For William Singer ’24, the Mound has Changed. The Lessons Haven’t.

By Director of Athletics Sean Kelly ’02, P’35 P’37

After spending 15 years as a student at Wheeler, William Singer ’24 is putting some of the valuable lessons he learned here, both in the classroom and on the baseball field, into his current college education at Haverford.

A commitment to high academic standards. The confidence that comes from being part of and contributing to a close community. And an understanding that sports are ultimately about more than the final score.

Those lessons came into sharp focus when William took the mound against nationally-ranked Johns Hopkins last April, which was then one of the nation’s top-five teams. What transpired was the delivery of a brilliant performance, leading Haverford to a historic upset.

No Sleep for the Weary

The night before the game, William got the news: he would take the mound for Haverford against No. 3 Johns Hopkins. The excitement, he said, made it nearly impossible to sleep. As the hours passed, the magnitude of what awaited him began to sink in— not only was he to take the mound against one of the nation’s top teams, he would do so in his first collegiate start.

“I actually couldn’t fall asleep out of pure excitement,” William said. “I got maybe four to five hours.”

Despite the lack of sleep, William was wide awake when he walked toward the mound the next day – in part, thanks to Guns N’ Roses’ “Welcome to the Jungle” playing throughout the stadium. The rocking atmosphere only heightened the moment.

“That just fired me up,” William said. “I knew they didn’t know what was coming for them.”

He settled into a rhythm early, hitting his spots and trusting the defense behind him to make play after play. William said the game quickly became something of a blur. It wasn’t until he had completed six innings and surrendered just two earned runs that he realized exactly what was happening.

“I knew I had done my job,” he said. “And when they told me to go back out there, I just wanted to finish it.”

Then came the seventh.

With two outs and the bases loaded, William knew his pitch count was climbing. He had just walked a batter when his head coach came to the mound. William assumed his outing was over.

“I literally had my hand out to give him the ball, thinking I was done.”

Instead, his coach pushed the hand holding the baseball back toward William, smacked him on the chest, and asked if he was feeling all right.

William said “yes.” The coach talked with him for another minute before heading back toward the dugout. The next pitch was a low, outside two-seam fastball. William hit his spot, and the batter lifted the ball for an out to center field. Inning over.

“The dugout was going crazy and so was I,” William said.

When he finally left the game, Haverford was leading comfortably, 10-4.

“I remember looking out at the scoreboard and smiling out of sheer joy.”

The Wheeler Foundation

The performance came from more than one afternoon on a college mound. William credits his Wheeler experience for building the foundation for that day’s success.

“Wheeler helped me prepare for the next level by allowing me to play as much as I did,” he said.

William, who spent four years pitching on the Varsity Baseball team, feels that his time in purple and gold gave him something that was essential to his development: responsibility and experience.

“I was able to grow a sense of comfort in being someone the team depended on to perform from the very beginning of my career, which is something I doubt I could’ve gotten anywhere else.”

At Wheeler, he also learned that development doesn’t always happen when things are going well. Along the way, like any baseball player, there were occasional slumps or times when he had questions about strategy and tactics.

William said Coach Eric Stein helped him develop his mental game.

“Coach was always helpful in teaching me how to be coachable and how to respond to setbacks,” he said.

Coach Stein credits William’s “hard work, resilience, and sheer determination,” for his success beyond Wheeler. “His physical and mental transformation has prepared him for these moments. Anybody who knows William knows he is just scratching the surface of his potential, and his future is bright on and off the mound.”

Some of William’s favorite Warrior memories came during his freshman season, when Wheeler went undefeated in the regular season and captured the Rhode Island Interscholastic League Division III Regular Season Championship.

“That was probably some of the most fun I’ve had playing baseball,” he said. “That team was the most accomplished I was on during my Wheeler playing days, and we won a ton of games.”

Although winning was certainly rewarding, Singer’s fondest baseball moments at Wheeler remain the camaraderie in the dugout and the challenges that shaped him along the way.

Lessons That Extend Beyond the Field

Wheeler also prepared William, who’s now a math major with a double minor in Spanish and Statistics, for much more than baseball. Managing a demanding academic schedule alongside athletics became part of his routine, a skill he would need even more when he arrived at Haverford.

“How to manage rigorous academic work on top of a demanding sports schedule was something I was introduced to at Wheeler and have relied on heavily at Haverford,” he said.

His path to a spot on Haverford’s college baseball team wasn’t exactly linear. After going unrecruited out of Wheeler, he was encouraged by the coaching staff there to walk on. However, he was cut from the team during his freshman year.

A moment like this could have marked the end of his career. Instead, it became a defining chapter in his baseball journey—one that tested his resilience and strengthened his determination to keep going.

“Through baseball, I have seen how strong I can be,” William said. “Throughout my career, a lot hasn’t always gone as expected. Ultimately, despite these heartbreaking moments, I came crawling back every time.”

As one example, William looks back to his freshmen year at Wheeler, when the Warriors lost in the state semifinals. He returned the following season determined and even more prepared. As Wheeler moved into the Eastern Independent League and NEPSAC, he faced tougher opponents, including Pingree and Berwick, and learned how to compete against stronger hitters. Then, as a senior, he delivered an incredible two-hit, one-run performance in the New England Tournament against the Harvey School. The Warriors ultimately fell 1-0 in a heartbreaking pitchers’ duel.

He identified these moments as an opportunity to grow and not quit. That persistence changed the way he viewed the sport, and ultimately, how it extended into his approach off the field.

“I have learned it’s not the destination; it’s the journey for me that truly draws me to it.”

That’s why he wasn’t deterred by the setback his freshman year at Haverford. A year later, he showed up at tryouts and made the team.

Finding the Potential

Today, Singer’s motivation is not simply about the next game or the next season. It’s about finding out how far he can take the sport.
“At this point I am driven to become the best baseball player I can be,” he said. “Right now it’s not only enjoyment in the present, but also for my future self to have zero regrets looking back.

“I want to be able to say one day that I truly found my maximum potential in the sport that I love most.”

The mound may be different from the one he once pitched on at Wheeler Farm, and the competition has certainly changed—from Portsmouth Abbey to Johns Hopkins. His preparation has evolved, too, replacing the conventional high school routine of a 30-minute infield-outfield with a more demanding collegiate regimen. And, perhaps most importantly, the stakes are higher: he is now competing for a chance to win a conference championship and earn a spot in the NCAA Tournament.

But the lessons and values remain.

The ability to be counted on. The willingness to be coached. The discipline to balance academics and athletics. The resilience to come back after disappointment. Those are the lessons Singer carried with him from Wheeler to Haverford, and that will likely stay with him long into adulthood.

And, on one unforgettable afternoon, they helped carry him on the mound—and to an upset that he, his team, and we Wheeler Warriors won’t soon forget.