Contagious Energy: Will Beesley '26

By Craig Sachson
PrincetonTigersFootball.com

Will Beesley is doing all the same things now that he did last year, with one notable exception. He has been a positive force in the locker room and a dedicated viewer in the film room. He has connected with his teammates daily, helping them figure out schemes or opposing tendencies. He has done everything in his power to help Princeton win.

The exception this year? He is healthy and playing.

As any competitor would feel, Beesley is thrilled to be back on the field doing what he loves this fall. His dedication to the sport and his team never waned last year. His appreciation for the sport, however, grew substantially.

• • •

A native of Rochester Hills, Mich., Beesley had a strong football role model early in life. His older brother Drew started 17 games and made 76 career tackles for nearby Michigan State. Will, seven years younger than Drew, watched his older brother dominate at Warren De La Salle High School and then turn a preferred walk-on offer with the Spartans into an impressive four-year career.

"The biggest thing that I gained from watching my brother play was to always play with a chip on your shoulder," Beesley said. "Hard work beats everything."

Will carried that resolve into his own standout career at De La Salle, where he set the school record for career tackles and finished second to his brother in career tackles for loss. A two-year captain and all-state honoree, Beesley earned attention from schools across different leagues, but an early call from Princeton helped shape his path.

"Princeton was one of the first to offer me, though other Ivy League coaches did as well," he said. "Those conversations opened my eyes to what this league is all about. You can play great football, but you also surround yourself with people who will do incredible things. What drew me here was the culture. Princeton, specifically, has so much alumni support who just want to help us win as many games as we can."

One alumnus of the program who did plenty of winning was Jeremiah Tyler '22, a two-time Ivy League champion and the 2021 Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year. A fellow Michigan native, Tyler starred at Detroit Country Day, and Beesley knew if a player of that caliber went to Princeton, the level of football must be high.

He found out quickly just how high it was.

• • •

Future NFL players like Jalen Travis (Indianapolis Colts) and Andrei Iosivas (Cincinnati Bengals) were among the senior-loaded locker room that awaited Beesley's freshman season. He remembers practices that first season being a far cry from what high school sessions were like, and he learned plenty from the upperclassmen both on and off the field. One thing that wasn't a challenge was finding time to watch film. Between school work and training, there aren't many hours left for film, but Beesley made the time whenever he could.

It wasn't a chore for him. It was a passion.

"This goes back to when I was young, but I have always loved watching film," he said. "It was an interest sparked in me early. I want to understand what teams are doing. Being curious has pushed me my entire career, and my experience here at Princeton has been awesome. Coach [Steve] Verbit and Coach [Mike] Weick are two of the smartest guys that I've ever been around football wise."

As his understanding of the defense grew, so did his confidence. He spent his first offseason getting stronger and learning every detail of the inside linebacker position. He played in all 10 games of his sophomore season and seemed well on his way to being a consistent force in the linebacker rotation.

Then came the injuries.

• • •

Beesley looks back on the 2024 season with disappointment that he couldn't play more, but also with pride in knowing he did what he could for the team. A preseason injury forced him to miss the first four games of the season, and then another injury three weeks later cost him three additional games. He made it back for the season-finale victory over Penn and added two tackles in that game.

It wasn't an easy season for Beesley, but he knew it wasn't an easy one for his teammates either. If he wasn't going to help the team on the field, he was going to do so everywhere else.

"College football is a grind, but you go through it with your teammates, and these are the guys you lean on to get through the tough times," he said. "I might be having a good day but somebody else isn't, and that's when I really need to step in like a teammate and brother to pick them up. Things weren't going the way we wanted last year, but I think I showed every day with a good attitude."

That positive spirit, which flows throughout the senior class, was buoyed by a healthy offseason in 2025, and Beesley is back where he loves to be on Saturday afternoons.

"His energy is contagious," head coach Bob Surace said. "He has been a very good member of our linebacker unit all season, and he has been a great leader on special teams. He makes big plays week after week."

An anthropology major who has developed a strong interest in sport management, Beesley has made at least one tackle in all six games this season, including four in the Ivy League opener against Columbia. He believes the defense will continue to progress through the next four weeks, starting Saturday at Cornell.

His teammates know Beesley will do whatever it takes — in the film room, in the locker room, and on the field — to accelerate that progression.

"I learned a lot about myself last year," he said. "I learned you don't need to be a major contributor on the stat sheet to help a team win. I think that goes far beyond football. Life is about being a good teammate and having other people's best interest in mind. It's all about the team."

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