Janice Williamson will tell you how much she loves Bryan and Bryan ISD, but she doesn’t have to because she’s spent her lifetime making both better.
Williamson has worked for BISD for 43 years, including the last 17 years in administration. She is retiring at the end of the school year.
“As I reflect on Coach Williamson's contributions to Bryan ISD, I think of Sir Isaac Newton's quote about standing on the shoulders of giants,” Bryan ISD superintendent Ginger Carrabine said. “Coach Williamson is a giant in Bryan ISD. She blazed trails, shattered barriers, and created a foundation for us to build upon.”
Williamson became the school district’s first female athletic director in 2019. She came to Bryan in 1981 as an assistant coach. She started the softball program in 1988, building it into one of the state’s best. The only potential pitcher on her first team was injured when they opened practice, so she had the players play catch, picking the one who at least could get it over the plate. Tina Zalmanek, who is currently a Bryan High math teacher, became the second pitcher, along with Nikki Winder. Williamson fondly recalls their catcher flipping over a teammate trying to score during a practice.
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“It was those kind of kids with the drive and desire and the dedication [that made us successful],” Williamson said.
Williamson was 416-166 from 1989-2007, becoming the state’s first coach to reach 400 victories. She was 146-31 in district play with nine championships. Bryan won the 2002 state championship, alongside a state appearance in 1996 and runner-ups in 2000 and 2003.
Lisa Gorzycki Hough was the winning pitcher when Bryan beat San Antonio O’Connor, 1-0 for the state title. Gorzycki Hough smiled when she heard Williamson was retiring.
“She always had this calm, quiet confidence to her that I think let her players play so calm and confidently,” Gorzycki Hough said. “There was never a time that I felt playing for her that we got tense and strenuous and I think that just comes from her leadership. That’s kind of how she coached us. She was always so humble and she treated [us] as like we were her own kids. It was so evident that she had such love for us.”
Gorzycki Hough, who earned a scholarship to Texas A&M, was one of 40 Lady Vikings coached by Williamson to play in college.
“I have so much respect for her,” she said. “I’m so excited she’s going to be retiring. She’s had such an amazing career, doing things that all females aren’t doing in the athletic world. I’m so proud to have played for her.”
There’s hundreds of girls names on softball trophies in the Bryan fieldhouse underneath Williamson and her assistants, but she’s thankful for all the unsung contributors.
“Our success in softball was a community thing,” said Williamson.
She gave credit to the late Nathaniel “Sonny” McLennan, who coached the Centex Avengers, along with long-time youth coaches Rick Gorzycki and Jerry Briggs. She also mentioned Charley Caldwell, who recently died, who coached and helped form the first girls fastpitch ASA league in Bryan. Williamson’s father, D.D. Williamson, was Bryan West Little League president and her sisters played at Bryan North.
“I can’t name them all, but you can’t build a team when they come to you as a freshman,” Williamson said. “There’s no way you can teach them enough, so you have to honor those men and women that came before you.”
Williamson took her coaching skills to administration in 2007 as an assistant athletic director where she’s help mold the department.
“I feel like we’ve hired some really good coaches,” Williamson said. “Bailey Deramus is the baseball coach at Rudder. I had a parent stop me [at a game] to tell me, ‘I’ve never been on a team where every parent loves the coach’ and then one of my former students, his son is on the team, and he stopped me and said the same thing.”
The district has a good mix of veteran and young coaches, Williamson said.
“You don’t always see a lot of wins,” Williamson said. “But if you feel like you’re giving the kids the best you can give them and they’re great people, then it’s a really a good hire. We’ve hired a lot of good coaches and the ones who have been here for a while, they’re good people too.”
Former Bryan football coach Merrill Green, who hired Williamson, and former Viking football coach Marty Criswell, are just two of her mentors.
“I look at our coaches and they are people of character,” Williamson said. “When we look at who’s going to be good for our kids, that’s our No. 1 deal. I’ve been surrounded my whole life by men and women of character.”
That also figured somewhat in her decision to retire.
“You get to a point in life where there are some things that I would like to do,” Williamson said. “I would like to travel a little bit. I’ve got great assistants and you’re not going to find a better person than Dereck Rush and eventually they need their time to fly as well.”
Rush at the rest of the staff had the best possible mentor.
Janice was an excellent executive director of athletics because she is a coach's coach,” Carrabine said. “Her proven experience, specifically, a state championship in softball and a long list of postseason play, speaks for itself. She's a fierce competitor with unmatched integrity. Janice rolls up her sleeves to help everyone, leads by example, and moves mountains if necessary to position children for success. Coach Williamson's dedication to our school community, and her years of service, love, and loyalty will be forever appreciated. She has represented Bryan ISD in the best way and is leaving big shoes to fill.”
Hall of Fame football coach Ross Rogers ended his career by coaching the Vikings with Williamson as his boss.
