Carroll girls’ basketball player Malia Williams has committed to play college basketball at Trine University in Angola, Indiana. Williams made the announcement via Twitter this afternoon. She plans to major in Elementary Education and also plans to minor in Special Education.
“I just liked the atmosphere of the campus, and also…their Education program was really nice there, and then also the basketball team of course because that’s what I’m going for,” Williams said.
Williams did get the opportunity to visit the campus. She was very impressed with what she saw.
“The school was really nice, it was really clean,” Williams said. “I didn’t get to see people on campus, obviously, because of COVID. But all the classrooms and everything looked nice.”
Since Trine is located in Angola, IN, it’s only about 45 minutes away from Fort Wayne. Though Williams does appreciate the short distance from home, that was not a major factor in her decision to go to Trine.
“Distance wasn’t really a thing with me picking a college,” Williams said. “But it’s just nice that it’s not too far away from home, so I can come home if I want to.”
Williams joins a program that has been very successful in recent years. The Thunder have won over 20 games in each of the last four seasons. They’ve reached the NCAA’s Sweet 16 twice in four years. They finished undefeated in conference play in the 2018-19 campaign.
Trine’s women’s basketball team is coached by Andy Rang who is entering his third season as the team’s head coach. Before becoming the head coach, he had been on Trine’s staff for several years, including time spent as an interim and associate head coach. Rang also has experience coaching in the city of Fort Wayne. He was the head girls’ basketball coach at South Side High School for five years and later was the director of operations for women’s basketball at IPFW.
“He’s really nice. His team is really successful. They’ve gone to all the championships,” Williams said. “And when I watched them, I got to watch them twice, their team seemed really good. It seemed like they had a good bond and everything. So I’m excited to play for them.”
As a senior at Carroll, Williams averaged 6.6 points per game, 1.9 rebounds per game, and 1.3 steals per game. She got to play for a successful program at the high school level. The Chargers have won four consecutive sectional titles.
“The people on my team, I was really close to, because I played with them since I was in elementary school, so that made it even more fun,” Williams said. “And then winning obviously made it more fun too.”
Williams was coached by Mark Redding, who has won 115 games in eight seasons at Carroll. Before his time with the Chargers, he led Elmhurst to a state championship in 2009.
“In practices and stuff, he would make sure that we understood everything, that we understood all the plays and everything, so when we’d play we’d be ready for each and every team,” Williams said.
