On Wednesday, 72 seniors were honored not just for what they did on the field, but for who they are in and out of the classroom.
From 6 to 9 p.m., Kristen Foley, director of athletics, Heather Brocious, director of athletics communications and compliance, and staff hosted the annual senior intercollegiate athletics and club sports awards reception in the Student Center ballrooms. Seniors were joined by the people who helped them get there: parents, siblings, and friends.
Brocious opened the event, followed by highlighting President Richard Helldobler’s contributions to William Paterson athletics before introducing him to speak.
“In an increasingly divided world, intercollegiate and club athletics are one of the remaining places where students of all backgrounds and identities can come together to support each other and work toward a common goal,” Helldobler said.
For the 2026 senior class, that common goal extended well beyond the field. Of the 70 seniors, 48 were honored with the Academic Excellence Award, recognizing those who maintained a cumulative undergraduate GPA of 3.0 or higher throughout their time at WP. Collectively, the 70 seniors honored have a cumulative GPA of 3.193. Of those seniors, 56 have been named on the Dean’s List, and 27 have been inducted into the Chi Alpha Sigma National College Athlete Honor Society.
Two seniors led the class academically. Volleyball’s Kristian Glenn took home the Senior Scholar-Athlete Award on the intercollegiate side, finishing her WP career with a 3.98 GPA as a Finance major. Glenn also left her mark on the program’s record books; Volleyball coach Kevin Rogers told the crowd that “she closed her career with a .284 hitting percentage, which is eighth-highest in program history, and the highest of any player I’ve recruited in five years.”
Club sports senior Chris Cugliari, a member of both the bowling and golf teams, earned the club sports version of the award with a 3.93 GPA.
Following the academic awards, the director of student development, Mikki Cammarata, presented the Pioneer Spirit Award to the men’s soccer team, who “participated in almost 50 events,” from cheering on volleyball and basketball to attending “the pep rally, the job fair, the career fairs,” and even participating in “the Organization of Latin American Students Union at Zambino Field” and “Read Across America, the mental health walk [and] the veterans flag planting ceremony,” Cammarata said.
Closing out the evening, the night’s most prestigious honor carries a name still deeply resonant within the WP community. The Roland Watts Award is named for Roland Watts, who served as the associate vice president for student development, one of the many positions he held during his career with WP. Watts was known as an unwavering advocate for students and guided students whose path he crossed. The award is presented to the student-athlete who has demonstrated outstanding dedication and effort in their intercollegiate sport. This year, Roland’s wife Audrey and their daughter Jacqueline took the stage to hand off the award to Renee Wells.
“I’ve done this for a very long time, I think 33 years was mentioned, and a player like Renee doesn’t come around all the time,” said women’s basketball coach Erin Monahan.
Wells ended her WP basketball career with 1,512 points, making her the seventh all-time at WP, and tied program records for games started at 108 of 109. She also tied for fifth in conference steals and tied for seventh in assists.
“Someone who scored over 17 points a game also passed the ball and made her team a much better team,” Monahan said. “She did whatever it took, including taking charges, calling much-needed sets when we needed them, and holding her team accountable.”
Behind these historic stats and accomplishments, Wells played the entire season with a torn shoulder. It is that exact grit and loyalty to the game that made Wells an easy candidate for the Watts award.
“Roland made a difference, and when you leave William Paterson as a student-athlete, you want to do that. You want to make a difference, you want to make an impact, and you want to leave a legacy. And Renee Wells helped do that by changing the culture, changing the locker room, and flipping the switch that sent women’s basketball to the NCAA this year,” said Monahan.
It was a season the program hadn’t seen in over a decade. The women’s basketball team capped its 2026 season with a 25-3 record and a perfect 18-0 mark in conference play, claiming the program’s first regular-season title since 2011-12 and earning a long-awaited return to the NCAA tournament. The team left the season as regular NJAC champions, NJAC playoff champions, and NCAA participants, all firsts in the last four decades of the program.
As the night wound down, the ballroom was alive with something harder to quantify than GPAs or statistics. There was a sense of finality mixed with pride. For 70 seniors, Wednesday night’s reception marked the last time they would be celebrated together as student-athletes at WP. Years of early mornings, long road trips, injuries, Dean’s List semesters, and championship runs all led to this moment. As baseball coach Mike Waterman reminded his seniors, and perhaps everyone in the room, “This is not the end. This is just a new chapter.”
For the Class of 2026, that next chapter begins now.
Award Winners:
Senior Scholar-Athlete Award (Intercollegiate): Kristian Glenn, Volleyball — 3.98 GPA, Finance major
Senior Scholar-Athlete Award (Club Sports): Chris Cugliari, Bowling/Golf — 3.93 GPA
Pioneer Spirit Award: Men’s Soccer Team
Roland Watts Award: Renee Wells, Women’s Basketball
