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After two years without competing on the gridiron, the Bowdoin football team will feature three new coaches alongside two new classes of players during their upcoming season. Mike Deitrick, Ahmaad Smith and Dave Aoyagi were hired earlier this month to coach running backs, cornerbacks and safeties, respectively.
Over the course of her 13-year career at Bowdoin, women’s basketball Head Coach Adrienne Shibles has impacted the lives of each of her athletes and brought the program to unprecedented heights. Under her leadership, the team appeared at the NCAA tournament 11 times and won two NESCAC championships, solidifying Shibles’ spot as Bowdoin’s winningest women’s basketball coach of all time.
Since the murder of George Floyd at the hands of the police last June, athletes, coaches and administrators within the athletic department have been involved in increasing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in athletics through events, team-based DEI programs and a number of new committees.
Finding opportunities to play sanctioned team sports has been challenging this semester, but as the semester comes to close, intramural soccer playoffs are providing students opportunities to bring some competitive spirit. During the fall semester, Bowdoin was only able to offer one team intramural: badminton, a sport that allows for social distancing.
Despite uncertainty going into the semester, the softball team made the most of the abbreviated 2021 spring season. Although the team played only 12 games—compared to a usual 40 game season—with a small roster of 11 players, a focus on teamwork and enjoyment made it a season for all to remember.
Although Peter Moore ’23 races on the Nordic ski team at Bowdoin, his one true love is cycling—and in the past year, it’s taken him to France to compete for the AG2R Citroën U23 Cycling Team.
ATHLETICS FOR EVERYONE In a joint statement with the presidents of Colby and Bates, President Clayton Rose announced his strong opposition to two anti-transgender athlete bills currently working their way through the Maine Legislature. If passed, the bills would bar transgender women from playing in elementary, secondary and collegiate sports.
Welcome one and all to what is Well In, Lad’s final column of the semester. It’s been a long journey, but I’ve enjoyed myself plenty, so I hope all of you reading have, too. To wrap up the semester, I want to do a little reminiscing on the past and take a look at what the future of soccer might hold.
SHARPEN YOUR PENCILS At the third Bowdoin-Colby-Bates track and field meet this past weekend, two school records fell as the men’s and women’s teams closed out their non-scoring season. On the men’s side, Ajay Olson ’23 earned a new school record in the 100 meter dash (10.69 seconds), and he just barely missed the school’s 45-year-old 200 meter dash record (21.42 seconds) by 0.2 seconds.
Every September, collegiate athletic departments around the country are required by the U.S. Department of Education and the Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act (EADA) to report their athletic expenses and net revenues, as well as the demographics of their teams, for the previous academic year.
Following an 18-month hiatus from competition, the women’s soccer team hosted Bates on Sunday, May 2 for a scrimmage with no official box score. The 90-minute competition was played over three 30-minute periods as opposed to the typical two 45-minute periods in order to give players more rest and recovery time.
Welcome to Full Court Press, a Bowdoin sports podcast presented by the Bowdoin Orient. Paul Russo ’23 and Billy Ackerman ’23 host the show, interviewing Bowdoin athletes about their journey to Bowdoin, athletic careers and setbacks and what college sports look like under COVID-19.
Adrienne Shibles, Head Coach of the women’s basketball team, has accepted an offer to become head coach of the Dartmouth College women’s basketball team. Over 12 seasons, the Polar Bears’ record was 281-65, making the NCAA tournament 11 times.
After 18 months without competition, the current national champion women’s rugby team hosted Colby for an unofficial scrimmage on April 24. The scrimmage resembled a traditional match, the only significant difference being a shift from a two-halves format to a four-quarter model that gave players more opportunity for rest.
This past summer, Bowdoin athletics entered a partnership with the software company SIDEARM Sports. The company now powers the Bowdoin athletics website, allowing for seamless publishing of live and post-game stats and providing easier access to archival athletics data.
After serving as the Head Coach of the men’s basketball team for nearly four decades and earning a record-setting 494 wins, Tim Gilbride has announced that he will retire at the end of this academic year.
Editor’s note 05/02/2021 at 10:28 a.m.: A previous version of this article stated that the NESCAC formed in 1999. This article has been updated to reflect the fact that this was when Bowdoin joined the NESCAC, not when the NESCAC formed.
SWEPT OFF After the Polar Bears split their games last weekend, they were swept by Trinity this past weekend, losing 9-8 in the first game and 9-6 in the second game. Despite the losses, they did see some standout performances.
SPLITTER Softball played a double header against Tufts on Saturday and another double header against Colby on Sunday. The Polar Bears went 2-2, splitting both double headers. After winning in eight innings against Tufts by a score of 11-8, the team dropped the second Saturday game, losing 12-2.
