WESTFIELD, Mass. – Westfield State first-year linebacker Oliver Williams has been confirmed as the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference's representative to the NCAA's National Student Athlete Advisory Committee, a key position bringing student-athlete voices to national leadership.
Williams is the first Westfield State student to hold the national position since Kelsey Carpenter '15, an Owls field hockey and softball player.
Williams will take over the role from previous MASCAC rep Rachel Sinclair of Worcester State, whose term ended in January.
Williams will bring an interesting viewpoint to the national committee, as the Leeds, England native is one of a handful of UK Natives playing American college football.
Being part of the Westfield State Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) was an opportunity presented to him early in the fall.
"I didn't do it for the resume," he said. "I was part of school council in high school, I haven't missed a meeting yet. It's cool to give a voice to the football team. We have an outstanding athletic department, I want to give a voice to the team and represent my guys, I like being a leader in that aspect. I think I represent the team well."
Westfield State head coach Pete Kowalski thought Williams was a great choice for the national committee. "He's a wonderful, dedicated, hard-working enthusiastic player," said Westfield State head coach Pete Kowalski. "He's dependable, maybe the most dependable person we have. All the things you want in a player. He wants to achieve greatness, willing to put the effort in in the classroom, the community. We really emphasize being part of the community."
When the league reached out about any potential NCAA SAAC nominees, "Oliver was an obvious choice," said Westfield State assistant athletic director Marlee Berg-Haryasz, who coordinates the Owls SAAC. "Oliver has brought ideas that he has implemented into actions, he has shared his time representing Westfield State Athletics during campus events and he runs our Westfield State SAAC Instagram page. He's a strong communicator and incredibly organized; he's one of my go-to student-athletes. "
"Marlee said 'you should do this,' I didn't realize it was huge," said Williams. "There are 25 of us that represent all of d3 sports, I represent close 3,000 kids that do college athletics in the MASCAC. That's crazy! Even schools I don't like, like Bridgewater and Fitchburg," he laughed. "I represent them. But they're MASCAC kids and I like representing the conference. I think I represent Westfield, and Westfield represents the MASCAC really well."
The hazy information surrounding name, image, and likeness (NIL) opportunities for revenue for international student-athletes is one that Williams hopes to weigh in on during his time on the national committee.
"I'm looking forward to giving my voice an outside, international perspective," he said. "There's some issues that I want to address, one particularly that international students don't have the same NIL opportunities. I know I'm not going to get NIL, but there are kids that are playing D1 sports who can't get the same NIL, and I think that's an outrage. I want to voice that. I'm really glad there are NIL opportunities - but it's not justice for all it's not equality until we have equity. It's a deeper issue, it's a governmental issue as well for international students. And international recruiting is something that [college] sports is going to have to do. … I'm confident in the next 10 years you'll see a British or a German player go in the first round of the NFL draft and if you ask, 'what did he get for NIL,' the answer would be nothing, and that wouldn't be fair."
[Editor's note: NIL opportunities for international student athletes are tied to both employment regulations for international students and their visas, and to the NCAA policies, regarding active and passive NIL revenues.]
How does an American football player from Leeds, England, find himself at Westfield State ?
"I got a football offer here," said Williams. "I had interest from other schools, but Westfield was the only one that gave me an offer."
Williams came for a visit in the summer with his family, after communicating with Owls assistant coach Ken Melanson.
"Certainly a unique situation," said coach Kowalski. "Obviously a young man looking to take the leap of faith to come to Westfield State 'across the pond' was a very unique situation. Not everyone could handle that situation."
Williams said he considered several schools in the northeast, based on geography, football, and his major.
"Communications, public relations concentration, I love all the professors there," said Williams, who is interested in a career working for a professional or collegiate team. "Westfield felt right to me and that's only been confirmed since I got here. I love it here It's everything I ever would have wanted in a school."
"Coming from so far away, you're nervous you're anxious, but I think within the first two weeks I realized this is where I'm going to spend my next four years."
Williams got interested in the American game with an impression from his father, who became a fan when the NFL began being televised in Europe in the 1980s.
"He was a huge Bears fan," said Oliver. "Eventually I got into it alongside him. My dad is a huge American sports fan, when I was 11 he bought me Madden 17, the one with Gronk on the cover, I slowly began to play."
As a youngster, Williams originally played rugby, gradually advancing through the ranks.
"I kept playing for the love of the game, represented my school, … [but ultimately] chose American football. Rugby on Saturdays and American football on Sundays. I played for the Yorkshire (Leeds) Assassins, I'm a proud alumni of them. They have a coach who was affiliated with the Jacksonville Jaguars."
Most youth sport in England is conducted through club programs, rather than affiliated directly with high schools, as in the United States.
Williams could be considered a football junkie. His introduction to the game and path to collegiate football may be unusual, but also reflects a 21st century reality about learning pathways.
Before he arrived at Westfield, "I'd played one game of 11 v 11 football," said Williams. "We played 5v5 until I was 16 and a lot of 9v9 and 7v7. It was a big learning curve but I played Madden a lot. When it's football season, I'll watch every game. I'm a Texans fan, I got involved in it, I consume it a lot. I don't really listen to music - I listen to podcasts about football."
"I really noticed he didn't have to adapt," said coach Kowalski. "He loved football, wanted to play. We explained to him our requirements as a program, and he was all in, that's what he wanted. From what I see he's thriving here."
Williams said that the everyday routine of preseason training camp was the biggest difference from playing in England.
"The intensity of training – we used to practice once a week for two hours," he said. "Practicing every day during preseason camp was a big change, not something I was used to. It helped me get involved."
The Westfield State Experience
Williams played in all 10 games this season, and was a regular part of the Owls' special teams on kickoff coverage and later in the season on the kickoff return squad, after missing a couple of weeks during the preseason due to injury protocols.
"As an incoming player, we give everybody an opportunity to be involved," said Kowalski. "If a player is invited to camp, you're part of the team. I can get you a seat on the bus, a spot on the sideline. It's up to you to show the coaches that you deserve to be on the field. Oliver through his hustle and his attitude, he picked up things very quickly, and established himself as an outstanding special teams player for us."
"Certainly he's been accepted by the team," said Kowalski. "I usually have Friday meetings with the freshmen, and I came in and he was giving a geography lesson about the island of England and it's supporting states, and where London and Leeds were, so that's pretty cool."
"I love the coaches and the people who work in the department here," said Williams. "I was never as much a part of a team as now, living and breathing the team is a new thing. All my close boys are football players. I'm living with five football players next year. It's like a family almost."
"People know when you aren't doing your work, we help each other out, and Westfield State really gives us structure and support and making sure we do well with our grades and it's a really good community we have."
"I sit next to an offensive lineman in math, a defensive lineman in politics; I go to the library with two quarterbacks and a receiver," said Williams. "They're guys I'll be here with for three more years, they're guys who'll be in my wedding, that I wish happy birthday to when we're 35 … These are the dudes I'll be with for the rest of my life as my friends. It's really nice having this kind of a community. While I go up against them in camp as competitors, I also have a respect and a friendship with them that is a bond that will last forever, really."