For Williams, Success is a Family Affair
10/3/2006 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
For Tamara Williams, the University of Alabama always had a nice ring to it.
A championship ring, that is??her father’s, from Alabama’s 1980 track team.
“I knew that he ran, and they had an SEC Championship when he was down here, so I knew he was pretty decent as far as his career goes around here,” Williams said. “I don’t know if he was one of the ??stars’ as far as his career, but I know they got an SEC Championship and rings and shirts and stuff like that.”
Williams’ father, Gregory Williams, ran the 400m at the Capstone, where he met her mother Donna and was a part of Alabama’s last track SEC Championship, which featured 11 individual SEC Champions.
Seeing her father’s championship success, however, didn’t immediately sway Williams’ college decision. As a high school basketball player, it wasn’t until she played in a tournament in Georgia that she caught current Tide coach Stephany Smith’s eye.
“We talked about it enough that I knew about the tradition of the school, and we came down to a couple of track meets when I was younger, and football games of course, but I didn’t really know that much about it,” she said.
“I was definitely considering other schools. [Coach Smith] wasn’t really recruiting me at Middle Tennessee, and when she came here, I kind of was interested in Alabama. I didn’t even think that I would be coming here until I introduced myself to Coach Smith and she started looking at me then. [Former Alabama Coach] Rick Moody was recruiting me, but I was definitely looking at other schools. After I got offered a scholarship here I knew this was where I wanted to come.”
At Thompson, Williams averaged almost 13 points and over 7 rebounds per game, leading the Warriors to a 25-9 record. She was selected to participate in the 2006 Alabama-Mississippi All-Star Classic and led Thompson to an area championship and two Shelby County Championships in her high school career.
The connections to Alabama and any pressure to commit to the Tide didn’t come just from home, however; her coach at Thompson, Cara Crasslin, was a player on Alabama’s 1994 Women’s Final Four team.
“She knew about the tradition because she played in the Final Four, so she knows all about the hard work and what it takes to compete at this level,” Williams said. “So I definitely give her some credit for that.”
At Alabama, Williams is one of the six freshmen that comprise half of the Tide’s women’s basketball roster. With the recruiting process behind her, she knows now that the focus must shift to repeating her high school success on the SEC level.
“I love all my teammates. As far as the freshmen coming in, we have to really step up this year because we’re already on the team, but I think we’re all ready for the challenge because we came in working hard as soon as we got here since summer began,” she said.
“I’m excited to come in and learn different things, because we’re obviously young, to bring some new things, a little bit of competition for other teams. The returnees have shown us about what the offense is all about and what the team is all about, and it’s really like a family-oriented team, so I really enjoy that a lot.”
As for being ready to see her own championship ring?
“Of course,” she said. “Not only SEC, I’d like a national championship??it’s the ultimate goal.”