This past Sunday, the very foundation on which European soccer has been laid for over 150 years was shaken to its core with a power move that would have given the game as we know it a complete overhaul.
For the first time in over a year, Bowdoin’s track and field teams put on their uniforms for a dual meet with Colby College last Sunday. Although the meet was smaller than usual, a few athletes achieved personal records, and almost all expressed gratitude to be competing again.
“There are a lot of ways to do track and field, and I like to think ours is a good way: for camaraderie, fun, education and good results. I do the best I can based on what I remember as an athlete and the feedback I get from Bowdoin students I trust,” Associate Director of Athletics for Facilities and Assistant Coach of track and field Lynn Ruddy once wrote in an email to her former athlete Louis Duffus-Artman ’07.
Through budget freezes and cuts, Bowdoin athletics remained a dominant force on campus during the 1990s. However, a social divide still existed on campus. Bowdoin athletics kicked off the decade with a bang. On September 28, 1990, “Football edges Middlebury” appeared in big bold letters in the Orient after a recent nail-biting win.
RESCHEDULED Rescheduling games that had been cancelled due to COVID-19, the athletic department announced that the softball team will play a double-header at Tufts on Saturday and a double-header against Colby at home on Sunday. These games were originally scheduled to be back-to-back home and away double-headers for the weekends of April 10 and 11 against Tufts and April 3 and 4 against Colby.
Following the announcement that Associate Director for Athletics and Assistant Coach Lynn Ruddy will retire at the end of the 2020-21 academic year, the athletic department shared that Assistant Football Coach Kevin Loney has been promoted to the position of assistant athletic director for facilities and event management, effective July 1.
Highlighting the work of women’s rugby Head Coach MaryBeth Mathews, the U.S. Women’s Rugby Foundation (USWRF) added Bowdoin’s women’s rugby team to their list of the 15 most influential programs in the nation this past March.
The softball team finally took the field for the first time in over a year this past weekend in a double-header against Amherst College after multiple game cancellations due to COVID-19 concerns. Despite some breakout performances, the Polar Bears lost both games with scores of 5-4 and 10-2, respectively.
After a month-long hiatus, I want to welcome back each and every one of you to Well-In, Lad. Luckily, for my content’s sake, we’re entering what many would consider the most exciting stretch of soccer this year.
Following the retirement of longtime men’s track and field Head Coach Peter Slovenski, the athletic department announced on March 31 that Lara-Jane (LJ) Que, Head Coach of the women’s track and field program, will be stepping into the role of Head Coach for the men’s program as well this June.
Women’s softball was set to open their season this past weekend with a three-game series against Colby. However, this series was cancelled suddenly on Friday afternoon. There is currently no plan in place to make up these games, and the team’s upcoming match-up against Trinity has also been cancelled.
ASSIST. AD KEVIN LONEY Earlier this week, the Athletic Department announced that Kevin Loney, an assistant coach for the football team since 2015, will be promoted to assistant director of athletics for facilities and event management in the fall of 2021.
For the first time in over a year, the men’s ice hockey team was able to play in an organized game together in a scrimmage against Colby. Although it may not have been the same as playing the Mules in a packed Watson Arena, the scrimmage offered a final chance for Bowdoin to show the progress they’ve made during this modified season.
Catching many athletes off guard, yet pleasantly surprised, President Clayton Rose announced in a campus-wide email on March 9 that the NESCAC has decided to conduct limited competition for spring sports. While many athletes and athletics staff members are excited for this opportunity, they know that competition is not guaranteed and is dependent on the rate of COVID-19 cases on Bowdoin’s campus and at other colleges.
On March 17, USA Basketball announced that Adrienne Shibles, head coach of Bowdoin women’s basketball, will serve as the 2021 head coach of the U16 National Team. Shibles will be responsible for developing the team throughout the year and will take a month off from Bowdoin women’s basketball to lead the national team in a tournament run by the Federal International Basketball Association (FIBA).
THE YEAR OF RETIREMENT A flurry of retirements have been announced in the past month, with three long-term members of the department announcing that they plan to step down from their roles at the end of this academic year.
Through the #NESCACares Mental Health Awareness Week campaign, the Bowdoin Student Athlete Advisory Committee (BSAAC) and the NESCAC Student Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) are changing the narrative on mental health in athletics. The Mental Health Awareness Week campaign has happened in previous years, but with the pandemic and a shortened semester presenting unique mental health challenges, the SAAC and BSAAC are hoping to play an especially important role with their programming this year.
