When freshman water polo player Mollie Williams arrived in Bloomington from Australia in early January, she faced a whirlwind of transitions.
As an international student, she had to adapt to life in Bloomington, and as a new collegiate athlete, she was introduced to a higher level of competition and time commitment. After just two short weeks of dealing with all those changes, Williams was thrust into her first collegiate game as an attacker and scored two goals in a win against Cal State Bakersfield.
Williams has been crucial to No. 14 IU’s success in the pool this season. She’s scored 11 goals in nine games and added four assists and four steals to her season total. IU Coach Ryan Castle said her preparation before coming to IU and starting the season has been key.
“Mollie always asks questions, and even if she’s not in the pool, she still watches practice and is always improving,” Castle said.
Williams said her whole recruitment process felt pretty quick.
“I committed in mid-November, so I literally called my mom up and told her the news,” Castle said. “They were really happy that this opportunity came up for me, so they were excited that I could keep playing at the college level.”
Williams said it was an easy choice to come to IU. The other school she considered was Arizona State, but Williams said Castle and his assistant Emily Carr were the deciding factor when she chose to play in Bloomington.
Williams said she felt like she could connect with Carr because they both hail from Australia, and Carr used to play for Williams’ old club team back home.
One of the biggest surprises upon Williams’ arrival was the difference in the weather and culture. She said her best experience so far has been the training and bonding with her teammates.
“I’ve never seen snow before I came here, so that was really cool,” Williams said. “Everything that we’ve done as a team and training has been such a good experience.”
As far as friends go, Williams said she likes to hang out with other international players on the team because she said she feels like they are going through the same experiences. In particular, Williams said junior goalie Jessica Gaudreault and junior defender Kelly Matthews, both from Canada, have helped her adjust.
In team locker rooms, players sometimes get hyped and jam out to music with other teammates. Though being an international student sometimes can make it hard if the player doesn’t know the music that the rest of the team is listening to, Williams said her taste in music is similar to that of the rest of the team.
“I like Eminem, I can rap,” Williams, said, laughing. “When we play music in the locker room I’ll rap with the rest of the girls. The music back home is more alternative, and here it has a little more pop.”
The international students on the team helped Williams make her decision an easy one. She said she knew it would feel a little bit more at home if she went to a place where there would be some people who are from outside the country as well.
Williams said her biggest motivators are her parents and the IU coaches, who have helped make her adjustment to American culture a little easier.
“Both coaches have motivated me a lot because they wanted me to be here,” Williams said. “I want to show them that I can play as well as they think I can, so I’m just trying to give them what they recruited for.”
Williams’ parents haven’t actually seen her play for the Hoosiers in person, but she said her family will come watch when IU travels to Oahu, Hawaii, to play USC and Hawaii on March 16 and 18.
Her parents gave her some advice when she left for the United States. She said they told her to be the best that she can be and to let the rest take care of itself.
“They really stressed that everything will fall into place if it’s meant to be,” Williams said. “Even if it doesn’t work out here at least I know that I tried my best.”
