WILLPOWER: Will Doran powers past a foe in a game this spring for the Williams College men’s lacrosse team. Former Princeton High standout Doran produced a superb senior season for Williams, leading the team in points (66), goals (44), and assists (22). Doran’s heroics helped the Ephs go 8-10 and advance to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Division III tournament. (Photo by Maya Singh, provided courtesy of Williams Athletics)
By Bill Alden
Will Doran was determined to make the most out of his senior season this spring for the Williams College men’s lacrosse team.
“There is a sense of confidence that comes with your final year, knowing that you are the oldest guy out there and the most experienced in a lot of senses,” said former Princeton High standout Doran. “I think that it was sort of playing free as a senior; feeling a little bit more ownership for the team’s success and the outcome of those games.”
Doran brought an extra feeling of ownership into his final campaign, serving in his second season as a team captain.
“There is no bigger honor; looking back on the lacrosse career, that is one of the things that I am most proud of getting to be the captain of that team for the two years,” said Doran. “From the second I stepped on campus, our coach up at Williams, coach [George] McCormick, his big emphasis for us is be a great teammate,” said Doran. “I think the leadership style for me is not anything dramatic in terms of how I acted but just understanding that the best leaders are the best teammates and the best followers.”
The spring, star attacker Doran proved to be a great teammate, leading Williams in points (66), goals (44) and assists (22). Doran’s heroics helped the Ephs go 8-10 and advance to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Division III tournament.
“I definitely made progress each year,” said the 6’1, 187-pound Doran, who went from 12 points (7 goals, 5 assists) as a freshman to 38 (20 goals, 18 assists) as a sophomore and 47 (18 goals, 29 assists) as a junior. “That has been the goal through the entire lacrosse journey. Obviously acknowledging that success, especially in terms of concrete stats, is not always linear. I was fortunate enough to see improvement from year to year.”
The Ephs got their year off to a good start as they went 3-1 in their first four games.
“It felt super optimistic, we were a super talented team this year,” said Doran, who totaled 11 goals and four goals in that stretch.
In late March, Williams earned a signature win as it topped perennial Division III powerhouse and No. 5 Salisbury 14-10.
“That is definitely a hallmark win of this year and a hallmark win of my career,” said Doran, who tallied four goals and one assist against the Gulls. “We always feel like as a result of our NESCAC (New England Small College Athletic Conference) conference being as tough as it is, the record doesn’t necessarily reflect how good of a team we are. That win was a huge confidence booster from top to bottom, from the coaching staff to the last guy on the bench. I think back to that game so, so fondly. Salisbury is an unbelievable program. That game for me will go down as something I will never forget. I think a lot of that comes from our coach reminding everyone on the team that we belong on the field with these guys. No one has outworked us in the weight room, no one has outworked us in the practice field.”
The Ephs, though, lost five of their next six games, including three one-goal defeats.
“One of the hardest challenges as a leader is to see probably five times this year we fell short in one or two goals games,” said Doran. “It is hard to remain confident through things like that. It was just the messaging to say stay in this process. You have to recognize how hard it is, how special the focus needs to be, how special the effort needs to be to stay mentally locked in to win games in our league.”
Ending the regular season on a high note, Williams edged Middlebury 8-7 with Doran scoring four goals, including the game-tying goals with 1:18 left in the fourth quarter. That win helped the Ephs earn an at-large bid to the NCAA Division III tournament.
For Doran and his teammates, getting off the bubble to make the program’s third appearance in the NCAA tournament in the last four years was a validation of
the effort they put in over the year.
“We definitely were sweating it,” said Doran. “It meant everything. People on the outside would call it delusional in terms of our record. Because we saw the inputs every single day, there was never a doubt in our minds of how good the team could be. It was like OK, we get a shot at winning a national championship. It was one of our goals at the beginning of the season every year regardless of what other people think of our team.”
The Ephs edged St. John Fisher 6-5 in the second round of the NCAA tournament to advance to the Sweet 16 where they fell 14-10 to NESCAC rival Wesleyan.
While that loss stung, Doran was proud of what the team accomplished this spring.
“We were the second team in program history to win a game in the NCAA tournament and make a Sweet 16,” said Doran. “It meant so much to get another shot at Wesleyan. They beat us the first time on our Senior Day at home with all of our alumni there. That was not how I wanted to go out.”
Doran’s experience with the program will impact him as he goes into life after college.
“I think bigger than actually lacrosse for me was what the coach harped on from the second I was committed to Williams to the second I walked out of the door from our last team meeting about just being a great teammate,” said Doran, who is working as a research assistant at the Hospital of Special Surgery in New York City and is planning to go to medical school. “That is really what encompasses my time on the team, shaping that understanding of what it means to be a great teammate and a selfless teammate. There are life lessons to be learned in terms of being a great teammate in life.”
Over the years, Doran learned some important life lessons from Will Erickson, who he played with at PHS and Williams. Defender Erickson, who was a co-captain for Ephs, was sidelined this season due to injury but that didn’t stop him from having a major influence on the squad.
“He was such a large contributor to my experience; he played such a massive role in my life the past four years as a friend and a teammate,” said Doran. “He really left his impact on the Williams program as a leader even when he couldn’t play. He was the first to show up when he could play and the last to leave and none of that changed when he couldn’t play because of injury. That is much harder to do than to show up and play.”
Doran’s contributions this spring were recognized as he earned second-team All-NESCAC honors and was named as a third-team New England Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (NEILA) Division III All-New England selection.
“It is something I am very proud of, my lacrosse career was definitely not linear,” said Doran of those honors. “There were points where I was cut from teams or the last guy in the bench on teams. So to be able in my senior season to have achieved something like that was really good. But to be honest, it says more about my teammates and my coaches and their trust and confidence in me than it says anything about what I was able to do. It was that belief and being surrounded by a great locker room.”
For Doran, the ups and downs of his college career are leaving him with some great memories.
“The things that I will remember are those locker room talks after one-goal losses; those tough practices where you can’t feel your fingers in the freezing winter,” said Doran. “It is moments like that I am going to remember forever. I am also super, super grateful for those Salisbury wins and those Middlebury wins. They are obviously
all great.”