Beyond the Court: Maria Williamson and the Evolution of Women's Basketball

Playing and coaching the game of basketball was a no-brainer for Maria Williamson. As I sit across from my new head coach in her new office here at Trinity College, I begin to unpack that to her, this game is way more than just putting an orange ball into an orange circle. And the shift we’ve seen and experienced as a society surrounding the women’s game, Williamson has been at the forefront of in multiple capacities as a player, coach, and lifelong fan. 

Coach Williamson grew up in the basketball family of all basketball families. Even while growing up in a small New England state like New Hampshire, she was surrounded by basketball. Her family wasn’t just filled with fans and players but also coaches. When I asked about that dynamic, she mentioned her grandfather, who “started the coaching tree” for the family. Born in 1913, in a time when thinking the right way to shoot was underhanded. But even though his thoughts on the game and how it’s played may have been different, his book “Principles of Coaching” and all the ideals within still reside on her desk to this day. 

She also has uncles, aunts, and other family members who are coaches. She mentions her parents, who bought Celtics season tickets “from the minute they started dating,” and all her siblings, who also participated in and loved the game of basketball. There was seemingly no way for Williamson to get out of this lifestyle, even if she tried. So she embraced it. 

As a sociology major, a lot of my curriculum, in short, is focused on how social interactions, location, and other people affect who we are and who we become as a person in society. Funny enough, Williamson also happened to be a sociology major in college, so I would think she would agree with me when thinking about how all these factors influenced her relationship with the game of basketball and ultimately impacted the trajectory of basically the rest of her life. 

Williamson graduated from Bowdoin College in 2009, where she not only played but also helped the Polar Bears to three NESCAC Championships and four NCAA Division 3 Women's Basketball National Championship Tournament appearances. She praised Bowdoin and the community that respected the balance of athletics and academics. She acknowledged that maintaining that balance wasn’t always easy but she felt it played a crucial role in her success.

A week after being handed her diploma, she packed up her Honda Civic and hit the road for Annapolis, Maryland. There, she joined her previous head coach from Bowdoin at the Naval Academy as an assistant coach. An instant leap into a Division 1 assistant after just receiving an undergraduate degree highlights her impressiveness among other things. But that was just the beginning for Williamson as a new and developing coach and as a young adult.  

From the jump, Williamson was thrown into this new world. She mentions the transition from Bowdoin, a place where people could find ways to be themselves, to the Naval Academy, where that openness and comfort weren’t necessarily the case due to the culture of the school and the US military. Especially at a time when the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy was still present but would later be repealed during her time there. Throwing Williams into this whole new community introduced her to the idea that “no matter where you coach, you have to keep adapting yourself to those people.” Transitioning from a player to a coach and understanding that it isn’t just about you individually anymore. 

Four years later, through connections, Williamson returned to New England, in her home state, as an assistant coach at Dartmouth. A more freeing and comfortable community, and a change she wanted to make for herself. She would later move to the Midwest and end up as an assistant for Loyola Chicago. Her first “true Division 1” experience taught her a lot as a coach and a person. Ultimately, bringing her to become the head coach at the Division 3 school, UChicago. All through connections and experiences she gained and learned throughout her years as a player and a young coach. 

Williamson was hired at UChicago during the COVID-19 pandemic. It was not as smooth a transition as anyone would have liked. She had to work within the parameters given to her and continue to learn and grow on the fly, gaining a lot from that experience during a difficult time in our world. 

Williamson was happy at UChicago, but she knew she had always wanted to return to the NESCAC. Trinity was always around the top of the list. Through knowing people working within the program and friends who are Trinity alums, she had always been drawn to the community, the new buy-in to athletic growth and achievement, and the culture at Trinity College. Ultimately leading to her heading back east and sitting in front of me in Ferris Athletic Center. 

Part of Williamson’s journey to Trinity involved her family. She met her wife, Erica, who was also in college coaching, through a mutual friend. As you never know where coaching will take you, they did long-distance coaching for a couple of years. They married in 2019 and had their beautiful son Cooper in 2023. Who just turned one, is now adjusting, as Williamson says, “to growing up in a sports family” like Williamson and her wife Erica. 

Throughout the years Williamson has spent involved in basketball, whether as a player or coach, she acknowledges this new shift in the game. And the growth of women in the game, as well as the role femininity has played in that shift. She mentions the formation of the WNBA at a crucial time in her childhood. She bought all the books, the jerseys, and brought up that this league became “ the center of my world.” And even though it wasn’t as well-known or popular yet, it was still “the coolest thing ever” to her as a young female basketball player. 

Basketball continued to be “the center of [her] world” as a college player and now as a coach, but in a different aspect. She remembers, as a young adult and coach, questioning why no one was at these WNBA games or why no one was watching. All these amazing stars are playing in one league, why weren’t other people interested? Why weren’t other people as invested as her? And Williamson continued to feel stuck in the “why” for a long time. But she wasn’t the only one contemplating these questions and wanting answers.

As inequalities and injustices in areas like airtime, audience engagement, equipment, and treatment began receiving more attention—particularly during the COVID-19 NBA/WNBA Bubble—female athletes and coaches started speaking out. "That," Williamson says, "was really the big difference." Helping highlight these issues and helping create a shift in the game of women’s basketball for the better. This ties into not only the growth of the women’s game but also the growth of our digital world. And how those have gone hand in hand. “The WNBA forced their hand in the bubble for people to listen to them,” through these athletes being able to use social media as their platforms to find ways to grow the media attention on these issues and grow their audience. 

The pandemic was a huge part of the shift, but women also had the confidence and vulnerability to speak out about these issues. That truly helped create a larger shift in how we see women’s basketball and media representation today and how it’s continuing to grow. Seeing the development of these women's sports media companies and their branding. Williamson mentions TOGETHXR, created by four women professional athletes who have grown and helped change the attention of women’s sports for the better. Not just from a media perspective but also in helping create a narrative as she mentions, “that made it okay to be whoever you were (or are) as women.” That there is no one way to be a woman in the sports world, whether as a player, coach, fan, or anywhere in between. Helping grow the game of women’s basketball from every facet, from children's leagues to the big league. As a former player, now coach, and a lifelong fan, Williamson continues to be a living part of this transformation occurring today.

But it doesn’t end there. Williamson and I can talk about our frustrations, and we can see these female athletes continuing to use their voices and platforms to advocate for women’s sports and media representation, but Williamson brings up a good point near the end of our conversation. Stating, “I do think we are at the point where we are trying to figure out what our expectations are.” For the media, for representation, for these issues that are now being acknowledged as problems. Also, with these new female athletes taking the game by storm. What does this new sphere look like? These women’s basketball fans “are not just the die-hard, twelve-year-old, bowl-cut Maria,” it’s everyday, regular people now too. 

Williamson and I reflect that we aren’t 100% sure what these expectations should be or what this new sphere will look like. However, what is important is that it’s being talked about and it’s being acknowledged. We aren’t shying away from representing women in the media. Sure, we have a long way to go to reach the equality that it deserves. Even within a male-dominated world and industry, Williamson spotlights that “being who you are and being impassionate about it” is honestly what’s going to change the industry. 

And this shift isn’t dwindling, not when there are people like Maria Williamson in the world.