Will Croughan '16 played Wesleyan football while majoring in political science. Today he's an Enterprise Account Manager for Fortinet in the NYC metro, selling security platforms to large, complex organizations. The connection between those arenas is tighter than it sounds—and it starts with how he learned to prepare, reset, and lead on Citrin and Andrus Field. 
The first habit that still shows up in boardrooms is handling nerves. "During those 2013 and 2014 seasons, the vast majority of my teammates could have had roles on Ivy or Patriot League rosters," he says. Practices were stacked with talent from places like Don Bosco Prep and Bergen Catholic. "Every day you had to bring a level of physicality or you'd end up on your butt." After four years of that, walking into a room of C-suite executives feels a lot less daunting. 

Game week taught him that film study wins long before kickoff. He credits offensive line coach Eric Ludwig's scouting—schemes, individual tendencies, tiny cues—for making hard things simple. In enterprise sales, the playbook isn't so different: know the top "players" in an account, understand their big IT initiatives, map engagement with each stakeholder, and get aligned with your technical and commercial teammates on how your platform provides value. "Being aligned on all of the above is crucial if you want to have success," he says. Pressure and recovery were daily reps. He thinks of the "Lovers Lane" drill—live pass-rush, one-on-one, everyone watching—and the battles with interior linemen Morgan Hanson and Mitch Godfrey. Lose a rep in front of your friends, reset, take the next one. The same muscle helps when a meeting goes sideways. He laughs about being pushed to do an impression of Coach (now Athletic Director) Mike Whalen at a team dinner: the first line flopped, he regrouped, the second landed, and it's a joke they still share. "You're never going to win every rep," he says. "Minimize the mistake to what it is—one moment—and keep a positive, competitive mindset." 

Wesleyan's football culture showed him how to lead peers before he had a captain's 'C'. "Coach Whalen had a very Dan Campbell-esque energy—someone you wanted to follow into battle," he says. The class above—Taylor Bishop, Donnie Cimino, Jordan Fabien, Jon Day—held everyone accountable. When they graduated and Dan DiCenzo took over as head coach, Croughan's group focused on carrying forward those standards on and off the field. "It's awesome to see the success Coach Dice and Wesleyan football are having now." 
Time management wasn't theoretical. Wesleyan academics hit hard, and he balanced football, work-study jobs, and leadership in Delta Kappa Epsilon. "More times than I can count I remember pulling all-nighters in Sci-Li," he says. The lesson wasn't perfection—it was finishing what mattered when it mattered. That shows up now when a key presentation is looming: however busy the quarter, you buckle down and get the deck, success criteria, and pitch right—no excuses. 

His career started underwriting financial lines at Arch Capital. The switch to software came from the Wes network: teammate and fraternity brother Anthony Antonellis recruited
him to an entry-level sales org at VMware. Croughan jumped at 25 and never looked back. The steepest learning curve was the "tech" piece without a technical degree, but it was easier than he expected. His advice to students eyeing tech sales: don't disqualify yourself just because you weren't a CS major. 

He explains his role in plain English: an enterprise account manager is a trusted guide for big customers, making sure they understand their cybersecurity tools and get value from them. You bridge technical specialists on both sides and translate for the non-technical decision-makers. When a CIO asks what Fortinet solves first, he keeps it simple: businesses add cloud, AI, hybrid work, and connected devices, and the attack surface explodes. Most teams respond by layering dozens of tools that don't talk to each other. Fortinet's platform is built to change that—networking and security on one system—so organizations can consolidate vendors without losing performance, see and control everything from one place, and move faster, securely. 

Will's territory runs on partners—VARs, MSPs, hyperscalers—so trust is built the old-fashioned way. "Do what you say you're going to do," he says. Faces repeat across the ecosystem over time; honesty and follow-through don't get forgotten. Everyone needs to make a living, but the North Star is the same: provide real value to the customer, together. 
Classroom habits helped, too. He points to professors Joslyn Trager and Logan Dancey for sharpening critical thinking and communication. Vigorous debate over hard topics translated to writing tighter emails, asking better questions, and staying composed when conversations get tough.

For Wesleyan athletes trying to break into tech sales, he starts with perspective. "Don't doubt yourself," he says. You're graduating from a top school while competing in one of Division III's best conferences—and winning championships. "Remember those freezing nights in October and November hitting your buddies on Citrin at 7 p.m. on a random Tuesday. Selling from Zoom meetings and air-conditioned offices is a breeze comparatively." In interviews, talk about the discipline it took to balance academics and athletics—and then deliver on that promise when you're hired. 
Right now he's working to deepen his fluency across the full enterprise IT stack, with a manager who's invested in his development. The network keeps paying off—Wesleyan and the broader NESCAC crop up everywhere in partners and vendors. When days run long, he thinks back to the 5 a.m. alarms for winter conditioning at Freeman and those cold nights in pads. "Hey, I did that," he tells himself. "This tech sales thing isn't too tough comparatively."