After making program history for TCU volleyball, graduate student setter Callie Williams is saying goodbye to the court.

Having a go-getter attitude helped her hit many milestones throughout this season: her 2000th career assist, offensive Big 12 player of the week for the first time in her career and an All-Big 12 First Team honoree.

“It was super exciting, and it was kinda funny,” said Williams. “I genuinely didn’t know about my career assists and so when they announced it, I was like, ‘Oh wow, I had no idea.’ ”

The setter also said it’s fun to hit milestones, but she doesn’t let them make or break her world. She said it was exciting to share her milestone with her teammates since they encouraged her along the way.

Career

Williams, whose father Jason Williams is TCU volleyball’s head coach, was practically born with a volleyball in her hands.

“My mom played and coached, and my dad played and coached, so I’ve been around volleyball literally since I was born,” she said.

The first time she joined an actual team she was seven years old. By age 10, she made her first club volleyball team.

“I think when it truly started to matter to me, I was in fourth grade and both my parents were coaching club,” said Williams. “They brought me to all the pre tryout clinics and camps, and I loved it.”

Even though Williams’ parents thought she was too young for club volleyball at the time, Williams voiced her love for the sport.

The setter began her college career at Tennessee from 2017-2018 before transferring to Baylor in 2019, where her father coached.

“I finished at Baylor, did my fifth year, graduated with my MBA, had a job lined up and I was gonna be done,” said Callie Williams.

Then her father was named TCU’s head coach.

With her projected start date for work being in January combined with a hiring freeze, she asked her father what she should do.

“Well, just come play for me,” Jason Williams responded.

During the summer of 2022 Callie Williams worked volleyball camps with Jason and assistant coach Morgan Thomas.

Callie Williams said Thomas is the spark that really pushed her to play.

“She saw my potential early and she voiced how much she thought that I could help our team and help us play,” said Williams.

“When Morgan stepped in and told me I could really help the team, I was like, ‘OK it’s not just my dad who wants me to play because he’s my dad,’ it really is the entire coaching staff.”

Everything unfolded and the next thing Callie knew she was back on the court playing.

Father/Daughter/Coach Relationship

“I’ve coached Callie before at Baylor and in club, so we’ve had a really good coach and daughter relationship that whole time,” Jason Williams said.

He said that her maturity now makes it easier.

“Our conversations aren’t about her,” he said. “They’re about the team, and she can communicate to me what she sees, which is very experienced, and it has made for a really great year.”

With six years of collegiate volleyball experience on her belt, Jason Williams said he probably pushes Callie less because she is harder on herself than he is.

They said they work to make sure they maintain a healthy father/daughter/coach relationship.

“He’s done a really good job and I think I would be lying if I said it wasn’t at least partly intentional,” said Callie Williams. “But I think he’s been really good about just treating me and coaching me like he would anybody else.”

They said with the respect they both have for one another; they have an understanding that nothing they say will be taken personally since they’re both just trying to win on the court.

“When we’re in volleyball I call him Jason because he’s just Jason to everybody else, and so that’s what he is to me,” said Callie Williams.

A Final Season

Jason said Callie’s drive helped set the season’s tone.

“She’s a winner. She’s always won, so coming into a program that’s used to losing in the past and just having that is invaluable,” said Jason Williams.

Callie Williams said being named offensive Big 12 player of the week for the first time in her career was a sign of where the program is going and how well they’re playing.

“When anyone on the team gets an award like that it’s certainly not that player alone who has a good week or a good game, it’s the entire team that plays well enough for something like that to happen,” she said.

Callie Williams is the first setter in TCU’s Big 12 history to earn postseason all-conference honors.

She led Baylor in assists in 2020, and she also led TCU in assists (965), digs (253) and double-doubles (12) this season.

Williams said the key is communication.

“We communicate before the play, during the play, after the play, and with each other during time outs,” she said. “Communication is probably the most important part of playing any sport, but especially a team sport like volleyball.”

Williams said she is exiting the sports world for now.

“I’m not gonna say forever though, because I’ve said that before, but I will officially be joining the corporate world and moving to Dallas to start work,” Williams said.