Celebrating the Princeton Men's Soccer Class of 2025
November 08, 2024 | Men's Soccer
PRINCETON, N.J. – Approaching its final regular season game of the season, the Princeton men’s soccer team will honor its graduating seniors on Saturday, November 9th when the Tigers take on the Penn Quakers.
As these seven seniors look to their new chapters beyond Princeton, we’re taking a moment to highlight their achievements on and off the field over the past four years.
Tiger fans, meet the Princeton men’s soccer class of 2025!
#0 Will Watson
Watson has been a strong goalkeeper for Princeton across his four years, registering 62 saves and four shutouts across 19 matches played in goal.
This season, Watson took two wins in net for Princeton, registering a shutout against Fordham and helping Princeton to a victory against Seton Hall last week.
The Asheville, N.C. native studies economics while at Princeton, and he is writing his senior thesis on the “Stroke Belt,” exploring the effects of geography, race and economic status on cardiovascular and cerebrovascular mortality.
Looking back on his time with the program, Watson noted the team’s win on the road against Penn State. To win against a state school on their home turf, or, if you’re Waston, directly in front of their fans, he said there’s simply “nothing like it.”
#1 Khamari Hadaway
Hadaway, a captain for the Tigers, has been a leader in goal and off the field for Princeton across his four years.
This season alone, Hadaway registered 20 saves and one shutout across his eight starts.
A leader in the locker room for the Tigers, Hadaway looks back most fondly on the time spent with his teammates before and after a game. “It’s always a good time,” he said.
On campus, Hadaway is a member of the Ivy Club, the Black Student Athlete Collective, and is a former undergraduate researcher.
A native of Alexandria, Va., Hadaway is studying medical anthropology at Princeton. His senior thesis will focus on the accelerated evolution of the modern human microbiome, and its implications on public health policy.
Following graduation, he plans to pursue a masters degree and a career in financial tech, focusing on policy entrepreneurship initiatives.
#6 Harry Roberts
Roberts, a captain of the Tigers, has two goals and three assists this season so far as he has been a leader for Princeton, both on the field and off of it.
Roberts is finishing his degree in economics, which is capped by “Brexit Ball: How Smaller British Clubs Can Compete in a Globalizing Soccer Landscape in Which the Rich are Getting Richer,” a project that enabled him to blend his passion for his sport with his academic knowledge.
A native of Wellesley, Mass., Roberts will be looking to stay on the east coast as he pursues a career in finance in New York City following graduation.
Looking back on his time at Princeton, Roberts highlights wearing “NBA outfits” each year, in which the team dresses up and takes photos pre-game in the locker room. (To see this year’s “NBA outfits”, see below)
#8 James Wangsness
Wangsness has been a critical figure on the Princeton squad despite facing several serious injuries that have limited his play during the last two seasons, exhibiting inspirational courage and resilience.
Wangsness was a key playmaker and engine of the team in both the undefeated Ivy campaign in 2021 and the following year in 2022, appearing in every match during those seasons and contributing 3 goals and 5 assists in from his midfield position.
Going 7-0 in the Ivy League in 2021, Wangsness’s freshman year, is something he notes as a highlight of his time with the program.
Outside of the team, Wangsness is a member of the Cannon eating club, and he studies psychology. His senior thesis will focus on the effects of social isolation and psychological well being.
In the future, Wangsness hopes to continue his soccer career while he pursues a graduate degree.
#10 Nico Nee
Nee has been a clutch competitor for the Tigers across his four years with the program, fighting his way through multiple injuries while continuing to contribute to the team’s success.
Just this season, Nee scored Princeton’s equalizer against Columbia and recorded both goals in the Tigers’ important Ivy matchup against Dartmouth, proving to be a strong competitor in the Tiger attacking end.
After missing his freshman season due to injury, Nee worked his way back from a torn ACL to score against Rutgers at home last season, securing a Tiger win in front of a packed Roberts Stadium.
The moment, which Nee noted felt like his first real game back, is a favorite as he looks back on his time in the Orange & Black.
Beyond the field, Nee serves as the club Treasurer of the Asian Student Athletes at Princeton (ASAP).
A computer science major with a minor in machine learning, Nee’s independent work combined his technological knowledge with the art of music. The project, entitled "MiNee Me: Exploring Music Composition Through Robotics," was a two-part project in which Nee made a robot that could press key notes based on audio files and an AI model that attempted to make its own music.
#12 Heyward Bryan
Bryan joined the Tigers as a walk-on in the spring of his freshman year, and has been an integral part of the team ever since.
Balancing his role on the team with being a Naval ROTC officer, Bryan has dedicated his time and diligent work ethic over his four years with the program.
On campus, Bryan is also involved in the Princeton Christian Fellowship and Athletes in Action.
Bryan, a native of Charlotte, N.C., highlights Princeton’s 5-0 win over Virginia Tech on the road during fall break of his junior year as a favorite memory with the team.
Now in his senior year, the economics major is writing a thesis on how economic benefits for single parents versus married parents affect the entry rate of kids into the foster care system.
Following graduation, Bryan plans to enter the Navy as a Surface Warfare Officer, hoping to be on an amphibious assault ship out of Mayport, Fla. or Norfolk, Va.
#33 Issa Mudashiru
Captain Mudashiru has been a consistent defender for Princeton across his four years, and he enters senior day after scoring the first and second goals of his career with a brace against Seton Hall last week.
Mudashiru is a leader both on and off the field for Princeton, and he is extremely involved in the Tiger community.
On campus, Mudashiru is the Vice-President of Princeton’s Black Premedical Society, a student group that seeks to foster community and support for Black Pre-med and health-focused students. He is also a Student Athlete Wellness Leader (SAWL) and a mentor with the Princeton University Mentorship Program (PUMP) Mentors, which helps first year students of color get acclimated to campus with the regular support of an upperclassman student of color.
Studying anthropology with a medical anthropology sub-track, Mudashiru is one of just six ‘25 members of the prestigious Global Health Scholars program through Princeton’s Center of Health and Wellbeing. Through the program, he receives special advising and support on his global health related independent work, including full funding for his field work in Sierra Leone last summer.
Mudashiru worked at two hospital sites: the China-Sierra Leone Friendship Hospital, a hospital funded and built by the People's Republic of China, staffed by Chinese doctors working in tandem with Sierra Leonean doctors, and Koidu Government Hospital, a hospital supported by the world renowned health organization Partners-In-Health.
There, he studied the sociocultural and historical context that has led to the proliferation of the “friendship” brand in current Sino-Sierra Leonean and general Sino-African relations, while breaking down how the daily happenings within and around the China-Sierra Leone Friendship Hospital serve as a microcosm for the state of foreign investment in Sierra Leone’s struggling health system.
His work will culminate into an ethnography, which Mudashiru will write as his senior thesis.
Despite his work on campus and around the globe, some of Mudashiru’s favorite memories from his time at Princeton have just been running to the corner or bench to celebrate goals with his teammates when one of them scores.
Mudashiru is now a finalist for the prestigious Schwarzman Scholarship, and he hopes to get his masters degree in global affairs in China. He also plans to obtain an Md-PHd in medical anthropology in the future, pursuing a career in surgery while leading collaboration efforts between Chinese, Western, and African stakeholders to innovate healthcare systems in Sierra Leone, the nation of his maternal ancestry, and beyond on the African continent.
Up Next
Princeton will play for a share of the Ivy League title and the ability to host the Ivy tournament tomorrow, November 9, against Penn. Kickoff is scheduled for 2 p.m. in Roberts Stadium.