Photo courtesy of Georgia Lord
WILLIAMSTOWN, MASS. – Four Williams College graduates will be coaching or competing in the summer Olympic Games in Tokyo, which is pretty remarkable for a small NCAA DIII school.
Will Hardy '10 who played basketball for the Ephs and has spent eleven years in the San Antonio Spurs organization working his way up to bench coach is on the USA Basketball Staff. Will went directly to the Spurs after graduation and he has interviewed a few times for head coaching jobs in the NBA. Most recently he left the Spurs to become an assistant coach with the
Boston Celtics.
Joey 'Lye '09 will play for Team Canada Softball. Joey was a standout ice hockey and softball player for the Ephs. Joey was the last cut from the 2009 Team Canada tryouts, but she worked her heart out while serving as an assistant ice hockey and softball coach at Williams and has been on the team since 2010. She resigned her position as head coach of softball at NCAA DI Bucknell University this spring to chase her
Olympic dream.
Tala Abujbara '14 who hails from Qatar picked up rowing at Williams and will now make history as the first woman to row for Qatar. Abujbara will compete in the single scull competition.
Watch Inside Qatar video on Tala here.
Kristi Kirshe '17 a 2-time soccer All-American for the Ephs will play for the USA Women's Sevens Rugby team. Kristi owns both the Eph single season (18) and career (43) goal scoring records. She picked up rugby after graduating from Williams. Last summer she was named to the 7-member World Team !
Tara Sullivan of the Boston Globe wrote about her in 2019.
WBUR in Boston interviewed Kristi in February of 2020. Kristi credits her Pop Warner Football background with helping her succeed in rugby.
AND THERE"S MORE…
Eph senior women's soccer captain Georgia Lord (Manchester, Vt.) who has worked two academic years in Eph Sports Information as well as completing a summer session is already in Tokyo working for NBC Sports. Georgia participated in a Winter Study opportunity (month of January) at NBC Sports in Stamford, Conn. her junior year. She left for Tokyo on July 4 and she is working in the NBC Sports headquarters.
Lord will return to campus in the fall for her final soccer season. Georgia was interviewed recently on Vermont Public Radio.
Dr. Kristine Karlson '85 a former Eph rower and world champion sculler in lightweight single and doubles sculls and who rowed in the USA quad scull in the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona is a Team Doctor for USA Rowing. Dr. Karlson is not traveling to Tokyo for the Summer Games, but she was with the USA Rowing Team at the final qualifying races held recently in Lucerne, Switzerland. She is currently on staff at Dartmouth Hitchcock Hospital in Lebanon, N.H.
