Family-First Mentality

Buzz Williams stood confidently on stage as he was officially named the 11th head coach in Maryland men’s basketball history in front of hundreds of media members and fans on Gary Williams Court at the XFINITY Center on April 2. 

With Maryland’s state flag lining the seats of the venue off in the distance, the Texas native spoke about his future with the Terps while being accompanied by the President of the University of Maryland, Darryll J. Pines, and Interim Barry P. Gossett Director of Athletics, Colleen Sorem. Photographers flashed cameras to capture the moment, and journalists hashed out their stories. 

Williams' immediate family was also in attendance to witness the event. His wife, Corey, two sons, Calvin and Mason, and two daughters, Addyson and Zera, sat front row as they proudly represented him. 

“It's about the University of Maryland,” Williams said. “It's about men's basketball at Maryland. It's about the athletic department. It's about Dr. Pines and Colleen. It's about the former coaches and the former players. But personally, for my wife and four kids to be here was the coolest thing for me.”

For a coach with two SEC Coach of the Year honors, four NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 appearances — including a trip to the Elite Eight — and 100 or more wins at three different institutions, Williams holds his family closest to his heart. 

The family values that Williams passionately uphold remain consistent within the programs he coached. There isn’t a more evident example of that than a quote from one of his former players, Manny Obaseki, during the postgame press conference following his final game coached at Texas A&M — where he had coached from 2019-25. 

“He's changed my life,” Obaseki said of Williams. “He's changed each and every one of our lives. I'm so thankful for him. Coach Buzz, you mean everything to me. I love you. No matter what, I know you are going to be one call away, one text away.”

Williams’ transitory upbringing significantly impacted how he became grounded by family and driven by faith. The 52-year-old lived most of his childhood in Van Alstyne, Texas — a small rural town north of Dallas. However, Williams lived in a couple of other Texas towns throughout his youth because of his parents’ divorce. 

He and his mother left Van Alstyne and moved roughly a half hour away to Celina. In the Dallas-Fort Worth areas, the city is where Williams began grade school. He lived with his mother during the weekdays but stayed with his father in Van Alstyne every other weekend and some holidays. Then, his father was a teacher and music director at Elmont Baptist Church, which Williams frequently attended during his youth.

Williams and his mother later moved to Winnsboro, an hour and a half southeast of Van Alstyne, before finally settling in Van Alstyne in fifth grade. He moved in with his father and stepmother, with whom he lived until he graduated from high school in 1990.

The dynamic of Williams’ upbringing is something his wife Corey relates to. She also comes from a divorced family, although her parents split when she went to college. Corey Williams (née Norman) grew up in Texas before playing basketball at Barton Community College, the University of Missouri-Kansas City and Texas A&M-Kingsville.

“Our parents are good people,” Buzz said. “They did the best they could. Corey is more competitive than I am, and we have competed on a daily basis to make sure that the stability as husband and wife and as parents is different than the one that we saw.”

The pair met during their time together in Kingsville. Corey wrapped up her senior basketball season at the Division II school before finishing her degree there. Buzz worked as an assistant coach at Texas A&M-Kingsville during the 1998-99 season while earning his master’s.    

When Buzz took another assistant position at Northwestern State for the 1999-2000 season, Corey graduated and returned home to Texas. During that season, he proposed. According to Corey, she saw Buzz just twice between their engagement and wedding. During that time, Buzz wrote a letter to his future wife daily. 

“I've never felt second to his job,” Corey said. “I always know that I can pick up the phone, and he's there. He puts family first. If you interviewed anybody sitting on his staff, they would say the same thing. Players would say the same thing. … Being a coach's wife is hard, but he makes it really easy. As hard as he works at recruiting and coaching, he works at being a husband.”  

Buzz and Corey will celebrate 25 years of marriage in June. Their relationship extends to their children and exemplifies love and care for family, especially to Buzz’s oldest daughter, Zera.   

“My parents will often say that we live in fairy tale land because we're all together,” Zera said. “No matter where we've been at a university or traveling, they're like, it's us. We're the magic of a place. My parents' commitment to each other and us, because my dad has put my mom first and vice versa and put us first, has really changed how we operate. I feel really thankful that I have the example of their love and care for their family.”

At Maryland, Buzz is tasked with creating a family — a job he has successfully executed at his three most recent stops (Texas A&M, Virginia Tech and Marquette). The 18-year veteran head coach seeks to become the third Division I coach to hit triple-digit wins at four institutions. Maryland Hall of Fame coach Lefty Driesell and Steve Alford are the only coaches currently to accomplish the feat. 

But Buzz, who’s also one of 12 active Division I head coaches to win an NCAA Tournament game at three different programs, will construct his family inside two already existing families. The first is one he’s new to but has already shown a commitment to: the Maryland men’s basketball family of alumni, donors and fans.

Buzz holds the other family nearest and dearest to his heart: his wife and four children. The Williams family is as tight-knit of a team as there is and will continue to swarm by Buzz’s side — just as it did during his introduction as Maryland’s next men’s basketball head coach.  

“The greatest accomplishment of mine is that I’ll be married in June for 25 years,” Buzz said. “I hope we win 25 games or more next year, and that'll be a lot of fun. … But as partners, I will never allow that goal to dictate the level of parenting we give our children.”