s Basketball Head Coach Steve Williamson was obvoiusly pleased with the effort his team had given during the matchup on Saturday.

Oskaloosa News asked Williamson what was going through his mind as his team struggled to find itself in that first quarter.

“You know we got off to a bad start, terrible start to the game, but I know that this has kinda been our MO. We don’t get off to the best start it seems like. I hate it as a coach, but I believe in our girls. I knew that we had the fight in them. They wanted this bad, you could tell. The way they practiced, and the way they talked before the game. We weren’t going to give up after the first 5 minutes. They’re [Mid-America Nazarene] a really good team.”

Williamson didn’t call a time out when his team was down initially. Penn battled back, and got within one point of the visitors, causing Mid-American to call a timeout. Williamson had resisted calling the timeout initially, saying he understands the game is going to have runs, where teams battle back and forth. “You’ve got to sustain a run,” Williamson said. “It was emotional, but at the same time, once we got going it was a lot of fun to watch.”

On letting his team find themselves early on, Williamson added, “You’ve got to have some fight and trust in your team. You show your team that you’re confident that they can overcome adversity like that. It says a lot. It means that you believe in them, and so, I think sometimes coaches are too quick to call that early time out. I just want to see us. I want to see us keep battling, keep playing hard and do some good things, and overcome adversity by ourselves. There was nothing I was going to tell them that was going to change things. It’s time for them to step up and play, and they did that.”

Overcoming adversity has been a hallmark of this team, and even though they hold the best record in the tough Heart of America Conference, the William Penn University Women’s Basketball team has been shown little respect from the decision makers that vote in the rankings.

“It frustrates me as a coach. I think our kids have worked their butts off and they deserve to be ranked,” said Williamson of the #18 spot the team currently holds. “We don’t talk a lot about it as a team. In the back of my mind I’m thinking about it. What do we got to do to get recognized? I mean we’re beating good teams. We beat ranked teams all year, and we’re in one the best conferences of women’s basketball. If it wasn’t William Penn that was twenty-one and two right now, if it were someone else, they’d be in the top three. It’s just a lack of respect, and for us to get that respect we gotta keep winning, and then we get to the national tournament and prove that we deserve to be there and win games out there like the men’s team has done.”

Williamson says that his first goal right now is to win the conference title. “We haven’t done that here since 1988 I believe it is, so my focus is on what we got to do to win the conference, and then, if we win the conference, we’re going to nationals. So that’s the first step. But you know I want to see our kids get the recognition they deserve. They might not be the most talented or most athletic, but I’d put our group up against anyone when it comes to effort.”

Williamson is in his second year at the helm of the women’s program, and guided the team to a national tournament appearance last year. He and the team did that with not knowing each other. The players came to William Penn to play for a different coach, and Williamson and the team found a way to gel, and get even better.

He’s made some changes along the way, such as Vashti Nwagbaraocha. “We made her a different type of player than what she was before I got here. Giving Kate Ylitalo an opportunity to show what she can do, and she’s a great shooter. Jenna Santi wasn’t even part of it. Having her on the varsity, again that’s a kid that doesn’t, you look at stats, why’d you play her, but that kid is a winner. And so, having those kids buy into what we want to build, and our recruits seeing what we’re trying to build, it helps a lot. It’s just that they’re building the foundation for what we want our program to be in the next 10, 15, 20 years down the road.”

As the team drives into the post season, Williamson wants to see more people step up off the bench. “Autumn Voight came in and played some big minutes for us today, and Niaja Taylor, Mackenzie Pezley came off the bench. We’ve got to develop a little more depth, but I love the fight.”

When watching the game, William Penn players are scrapping for every loose ball, with bodies often ending up on the floor. Williamson said you see those players after the game with ice bags all over. “That shows you a sign of a champion, because if it was easy everybody would do it. If it was just going out there just playing, and it was easy, everybody would be a champion and champions are uncommon, and the way we play is uncommon, and that’s what we want,”