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Number of articles: 53
First Article: October 2, 2020
Latest Article: April 14, 2023
Sam Pausman
In my life, Italian soccer—calcio—has always been an afterthought, only to be considered when scouting a young talent while in FIFA career mode with my brother. The golden age of Italy’s greats—and their even greater hair—was resigned to forever be an unlearned history.
Due to the World Cup’s non-traditional winter match schedule, Bowdoin’s soccer enthusiasts now have the opportunity to watch matches together. Some huddle around iPads in Smith, others stream on TVs in college houses and many not-so-subtly watch the group stage unfold in the backs of their classes.
Two whistles mark halftime; three mark full time. And, with the sun fully set on the women’s soccer season, I can finally get something off my chest: Bowdoin’s women’s soccer team doesn’t actually play a 4–3–3.
Michigan curbstomped Ohio State 45–23 on Saturday in a game with massive CFB Playoff implications. Michigan’s first win in Columbus since 2000 all but secured the team a spot in the Playoff. Mike and Sam discuss the big game and the landscape of college football heading into conference championship weekend.
As December begins—and the sun sets at 4:03 p.m.—winter is here. Maine’s harsh winters can be difficult for both new and experienced residents. Compiled below are voices of the Bowdoin Community speaking on some of their favorite parts of the season.
Sam is joined by his brother, Ben Pausman, to break down everything about the 2022 FIFA World Cup. In what will be the last World Cup for a number of the game’s greats, the Pausman lads do their best to remain objective in pursuit of perfect World Cup predictions.
When I started this column earlier in the season, I told myself that I was going to be as objective as possible. I have focused on tactics, trends and how the roles of certain players have evolved and changed.
Editor’s Note November 12, 2022: A previous version of this article implied that the men’s squash team competed in Division III of the NCAA. This is incorrect. The squash teams are members of the Collegiate Squash Association, which does not have divisions.
With week nine in the books, we are officially halfway through the NFL season. The crew is joined by friend of the show, Joey Brink, to give their picks for who will make the playoffs in each conference.
The NFL trade deadline was WILD this year. Christian McCaffrey went to the 49ers, Bradley Chubb to the Dolphins, TJ Hockenson to the Vikings, Calvin Ridley to the Vikings and so much more. We give our takes on all of the biggest trades.
Rooted just ahead of the two central defenders and deep behind the rest of the midfield, the holding midfielder takes on the impossible tasks of both anchoring a compact defensive line and connecting it to a threatening attack.
Any decent coach can pigeon hole players into an already existing system. A good coach can have impressive tactics and stick with them no matter the players on the team or the opponent. But a great coach can build a system designed around their players that not only complements their skill sets but allows each individual to perform at the highest level.
Ahead of the midterm elections this fall, the College hosted Karlyn Bowman, a distinguished senior fellow emeritus at the American Enterprise Institute, who discussed public opinion polling in a talk on Monday night in Kresge Auditorium.
The greatest thing about soccer is that it’s a game best played with joy. At its apex, the sport can resemble an art form painted on the canvas of a pitch—each player doing their part as a bristle of a larger brush, back and forth until they have created something to be proud of.
On Monday, College staff and faculty met in Daggett Lounge for the first faculty meeting of the year. The faculty discussed student mental health and the possibility of allowing students to earn course credit for business-prep classes taken outside of the classroom.
BRUNSWICK—Men’s soccer extended its undefeated run to three games after beating University of Southern Maine (2-1-2) 4-1 on Tuesday afternoon. Having conceded just two goals during their three matches and scoring 12, the Polar Bears are now 3-0-0 (1-0-0 NESCAC).
BRUNSWICK—Women’s soccer opened its season with a 5-0 victory against Saint Joseph’s College (0-3-0) at home on Wednesday. The result was an improvement from last year’s match, which saw the Polar Bears take a 4-2 victory.
Prior to the murder of George Floyd and subsequent global social justice movement, the NCAA mandated that all affiliated schools must enlist an administrator to serve as a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Coordinator in January of 2020.
When Megan Phelps ’15 dislocated her ankle in a walkthrough during her senior year at Bowdoin, she easily could have left basketball behind. Instead, she parlayed the injury into an unofficial assistant coaching role for the rest of the 2014-15 season.
Before Ella Slaby ’25 was leading the rugby team to national championships and representing her country on the international stage, she was living abroad in Shanghai and working tirelessly to get recruited by an NCAA rugby program.
