Unbeatable: The dream keeper

Setting—and scoring—goals keeps this Zag on a winning streak. 

Success takes looking ahead – and a reminder on your back.

Zag point guard and First Team Academic All-American Nigel Williams-Goss understands the importance of dreams. He knows about setting goals and hanging on to them fiercely.

That’s why he has a tattoo that reads “DreamKeeper” emblazoned across his upper back.

Williams-Goss came to Gonzaga with the intention of helping the Zags reach their first-ever Final Four. That means getting in the right place mentally as much as physically each time he hits the court.

As Williams-Goss says, “You have to be confident in everything you do. For me, confidence comes from preparation.” Studying strategy. Running scenarios. Visualizing plays. He continues, “The more prepared you are…you can let your skills and abilities take over.”

The preparation and persistence serves Williams-Goss in the classroom, too. While he and his team were navigating a record-breaking season, Williams-Goss racked up a 3.84 GPA, completed his bachelor’s degree in Psychology, and started a graduate program in Organizational Leadership.

Pursuing a master’s degree that focuses on leadership makes sense for this student-athlete. His teammates have come to see him as a role model, a powerful example of Zag determination. Williams-Goss says, “They can see me doing the things I’m trying to get them to do on and off the court.”

With his talent and tenacity, Williams-Goss has in fact achieved his dream, leading his team to a victory against Xavier that put them in the Final Four for the first time in university history.

As he notes, “There’s a lot of naysayers that will try to say ‘Hey this goal is too hard to achieve’ or ‘You’re not really made for this.’” But Williams-Goss got his DreamKeeper tattoo to “hold onto my dreams and remind myself every day to keep striving to be the best person that I can be.”