“Someone once said to me: coaching is just teaching in shorts, and it really is,” Men’s Soccer Assistant Coach Peter Mills ’09 said.
It’s Mills’ sixth year coaching at Bowdoin, but he’s been a Polar Bear for much longer than that. He graduated Bowdoin in 2009 with a history major and an education minor.
“As an alum, when players are going through midterms, I know what they are going through,” said Mills.
In addition, Mills said he appreciates the smaller rewards that come from coaching, such as watching a player have a really great practice, or seeing somebody unexpectedly step up in a game.
“It’s really about the relationships you form with players and seeing them grow,” said Mills.
“Finding that harmony with players will allow your team to achieve their highest potential.”
Mills’ Bowdoin soccer connections had a lasting influence. Fran O’Leary, the men’s soccer head coach until 2013 (and Mills’ own coach from his Bowdoin career), was a large part of his decision to return to to coach Bowdoin.
“[Coach O’Leary] was an adult that I could trust who was really influential in my life,” said Mills. “The opportunity to come back and work for him at Bowdoin was something that was very difficult to say no to.”
A Brunswick native, Mills looked for teaching jobs in Maine upon graduation, wanting to stay close to home. He taught seventh grade social studies at Memorial Middle School in South Portland and later started coaching soccer at Portland High School, which sparked his passion for coaching.
He began coaching here in the summer of 2010. One of his most memorable experiences was during his first year back at Bowdoin, when the team went to the final four of the NCAA tournament in San Antonio, Texas. That season, he had the unique opportunity to coach some of the players he had played with side by side when he was a student.
Mills also noted the excitement of last season, when Bowdoin won the NESCAC Championship for the first time in the men’s soccer program’s history. He said that the seniors on the team last season had worked extremely hard since their first year in 2011, when the team had one of its poorer seasons score-wise.
The ability to see them grow and watch their effort pay off was extremely rewarding for Mills as a coach, and he believes the team leaders in the Class of 2015 played a key role in shaping the team’s culture today.
So far this season, the team has a record of 2-2-1 after a 0-0 draw at home against Bates on Wednesday. Mills acknowledged the challenging schedule ahead of them, and expects the team to play at the high level that he knows they are capable of.