The NCAA announced Wednesday that William Smith Soccer Head Coach Aliceann Wilber will be the recipient of the Pat Summitt Award which will be presented at the 2025 NCAA Convention in Nashville, Tennessee. Fresh off her 44th season, Wilber has been at the helm for all of the Herons’ 878 matches, accumulating a Division III women’s soccer record 657 wins.
“I can’t think of any coach more deserving of the Pat Summitt Award than Aliceann Wilber,” says Hobart and William Smith Associate Vice President and Director of Athletics and Recreation Brian Miller. “Pat was a trailblazer and champion of women’s athletics, just as Aliceann has been throughout her storied career. Coach Wilber’s teams have not only been incredibly successful on the field, but her continued empowerment of William Smith women has impacted so many Herons during their time in Geneva and into their adult professional lives. She is a legend. Her influence, similar to Pat Summitt’s, has been a key component to the advancement of women in sport.”
The Pat Summitt Award, established in 2017, recognizes an individual within the NCAA membership who has demonstrated devotion to the development of college athletes and made a positive impact on their lives. Named after Pat Summitt, the legendary women’s basketball head coach at Tennessee who amassed a record 1,098 wins and eight NCAA championships, this award honors her contributions to sports and her commitment to student-athlete success both on and off the court.
“I’ve been fortunate to spend my career at an institution that from the get-go has supported and empowered its female students,” says Wilber. “I’ve been blessed to have been supported in my coaching by incredible administrators, all committed to providing the best opportunities for our William Smith student-athletes to compete and grow through those experiences.
“Soccer is the medium I chose to help those I have worked with learn more about their human capacities for performance and resilience in the face of encountering adversity. In my mind, this award is strongly tied to all the amazing Heron soccer women, 45 years strong, who donned our green and white jerseys and bought into the power of team, hard work and work ethic. And in doing so, learned a lot about the power of themselves.”
Wilber and Summitt crossed paths at the 1999 WHAM Sportswoman of the Year Banquet. Wilber was there to support the college sportswoman of the year Lisa Krug ’00, a Heron soccer and lacrosse player, while Summitt was the keynote speaker.
“I was mesmerized by her command of the room and by the magnitude of her impact on women’s college basketball, as well as her impact beyond basketball,” Wilber says. “I recall thinking that I would never, ever inch my influence anywhere near her out-of-this-world galaxy.”
Wilber has led the William Smith soccer program since its inception in 1980. By 1984, she guided the Herons to their first winning season and, three years later, engineered William Smith’s first NCAA tournament berth, which ended with the program’s first appearance in the national championship game. Then in 1988, in just the program’s ninth season, Wilber and the Herons ascended to the pinnacle of the sport, winning the national championship 1-0 in triple overtime over UC-San Diego.
Wilber’s career stats are incredible. No active coach has more career wins and only one person in the history of NCAA women’s soccer (any level) has more coaching wins than Wilber, former UNC coach Anson Dorrance. Wilber sports a .790 winning percentage that includes 40 consecutive winning seasons. She has directed the Herons to a Division III women’s soccer record 34 NCAA tournament bids, advancing to championship weekend 12 times, the championship match six times and capturing national championships in 1988 and 2013.
Under her direction, William Smith has won 21 Liberty League regular season championships and 15 Liberty League Tournament Championships, including 14 in a row from 2007 to 2021. Wilber has mentored 58 United Soccer Coaches All-Americans, including 28 first team picks, 17 Liberty League Players of the Year and 196 All-Liberty League honorees.
Highly decorated, Wilber has been named the United Soccer Coaches National Coach of the Year five times. She and her assistants have earned 11 regional coaching staff of the year awards as well as 15 Liberty League Coaching Staff of the Year awards. Wilber is a member of the United Soccer Coaches Hall of Fame (2019), the Heron Hall of Honor (2002) and the SUNY Brockport Hall of Fame (2020).
Beyond the numbers, Wilber has had a clear and lasting impact on generations of William Smith women.
“Aliceann not only forged her own path, made her own roads throughout her career, she also created this for all the women she coached, mentored, and inspired,” says Dr. Tiff Jones ’99, a two-time all-conference midfielder for the Herons and owner of X-Factor Performance Consulting, whose clients have included USWNT and USA Women’s Hockey. “Words alone can’t express the impact that AA has had on William Smith soccer and thus the world.”
“Aliceann has been my rock, my mentor and someone I’ve looked up to since I was a little girl,” says Madeline Buckley ’15, an All-American forward and current head women’s soccer coach at Macalester College. “She is everything I hope to be in a coach. She pushed me to be better and do better. She has high expectations of her student-athletes because she knows that not only can they meet them, but they can exceed them.”
The 2025 NCAA Convention will take place Tuesday, Jan. 14, through Friday, Jan. 17, at Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center in Nashville.
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