W

hen Zed Williams thinks about reaching Memorial Day weekend for the first time in his career, he immediately considers a conversation he’s had with his brothers.

It’s not just the Virginia star and his teammates who would be making the trip to Foxborough in May. It truly would be a family affair for Williams’ four older brothers, Jon, JoJo, Zach and "Cornbread", and one younger brother, Sherman.  He also has two older sisters, Samantha and Mary.

“They said, ‘How awesome would it be to experience that?’ And then they said, ‘We have to get there,’ because they always consider us as ‘we,’” Williams said. “One thing we always said about one another is that we’re always there for one another. Say my brother has a baby, then we all have a baby. If I’m here at Virginia, we’re all here at Virginia.”

Family is deeply important to Williams, a member of the Seneca Nation who grew up on the Cattaraugus Reservation just south of Buffalo. But as a new wave of Native Americans permeates college lacrosse two years after the graduation of two-time Tewaaraton winner Lyle Thompson, the sport should realize the soft-spoken Williams is not a carbon copy of the former Albany star.

Beyond that, though, there should be zero questions about the biggest priority in Williams’ life as he enters his final college season.

“When the school year begins, Zed is typically the last man to show up on grounds,” first-year Virginia coach Lars Tiffany said. “It’s just a fact he’s spending as much time as he can with his family. The fact he’s playing senior B box lacrosse instead of taking offers to play at higher levels shows it’s important for him to play with his brothers. That’s my first impression, how he really exudes a family-first approach to how he approaches life. It’s all going to be about his family.”

Williams didn’t grow up wanting to be a box star, and he certainly didn’t believe lacrosse could lead to a scholarship. But what he could do is play, rolling up five 100-point seasons at Silver Creek High School (he joined the varsity team in eighth grade) and setting national high school records for goals and points.

Dom Starsia is a Long Island native, so the former Virginia coach was baffled when he arrived at the 2011 New York state semifinals to see a school he had never heard of had advanced so far. When the Virginia coach learned it had a guy who had scored “a bazillion points,” he was intrigued enough to take a closer look.

“I think they had 15 or 16 guys dressed for the game against a Cazenovia team with the Cannizzaros on it,” Starsia said. “They must have had 40 guys dressed. And you’re thinking ‘What is going on here?’ It literally was Zed and all his little buddies. He never came off the field. He took every faceoff, he played man-up and man down.”

Before long, Starsia visited Silver Creek. Williams remembered that even though the Cavaliers were coming off a national title, Starsia and assistant Marc Van Arsdale spent much of the trip trying to learn about him rather than tout the merits of a school.

“I really didn’t know anything about going to college and didn’t really have any plans until Coach Starsia got ahold of me,” Williams said. “I think that was all based off luck, and I was fortunate enough to meet him.”

Starsia took a long walk with Williams during an early visit and came away impressed and with the thought the midfielder might actually be interested in coming to Charlottesville.

His instincts were correct. While many recent Native American stars landed at Albany or Syracuse, Williams found great appeal in a path further from home.

“I guess I would say I have a little bit of mixed feelings of where I’m from,” Williams said. “There’s a lot of people there who support me and there’s a lot of people there that couldn’t care less. I’m here because I wanted to get away and I could and the coaches gave me an opportunity and I just fell in love with them. I just followed my heart and I wanted to be with them and I wanted to get away.”

An even bigger question loomed in Starsia’s mind before he even considered the on-field possibilities: How would Williams handle the academic rigors of Virginia? The feedback he received from the Silver Creek staff was they had no frame of reference, but they did not question Williams’ willingness to put the time into anything.

Starsia wasn’t sure it would work, but was eager to try. And while he was always a little nervous Williams would not keep coming back to campus — for summer school, for the fall semester of his freshman year, for the spring of his first season — those markers kept falling into place.

“I really didn’t know what I was getting myself into, but everyone here at Virginia — coaches, teammates, my friends, everyone I met, professors — they were all awesome and they helped me so much,” Williams said.

Added Starsia: “He’s a magna cum laude of effort. What the high school people said to me that first day is what’s been the truth of it — that he will do anything you ask. I couldn’t believe how much we have asked of him during his career, especially on the academic side — tutors, mentors, study groups. He has done everything we have asked.”

Even as Virginia struggled through a losing season that led to a coaching change, it was clear Williams was one of the program’s most valuable players. He had 22 goals and five assists, both down from a year earlier, but he made an impact on the faceoff wings as well. Williams’ 54 ground balls ranked second on the team.

Tiffany’s arrival means a new role for Williams as he closes out his college career. Virginia, ranked No. 11 in the Nike/US Lacrosse Preseason Top 20,  hasn’t reached the final four since 2011, and it has lacked charismatic offensive players capable of scoring at will in crucial moments for much of that drought.

Williams could fix that as an attackman, rather than as a midfielder. Tiffany and assistant coach Sean Kirwan moved Williams to attack as they installed their up-tempo system that created so much success at Brown the last two seasons.

“He really fits well into that role,” Tiffany said. “We were fortunate to have [Dylan] Molloy and [Kylor] Bellistri and [Henry] Blynn, big, strong goal-scoring attackmen who had a shoot-first mentality and never worried about when we shot, whether it was in transition or early in a possession. They were always ready to score, and Zed has the same mentality.”

Williams could prove to be a perfect match for his new coach in more ways than one. Tiffany grew up near the Onondaga Reservation in central New York and admitted he is eager to reconnect with the Iroquois community on the field.

This much also is clear: Virginia was the right fit for Williams — and his family. When major events happened back home, the message from his parents and siblings remained the same: You’re where we want you to be.

Williams knows he’s received support from many others he encountered, including his time playing box lacrosse in Canada.

“As soon as I went there, they opened their arms to me and I met some amazing friends,” Williams said. “A friend passed away and I always carry him with me. His name is Carney Johnson. Those people up in Canada with the Six Nations, me and my brothers, they put us under their wing. To those people, I want to make them proud.”

There’s little question he’s done that while following his own route during his college career.

“There’s a tendency for all of us to want to paint all these guys with the same brush,” Starsia said. “This is a little bit more independent soul, I think, and it’s one of the things I really admire about him. It’s been a little bit different path for him. There’s more here than you would expect. It’s not a simple sketch and it’s not as easily predicted as people might think.”

This article appears in the February NCAA preview edition of US Lacrosse Magazine. Don't get the mag? Join US Lacrosse today to start your subscription.