The Bowdoin Office of Sustainability and the Bowdoin Organic Garden (BOG) teamed up to plant two semi-dwarf anjou pear trees in the gardens behind first year dorms Osher and West to celebrate Arbor Day. The tree-planting ceremony, led by Office of Sustainability student-worker Maya Chandar-Kouba ’23, Associate Director of Sustainability Keisha Payson and the BOG Superintendent Lisa Beneman, took place on April 28.
BRING OUT THE BROOMS Following an impressive 14-1 season, the men’s lacrosse team swept the NESCAC yearly awards for the first time in program and league history. Head Coach Bill Mason won Coach of the Year in his first season with the program, with attacker Donal Mullane ’21 winning Player of the Year and first-year phenom Will Byrne ’24 winning Rookie of the Year to round out the sweep.
1 … 2 … 3 … CANCUN Following its victory against the Bowdoin H*rpoon, Southern Charm, everyone’s favorite intramural basketball team, sadly saw its season come to a close at the hands of Beaters of Balls.
THEY HAVE A TIMEOUT, DECIDE NOT TO USE IT Bang! The Bowdon H*rpoon’s intramural basketball team wheezed in agony as sharpshooter Andrew Cohen ’24 of the Bowdoin Orient’s team, Southern Charm, swished successive three-pointers to put the game out of reach for the struggling satirical publication.
For the first time since the NESCAC’s founding in 1971, the conference has given fall sports—such as football, soccer, volleyball and field hockey—the green light to hold team practices over the course of the spring. “The NESCAC provided flexibility this year in light of schools returning from essentially a year away from traditional athletic activity, and permitting the non-traditional season … was one of the changes identified that could positively impact students returning to competitive athletics,” Ashmead White Director of Athletics Tim Ryan wrote in an email to the Orient.
In 2020, the baseball team had plans to fly down to Auburndale, Florida for spring break. Auburndale, a small town tucked in between the two metropolitan mainstays of Tampa and Orlando, serves as the baseball team’s spring training destination.
On Wednesday morning the Athletic Department announced that Sacha Santimano would not continue as the women’s basketball head coach. Santimano, who led the Polar Bears to a 16-9 record (5-5 NESCAC), will not return after leaving for family health reasons.
SOFTBALLIN’ Early this April, the Bowdoin softball team swept UMaine-Presque Isle in a two-game series in Brunswick. The first game, which only went five innings, concluded early after the Polar Bears scored 14 combined runs in the third and fourth innings to go up 21-3.
WAVED ON HOME When much of the College traveled home for spring break, the baseball team returned to Florida for spring training for the first time since the start of the pandemic. Over break, the team was able to make up for lost seasons as they played 11 games in their stint away from campus.
Bowdoin’s winter sports teams were no strangers to success this past season, as teams delivered impressive performances in all aspects of competition. When All-American honorees were announced this past month, it was no surprise that 13 Bowdoin athletes received national honors.
NATIONAL TREASURE Following its performance in the Kurtz Cup Division of College Squash Association Nationals, the women’s squash team ended the year ranked 16th in the nation. Going into the matches last weekend, the Polar Bears boasted an impressive record of 11-7.
GRAND FINALE The men’s hockey team concluded its regular season with an impressive overtime victory against Tufts this past Saturday. Led by Patrick Callahan ’24, the Polar Bears put four goals past the Jumbos’ goalie by the end of the game.
Before Alex Lloyd was named the men’s basketball coach last May, Lloyd worked as the lead assistant for the Memphis Grizzlies’ G-League affiliate, the Memphis Hustle. While Lloyd is no longer working for the Grizzlies organization, he remains a supporter of his former employer.
UPHILL BATTLE The Nordic ski team had one of its biggest challenges of the year this past weekend at the Dartmouth Carnival. The unusually warm winter temperatures led to soft and slushy snow conditions, which made the team’s wax setup exceptionally difficult.
In September 2020, Ashmead White Director of Athletics Tim Ryan sent an email to all athletes and coaches outlining the athletic department’s plan to combat internal racial inequalities. After the initial email was sent 17 months ago, the department’s commitment to increase staff diversity has come to fruition.
SPEED. I AM SPEED. The Bowdoin Men’s Track and Field team finished second in the Maine State Meet held in Waterville this past Sunday. Over the course of the competition, numerous Bowdoin athletes produced impressive performances, with Ajay Olson ’23 and Cheng Xing ’23 honored as MVPs of the meet.
