Great Coaches & Teams
Charlie Caldwell (1931-1945)
An accomplished baseball coach at both Williams and Princeton, Caldwell also was one of the most successful college football coaches of his generation – leading both Williams and Princeton on the gridiron, and compiling a career 146-67-9 career mark as a football coach. (He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1961.) On the baseball field, Caldwell’s Williams teams compiled a 110-88 record, with eight winning seasons including two 10-4 campaigns in 1932 and 1933. A right-handed pitcher in his playing days (he starred for Princeton in college), Caldwell – like Bobby Coombs – also played in the Major Leagues. He pitched in three games for the New York Yankees in 1925.
Bobby Coombs (1946-1973)
Raymond “Bobby” Coombs is the longest-tenured coach in program history, and one of only two Williams coaches to have played in the Major Leagues. He pitched for the Philadelphia Athletics in 1933 and the New York Giants in 1943 – going ten years between MLB appearances. He pitched 30 games in the Major Leagues, recording an 0-2 record with two saves. He played college ball at Duke, where he was coached by his uncle Jack Coombs (who also coached at Williams, from 1921-24). At Williams, Coombs’ teams compiled an overall record of 168-219-4. His most successful campaign was 1956, when the Ephs went 11-5. Coombs was a coach and mentor to the young Jim Briggs ’60, who played for Coombs and then served as his assistant coach. He is the namesake of Bobby Coombs Field, Williams’s home field on the north end of campus.
Jim Briggs ’60 (1974-83, 1986-93)
One of the most beloved figures in the history of Williams College athletics, Jim Briggs was an accomplished Eph ballplayer (second baseman and captain of the 1960 team) and coach, serving as the assistant coach to Bobby Coombs from 1968 until Coombs retired in 1973. Briggs then lead the Eph program until 1993 (except for two years he spent leading the Alumni Fund in 1984-85). Briggs’ teams won 216 games, three Little Three titles (NESCAC did not keep standings at that time), as well as two international tournaments during a trip to Poland and Czechoslovakia in the summer of 1990. Briggs has the distinction of participating in all three re-enactments of the 1859 birth of college baseball against Amherst. He was a player on the varsity during the 1959 Centennial game at Amherst, he was the Ephs’ coach for the 1976 Bicentennial celebration in Pittsfield, and came out of retirement to coach the 150th anniversary re-enactment game in 2009 in Pittsfield. Briggs hails from a famous baseball family – his grandfather Walter Briggs owned the Detroit Tigers – and spent several summers as a scout for the team. At various times during his Williams coaching career, Briggsy was an assistant football coach, ski instructor, director of the Outing Club, and women’s hockey coach.
Dave Barnard (1994-2006)
Dave Barnard compiled an overall record of 308-146 in his 13 years at the helm of the Eph baseball program, and his .678 winning percentage is by far the best in school history. Prior to coming to Williams, Barnard had served as an assistant coach at Wesleyan, and pitching coach at Dartmouth. Hired in the summer of 1993, Barnard was unable to recruit for his first Eph nine and they posted an 8-22 mark. From that point forward, he completely rebuilt the program, and in his fourth year the Ephs compiled an 28-6-1 mark, won a share of the Little Three title, and played in the ECAC- New England championships. His teams won 25 or more games eight times, and his 2001 team went 33-5, won the Little Three and NESCAC, and was probably the most accomplished team in Eph history.
Bill Barrale (2007-present)
Coach Barrale took over the Eph baseball program in 2007 and had immediate success, winning the NESCAC title in 2007 and the NESCAC West title in 2008 and 2009. On May 3, 2009, he coached Williams to an 8-5 victory in the varsity game immediately after the 150th anniversary re-enactment game against Amherst – doing an in-game interview with ESPNU along the way. He won his 300th game in 2025 – making him the second-winning coach in school history. An accomplished ballplayer in his own right, Barrale was a standout for Northeastern University, leading the Huskies to the North Atlantic Conference title in 1994. He was named MVP of the NAC tournament that year, and was an All-NAC selection for the season.
