Blazing the trail for future generations of Menlo Men's Basketball graduates to play professionally, a collection of Oaks alumni, Ross Williams, Anders Nymo, Henry Cornelious, and Jeremiah Testa, have authored successful careers overseas since graduating college.

"I am so proud and excited about these alums and their basketball careers," said Head Coach Jamison Montgomery. "I have had the opportunity of recruiting and coaching each of these players. Their character as young men outweighs their amazing basketball talents. When people graduate from Menlo they have so many different great career opportunities. I am pleased that these young men represent Menlo the right way and have been able to do something that they truly love!"

Ross Williams
Quickly making a name for himself internationally, Williams began his professional chapter with Fribourg Olympic Basket in the Swiss Basketball League. The 2023 graduate immediately contributed to the club's 2024 SBL Championship and would go on to play in 34 games during the 2024-25 season, averaging 15.1 points, 3.8 rebounds, 2.6 assists, and 1.2 steals per game while shooting 57 percent from inside the arc and connecting on nearly 40 percent of his shots from three-point range. Williams most recently took his talents to the Czech Republic after signing a contract with PUMPA Basket Brno, a club within the Czech National Basketball League, this past August.

The two years Williams spent in a Menlo uniform featured several impressive achievements. More than doubling his total 3-pointers made from his freshman to sophomore season, the Detroit, MI native assumed a major role in the offense in 2019-20, averaging nearly 16.0 points, 3.5 rebounds, and 2.3 assists per game. Named an NAIA All-American and All-GSAC Team, Williams delivered program single-season top-10 marks in both triples made (68) and free throw percentage (.844) while shooting over 47 percent from the field. After his 55 games as an Oak and a year with Colorado Christian, he served as a team captain for Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in his final collegiate season, helping guide the Islanders to the NCAA Tournament in 2023.

"Menlo will always have a special place in my heart because it's where I started," Williams said. "Coach Jamison Montgomery, Coach Kaniela Aiona, and Coach Richard Fujii all took a chance on a kid that the majority of people said was too short, too skinny, and not good enough. They showed me that in a world of 'no's one 'yes' can give life to a dream. From there I took and ran with it. The teachers and staff at Menlo were great as well. My English teacher, Miss Bonslay, really embodied the culture at Menlo and made me feel like, no matter the subject or course material, with consistency, care, and just giving your best effort you can do anything, learn anything, and succeed at anything. Much appreciation for Menlo specifically Coaches Montgomery, Aiona, and Fujii and all my teammates. Even though I didn't finish my journey there, I have lots of love for Menlo always."

Anders Nymo
Embracing the opportunity to begin his professional career in the years following his graduation from Menlo, Nymo was back in his home country of Norway as he joined the Centrum Tigers for the 2023-24 season. That would be the first of back-to-back campaigns that saw the Tigers go 20-10 overall and finish third then fourth in the Basketligaen Norge (BLNO), a pro league previously known as Hovedserien which operates within FIBA Europe. Nymo averaged just under 20 minutes per game in his two seasons with Centrum, playing in 25 contests his first year then 19 most recently in a 2024-25 campaign that featured victories in 11 of the team's first 13 games and a subsequent playoff appearance.

"My four years as an Oak with the Menlo men's basketball team taught me many life lessons: tradition, gratitude, commitment, perseverance, balance, and friendship," Nymo said. "As an international student, there is a lot of uncertainty you have to overcome, but the mix of all these lessons truly allowed me to view Menlo as my home away from home during my years in the States, and it turned teammates and coaches into people I now consider family."

Nymo first donned the Menlo uniform in 2015 and proceeded to serve as the only four-year Oak on the roster in a breakout 2018-19 season. A sure-handed ballhandler with a high basketball IQ over the course of his career, he committed just one turnover in 15 games as a junior and led the team with a 2.1 assists-to-turnover ratio in his senior season. That achievement came alongside career highs in minutes, rebounds, and steals in 2018-19 as he appeared in 27 games for Menlo, starting 18 while Nymo captained a squad that went 20-11, achieved the second-highest win total in program history, and reached the GSAC Tournament Semifinals. Outside of his 88 games as a collegiate competitor, the 2019 graduate earned GSAC and Daktronics-NAIA Scholar-Athlete each on two occasions.

