Gather the Tribe

The Tribe's on the move this weekend, spreading our feathers and heading out into the world. Don't tell the NCAA. Here's just a sample.

This morning in Orlando, the United States Soccer Federation (USSF) holds its first contested
Presidential election since 1998. Among the eight candidates, Kathy Carter (W&M '91) is considered both the establishment choice and one of two front-runners. The process is a complicated one, with multiple constituencies holding relatively equal power. The Athlete Council, made up of 20 current and former men's and women's national team members has 20% of the vote, though it doesn't always vote as a bloc. The Professional Council (featuring the MLS, NWSL, USL, NASL and others) controls 25.8%, as do the Youth Council (state youth soccer associations) and Adult Council. The remaining 2.6% is comprised of various board members, life members, and two fan representatives.

Carter has all but locked up the Professional Council vote, and has received the endorsement of enough others to push her over the 30% mark. She's likely to split votes with Carlos Cordeiro, the current USSF Vice-President, and the other establishment candidate. The six other candidates (former players Eric Wynalda, Kyle Martino, Hope Solo, and Paul Caligiuri, and attorneys Steve Gans and Michael Winograd) have reportedly issued a statement to the voters urging them to eschew Carter and Cordeiro in favor of a change candidate. If the upstarts can keep either Carter or Cordeiro from winning a majority of votes on the first ballot, then the election could get very interesting.

Says here that if Carter hopes to win, she'll either need to do it on the first ballot, or get so close that she can convince Cordeiro to drop out and support her on the second. If that doesn't happen, then I like Kyle Martino. The former USMNT player and NBC soccer broadcaster has impressed a lot of people with his hard work building grassroots support and his thoughtful approach to addressing American soccer's challenges. If Carter does win, she could do a lot worse than sign Martino up for some sort of leadership role within the Federation. Or she could hire me.

Later this afternoon, your Wrens hope to get back on track against an up and down Delaware squad. The Tribe is 8-5 in conference play, good for a third-place tie with Hofstra, two games behind Charleston. After a 5-0 start in the CAA, Tony Shaver's boys have come down to earth a bit, mostly because they can't stop anyone. W&M averages 85 points per game, and remains one of the nation's best shooting teams. But they give up 82 points each contest, making for exciting basketball, but for some tough times.

As usual, the regular season really isn't that vital. As long as W&M can finish somewhere around 10-8, and hang around third or fourth in the regular season, they'll have a shot. That shot will be somewhat easier if they can avoid Towson and Charleston.

One week from Sunday, Marcus Thornton represents the Tribe (and the Canton Charge) as part of the USA roster in the G League International Challenge. The G League squad will face the Mexican National Team in Los Angeles. As part of the event, Thornton will be training with USA national team coach Jeff Van Gundy and trying out to be part of Team USA during World Cup qualifying. Marcus is averaging 18.4 ppg, and making 41.1% of his three-pointers, growing rapidly as a scorer at this level over the past month.

Speaking of Tribe hoops, redshirt junior Paul Rowley is the kind of representative that makes us all proud. A Loudoun County product, Rowley's already graduated from W&M, and is now in his first year of law school. He's one of three players in the country combining Division I hoops with law school. He's an impressive kid:



And since the topic of W&M Law came up, let's talk for a moment about one of the Tribe's most famous (and in some circles infamous) alums. Former FBI Director Jim Comey will teach a class in Ethical Leadership starting next fall, both at the school's Washington Center and in Williamsburg.

Comey (W&M '82) stirs emotions on both sides of the political aisle at the moment, accused of both tipping the 2016 Presidential election to Donald Trump and of seeking to undermine the same Trump. I work closely with current and former FBI executives, and they're unanimous in their loyalty to Comey and praise for his ethical standards and moral leadership. We may never really know why he did what he did last October, but even as I hate what happened, I believe that Jim Comey did what he believed to be right.

Finally, we're now into the swing of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics, and it's nice to have some Tribesfolk to root for. It would be nice, anyway, if there were any W&M reps in South Korea. There aren't, though, so we'll have to make do with American ski jumper William Rhoads (with whom I share a birthday) and U.S. cross country skier Mary Rose.

USA!