The Bates Bobcast

This week we continue our “Why I Coach” series with our skiing coaches! Interim alpine skiing head coach Kurt Simard and long-time Bates Nordic skiing head coach Becky Woods '89 join the show.

A two-time EISA coach of the year with the University of New Hampshire, Simard graduated from UNH in 1991 with a business degree, but soon decided he wanted to get into coaching. 

Woods is the longest-tenured current head coach at Bates. She took over the Nordic skiing program in 1994 and has coached four All-Americans, and two Olympians. Woods is the daughter of the late Bob Flynn, a beloved Bates coach in multiple sports for 50 years.

Rei Hergeth wrapped up his first season at the helm of the Bates squash programs with the women ranked 16th in the country and the men 19th. He won three national championships as a player at Trinity College, before receiving his degree in anthropology in 2013.

Hergeth immediately got into coaching upon graduating, and he uses his experiences in college to impart wisdom to current Bates student-athletes.

We continue our “Why I Coach” series with our basketball coaches, head men’s basketball coach Jon Furbush '05 and head women’s basketball coach Alison Montgomery!

Furbush completed his 12th season as head coach of the men’s basketball team last year, and has led the Bobcats to 150 wins and eight NESCAC Championship tournament appearances through 12 seasons, including three appearances in the NESCAC semifinals.

In 2020, her fifth season as head coach of Bates women's basketball, Montgomery guided the Bobcats to their third NESCAC tournament appearance in her tenure, with a final record of 13-12, the team's first winning mark since 2011.

Since he was named head rowing coach at Bates in March 2009, Peter Steenstra has turned the program into the finest in Division III. Bates women's rowing has competed in the NCAA Championships in every year, including six second-place finishes and four NCAA Division III championships in the last five seasons -- the only Bobcats in Bates College history to win a national team championship.

In 2019, the women's rowing first varsity eight won its third straight (and fourth overall) gold medal in the collegiate eights race at the world-famous Head of the Charles Regatta. And in 2018, the men's rowing team became the first in NESCAC history to compete at the prestigious IRA National Championship regatta.

Here’s Peter Steenstra on why he coaches.

Peter Casares joined Bates as the head men’s and women’s swimming and diving coach and aquatics director in 2007, and in 2020 was named NESCAC Women's Swimming Coach of the Year for the second time in his career. He then led the Bates men's swimming and diving team to a program-best fourth place at the NESCAC Men's Championships a week later.

A women's-team record 11 athletes, as well as first-year Nathan Berry on the men's team, qualified to compete in the 2020 NCAA Division III Championships before they were canceled due to the pandemic.

Coach Casares is well respected in the swimming world, both as an accomplished Division III All-American swimmer and as a passionate coach and tireless recruiter. Peter’s expertise and love for the sport have brought enthusiasm and national visibility to the Bates program.

Vanessa Williamson '05 was promoted to associate head swimming coach at Bates in 2016 after serving as an assistant coach the previous four years. An eight-time All-America performer in the butterfly and individual medleys, Williamson joined head coach Peter Casares's coaching staff in 2012 after coaching at the high school and club level in California for five years.

Williamson is an Edward Little high school graduate and her late father Dick Williamson was a beloved Professor of French at Bates and a 2006 inductee into the Bates Scholar-Athlete society.

Vanessa and coach Casares join the Bobcast today as we continue our “Why I Coach” series!

We continue our “Why I Coach” series on the Bobcast with the head coaches of Bates golf and tennis: Henry Fall and Paul Gastonguay '89!

Hired by Bates in August of 2019, Henry Fall was a four-year starter on the Elms College varsity golf team, graduating in 2014. He was a two-year captain and led the Blazers to New England Collegiate Conference titles as a first-year and as a senior. In his senior season, the Blazers qualified for the NCAA Championships for the first time in program history. Fall also excelled in the classroom, earning Academic All-Conference honors every year. A 2010 graduate of Mt. Ararat High School in nearby Topsham, Maine, Fall is now the youngest head coach at Bates.

Bates College graduate and Lewiston native Paul Gastonguay is among the most respected coaches in college tennis, and the leader of men's and women's programs that perennially rank among the best in Division III. An All-America player himself at Bates, Gastonguay has coached a litany of All-Americans at his alma mater. He graduated from Bates in 1989 and was inducted into the Lewiston-Auburn Sports Hall of Fame in 2006.

This week we continue our “Why I Coach” series with the head coaches of Bates men’s and women’s soccer: Tyler Sheikh and Joe Vari!

In 2019, his second season as head coach of men's soccer at Bates, Tyler Sheikh led the Bobcats to a 9-6-1 record, the program's most since 2008. That included a 5-4-1 record in the NESCAC, tying for the team’s most conference victories since 2000. That followed an 8-7 record in his debut season at Bates in 2018.

2019 was Joe Vari’s first at the helm of the Bates women’s soccer program after he led the University of Puget Sound to the NCAA tournament in 2018. He talks about how he first got into coaching and some of the lessons he’s learned along the way.

This week we continue our “why I coach” series with the head coaches of Bates volleyball and field hockey: Melissa DeRan and Dani Ryder Kogut!

DeRan completed her fifth season at the helm of the Bates volleyball team in 2019, leading the Bobcats to their fifth consecutive appearance in the NESCAC Tournament and a 16-10 record, the team's most victories in 10 years. DeRan joins the Bobcast to talk about how she first got into coaching and who has influenced her along the way.

Ryder Kogut led Bates field hockey to its best NESCAC record in program history in 2019, as the Bobcats finished 10-6 overall and 6-4 in conference play. She is in her eighth year at the helm of the program.

Malik Hall is the 20th head coach in the history of the Bates College football program. He graduated from the University of Massachusetts in 2003 and has coached throughout the northeast, most recently at the University of Pennsylvania before arriving at Bates in 2018. We sat down with coach Hall for a chat about how he got started coaching and who has influenced him along the way.

The Bobcast is introducing a series called “Why I Coach”, where we’ll sit down with Bates head coaches each week to chat with them about how they first got into coaching, what they enjoy most about it, and much more.

Today, we chat with cross country and track and field head coaches Al Fereshetian and Jennifer "Jay" Hartshorn!