"My time at Menlo prepared me to balance a new chapter of life as I returned home to Norway to continue my full-time career in the tech industry, while playing in Norway's semi-professional league (BLNO) for the past two seasons," Nymo said. "It has been exciting to follow the Menlo men's team and watch their progress as they transition from the GSAC to the Pacific West Conference. I can't wait to see the Oaks make some noise this year! Go Oaks!"

Henry Cornelious
Cornelius persevered through numerous challenges including a significant injury following his collegiate career to secure a professional contract playing for Centro Español de Plottier in La Liga Argentina. A consistent scorer for the club, he shot over 61 percent from the field over 15 games, breaking out for a season-best 15 points on 7-for-7 shooting from the field during the 2019-20 campaign. Though the COVID-19 pandemic would cut short the rest of his pro career, he was provided important lessons that would carry on in his future path.

"After my senior year at Menlo, I decided to go overseas and play pro basketball as that had been one of my dreams since I first picked up a basketball at five years old," Cornelius said. "I knew the obstacles of playing pro from NAIA at the time, but I just trusted God and asked Him to guide my steps so I was able to get my first pro contract in Argentina, playing in the top two leagues there and it was such a great time. I learned a lot and how fast the game is overseas so I was able to develop and took away a lot from that experience."

A junior transfer from Cal Poly Pomona, Cornelious became an Oak ahead of a 2017-18 season in which he helped Menlo produce 20 victories, the program's second-highest win total to date, and make a postseason run. The 2019 graduate improved in nearly every stat category as a senior, ending his 57-game Menlo career with averages of 10.4 points and 4.6 rebounds per game.

"Menlo means everything," Cornelious said. "I played under Coach Aiona and he believed in me right away and, when I got there, I just felt so comfortable and relaxed. I had my best two seasons of collegiate basketball at a time when I didn't know if I belonged or not. I just trusted everything, put the work in, and had such great teammates and coaches to come out of that victorious."

Cornelious, strongly supported by the fourth-highest field goal percentage in Menlo's single-season history (.606) in 2018-19, finished his final two college years ranked eighth all-time in career field goal percentage (.551) in Oaks program history. Combining all the skills and experience he gained as both a collegiate and professional basketball player, Cornelious now guides future generations with his own developmental program, The Jungle Basketball.

"Being a student at Menlo was fun," Cornelious said. "I was born and raised in Berkeley so being close to home was great and what I needed. Being on a campus where I could just be myself and meet so many great people, it allowed me to grow as a person and develop with the career I have today, giving back to the players in my developmental basketball program so they can have their own path and be successful. I love Menlo so much because it saved me at a time that I really needed it."

Jeremiah Testa
After having devoted his memorable collegiate career to Menlo, Testa graduated into a 2020 year filled with uncertainty due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He would have to wait until 2022 for his chance at the professional game, competing with Valencia Basket Club in Spain as part of the Euro Summer League before joining the University of Durham in England the following year.

A member of Menlo's All-Decade Team, an Academic All-American, and a leader for the Oaks both within the GSAC and nationally, Testa captained the team as a senior while sharing the court with Williams en route to a 19-9 overall record in 2019-20. The native of Belmont, Calif. was second in the GSAC in three-point percentage (.455) that year (11th in the NAIA Division I) and helped Menlo, the nation's top team in long-range shooting percentage, earn a trip to the NAIA DI National Tournament.

Testa would complete his four years as an Oak ranked fifth in career points (1,286) as well as top 10 in career 3-pointers made (111), free throws made (221), and steals (144).

Whether continuing their professional careers or pursuing other opportunities off the court, these Menlo alumni return tremendous pride to the program every day.