“She always tried to find a positive in everything,” Rogers said. “I appreciated her time as AD and working under her. It’s not an easy job. There’s so many parts to it, so many people who work under you. She’s a Bryan graduate and she served them well.”
Rush, who is director of athletics, will take over the duties of Williamson, who started her teaching career at Hearne in 1978 after graduating from Texas A&M, where she played softball. She was offered a job at Bryan after signing on with Hearne.
“They said, ‘Well you can break the contract,’” Williamson said. “I said, ‘That’s not really the way I was raised.’”
Evidently, she loved her time in Hearne.
“The good Lord watches out for you,” Williamson said. “I had my Hearne kids texting me yesterday [when they heard I was retiring]. They were junior high kids [at the time].”
Williamson was the only adult on the bus when the Hearne seventh- and eighth-graders went on the road, so she was the bus driver. They sang on the way to games and when they arrived, one team would play while the other watched and then they’d switch places.
“Being the lone coach was a fun deal,” Williamson.
She never thought about safety, etc., since she was the lone adult. All that mattered was “it was the time of my life,” Williamson said.
Kenny Johnson was Hearne’s head junior high head coach, who showed Williamson the ropes. After three years, Bryan came back with another offer. She hated to leave Hearne, but Williamson wanted to be a varsity coach so she followed her heart.
She started at BISD as an assistant coach in girls basketball and volleyball. She was at volleyball practice from 4-6 p.m. and at basketball from 6-8 p.m. She’d go home and prepare lesson plans to teach her government classes the next day. Those were busy times, but fun ones.
“I have no regrets looking back, because of all the great students and athletes and the teachers I worked with,” Williamson said. “I don’t know how it could have been any better.”
Then again, maybe she does.
“Maybe we could have won a few more games,” she said with a smile. “Maybe instead of a couple silver and a bronze it could have been for gold.”
Williamson sees plenty of gold these days reflecting on her journey.
“It’s the relationships that you build that are so important,” Williamson said.
One of Bryan’s best rivalries was against Tomball, which the Lady Vikings scrimmaged or played every year starting in 1989.
“Janice was a fierce competitor and after our games I always felt like we were friends,” former Tomball coach Benita Pierucci said, who was the Lady Cougars coach from 1986-2015. “She was a great mentor for many young coaches, believed in fair play and her teams were always disciplined and respectful. Her teams were well prepared and developed a legacy for Bryan’s softball program. I consider her a friend.”
If Tomball or Bryan weren’t in the state tournament, the coaching staffs would meet in Bastrop and play golf on the way to Austin.
Williamson had many great assistants including the late Sara Schultz, who then coached at A&M Consolidated; Charlie McMath who became a head football coach at Miles, Woodsboro and Corpus Christ Moody; Chris Southard, who is currently the College View High School principal; and Enrique Luna, who replaced Williamson and went 338-174 in 12 seasons.
“I’ve always been surrounded by really good people,” Williamson said.
When people reflect on Williamson’s career, she’s hopeful she was a beacon of support and she cared about the welfare of her players and students.
“I wanted them to have the best and that they were prepared,” Williamson said. “I hope that I helped make them have a foundation to be really great people.”
When Williamson got her current job, former Viking baseball player Matt Segrest sent her a congratulatory note as have others over the years.
“All of those guys are successful,” Williamson said. “They’re good men, good moms, good dads, I think they’re really helping make society a great place to be.”
The 67-year-old Williamson contemplated retirement for awhile.
“It was a little bit of a struggle, because I love my job and I’m a people person,” she said. “But at some point, you kind of need to move out of the way for the next person coming in. I don’t know if there’s ever a great time.”
She soon will be gone, but never forgotten.
“There are so many fond memories of Janice,” Carrabine said. “I love it when I meet people who played softball for her, coached with her, competed against her, or cheered for her throughout the years. The common denominator is always that Coach Williamson is a class act. She's the real deal. The bar is high, the standard is set, and we are up for the challenge to honor her legacy.”
Williamson is thinking about buying an RV and following in the footsteps of her parents.
“I want to do a variety of things,” Williamson said. “I want to go see the Savannah Bananas, I want to go to Yellowstone Park. I want to travel when it gets really unbelievably hot here.”
But Bryan will always be home base. Her six siblings within 40 miles along with many nieces and nephews. Williamson also added a pool to her house, chuckling that the pool probably cost more considering when she both items were purchased.
“And if I buy this RV, it’s probably more than both,” she laughed.
She plans on more than riding off into the sunset. She’ll be around BISD sports when she’s in town.
“I am a people person, I think that’s why it took me awhile to decide to retire is that I do enjoy my job,” Williamson said. “I enjoy everything about it.”
If someone needs a tutor, she’ll volunteer, because that’s who she was, is and will remain.
“She’s a blue-blood, isn’t she?” Rogers said.
Williamson gladly added a shade of green when Rudder opened its doors.