Emily Dobson, Bowdoin women’s basketball assistant coach, stepped down from the team this past week after holding the position for just seven months. During her stint with the team, Dobson helped lead the Polar Bears to a 14-3 record (4-1 NESCAC).
SQUASHING THE COMPETITION The men’s squash team is seeded third for the NESCAC championships this weekend. Despite a disappointing loss to St. Lawrence on January 29, the team capped off its season with the highest seeding in the program’s history and will face sixth-ranked Colby in the quarterfinals.
Despite a late push, the Bowdoin men’s basketball team failed to rally against rival Bates in a 77-88 loss on Sunday at Morrell Gymnasium. The game’s end result notwithstanding, first-year coach Alex Lloyd had praise for the way his team played down the stretch.
SPLASH SISTERS The women’s basketball team, led by impressive three-point shooting performances from Sela Kay ’23 and Annie Boasberg ’22, improved to a record of 14-3 (4-1 NESCAC) following a commanding four-game winning streak. Over the course of the streak, Kay averaged nearly three made three-pointers per game and Boasberg boasted an impressive 46% from beyond the arc to propel their team to the top of the NESCAC standings.
Throughout this semester, the Bowdoin Orient Sports Section will highlight outstanding individual performances by Bowdoin athletes every week. All athletes are eligible to receive this distinction, and the Orient aims to include athletes from as many teams as possible by the end of the year.
In Ben Raphelson’s first year as Head Coach of the men’s and women’s cross-country teams, he sent four athletes to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III National Championship in Louisville, Kentucky on November 20.
Last Tuesday, Angelina Mayers ’23, the Athletic representative for the Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) and the Athletes of Color Coalition (AOCC) representative to the Bowdoin Student Athlete Advisory Committee (BSAAC), sent an email to the greater student body seeking opinions on the perceived student-athlete divide on campus.
After winning the Division III national championship in the 2019-2020 season, the women’s rugby team aims to continue its success through the last stretch of the regular season by continuing to split up their major goals into smaller, more immediately achievable parts.
As the leaves in Brunswick begin to change colors, Bowdoin’s winter sports teams set their sights on the season ahead. After a two-year hiatus from uninterrupted winter competition due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Bowdoin’s athletes, coaches, administrators and fans are ready for winter sports to return to the College.
Last March, during its 218th academic year, the College sent the student body home for the first time in institutional history. In the midst of every major world event from 1794 to present day, Bowdoin felt that it had the ability to maintain the safety of its students, faculty, staff and surrounding community.
On March 26, President Clayton Rose announced a series of anti-racism workshops, to be delivered by the Racial Equity Institute (REI), that ran earlier this month on April 15 and April 24. The workshops, designed to build a dialogue as well as generate awareness regarding racial discrepancies in American culture, were a success, according to Benje Douglas, associate vice president for Inclusion and Diversity.
Bowdoin Dialogues, a group led by Assistant Dean of Student Affairs for Inclusion and Diversity Eduardo Pazos and Associate Dean of Students for Inclusion and Diversity Kate Stern, launched its most recent series of discussions focusing on issues surrounding race and class this week.
As COVID-19 continues to rage, the Bowdoin crew team has maintained both team camaraderie and physical fitness throughout the year of social distancing. While some teams might lack self-motivation amidst the chaos of this past year, the crew team has had very few issues maintaining their athletes’ fitness.
Throughout the fall semester, Bowdoin athletics has been forced to “adjust and adapt” in response to the new challenges presented by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). Despite grappling with geographically divided teams, a lack of competition and Zoom fatigue, athletes and coaches alike were pleasantly surprised by their teams’ ability to provide a meaningful and engaging athletic experience, but long for the return to an in-person season.
From fun socks to the social-fitness app Strava, Bowdoin’s running club is finding ways to engage their members when running together in person is not possible. “I really think our biggest limitation [this year] is just not being able to run together,” co-club leader Reed Warburton ’23 said in a Zoom interview with the Orient.
Finding new ways to hit the links, members of the women’s golf team are still playing the sport they love while trying to maintain a connection as a team. “We’re really fortunate that golf is a relatively socially distant sport,” said captain Haley Baldwin ’22 in a phone interview with the Orient.
The Bowdoin Hall of Honor, founded in 2002, biannually inducts classes of five to six outstanding members of Bowdoin’s athletic community. Candidates are usually nominated by other alumni, and the finalists are chosen by a committee of seven former Bowdoin athletes.