Approximately one year since their last time practicing as a full group, Bowdoin softball continues to face challenges. Prolonged distance from campus has largely eliminated opportunities for competitive play and made it hard to sustain and create new social connections.
For many Bowdoin student-athletes, being a part of a team is a support system: a group that acts as a family. But exactly a year ago, that world froze as the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted athletic competitions across the country and forced teammates apart.
In a letter to the Bowdoin community sent out last Tuesday, President Rose announced that Bowdoin would be participating in a limited number of athletic competitions this spring. The announcement came on the heels of a decision by the NESCAC presidents to allow individual schools to determine the extent of athletic competition in which they will participate.
BADMINTON Intramural Badminton starts up for the spring semester this week. A grand total of 23 teams have signed up to play. While there isn’t any time left to create teams, people interested in participating can be added to an existing team.
Last June, amidst the turmoil of the COVID-19 pandemic, women’s lacrosse Head Coach Liz Grote was selected as the President of the Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Coaches’ Association (IWLCA). As President of the IWLCA, a nationwide organization that monitors the proceedings of all intercollegiate lacrosse and represents coaches from NCAA Divisions I, II and III, Grote found herself with newfound responsibility.
Midway through last month, reports began to circulate—and are expected to be confirmed in the coming months—that the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) was planning changes to its most renowned tournament, the UEFA Champions League (UCL).
Athletics at Bowdoin in the 1980s were full of both tradition and change. While many well-established Bowdoin sports teams continued to face other colleges in the area and bring back a mix of wins and losses, other teams were formed or dissolved over the decade as the College’s athletics department and athletes worked to comply with Title IX.
More impressed with their own team’s diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts than the Athletic Department’s, student athletes report general satisfaction with efforts to address DEI issues in athletics, according to a survey of Bowdoin student-athletes recently conducted by the Orient.
With a strong connection to college baseball, Maine Baseball Hall of Fame inductee and current Bowdoin Pitching Coach Jason Jensen brings his own unique experience in the sport to his coaching philosophy. In 1997, Jensen pitched two complete games to help the University of Southern Maine (USM) win the Division III World Series.
In a semester marked by social distancing and COVID-19 tests, Bowdoin’s swim and dive team has exchanged their usual caps and goggles for face masks. Yet even as they struggle to navigate a new reality of pool reservations, Zoom meetings and dryland workouts, Bowdoin’s swimmers and divers are doing what they can to make the most of this unusual semester.
FALL SPORTS? In an email to the Bowdoin community Thursday afternoon, President Clayton Rose announced that, as long as the NESCAC approves intercollegiate competition, “there will in all likelihood be a full athletic schedule in the fall.” However, he is not as confident about the probability of attendance at sporting events by local residents or family members.
Starting off as a local kid who just wanted to see the world, Dale Arnold ’79, P’07, found his hometown college, Bowdoin, to be his gateway into a fascinating career in sports broadcasting. Arnold’s journey from a neighborhood kid in Brunswick to a top-class sportscaster for the New England Sports Network (NESN) began by doing play-by-play for football games when he was just 15 years old.
For those of you who don’t know me personally, let me preface this article by telling you a little bit about myself as a soccer fan. In 2013, I became an Everton fan and developed my first true love affair with English football by watching my American hero Tim Howard in goal behind young, exciting stars like Romelu Lukaku and Ross Barkley tearing up opposing defenses.
On February 18, the Bowdoin Athletic Department released the first semesterly update to its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Action Plan. The document has two sections: one outlining what they’ve done since mid-October when the DEI Committee first released its plan, and a second on a future plans.
NCAA MIGHT WAIVE ROSTER MINIMUMS In an announcement on Wednesday, the Division III (DIII) Membership Committee recommended waiving the sports sponsorship requirement for spring sports. If approved by the DIII Administrative Committee, there will be no minimum number of rostered players required for teams to be sponsored.
While the COVID-19 pandemic has brought intercollegiate athletics to a grinding stop, the College’s move to “Yellow” status has allow students to use athletic facilities starting last Monday. In an email sent to the Bowdoin community on February 17 by Ashmead White Director of Athletics Tim Ryan, wrote students could use the Buck Center for Health and Fitness, Greason Pool and Lubin Squash Courts as long as the campus stays in “Yellow” status.
Getting on the leaderboard of Strava’s “Lap that Quad” segment is no easy task. However, for Angela McKenzie ’23, a member of the women’s cross country and track and field teams, Hibearnation period became the perfect opportunity to earn Strava’s “Local Legend” crown by running 14 laps around the Bowdoin quad.
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.
This time last February, the Bowdoin’s women’s ice hockey team was closing out their season after a long winter of practices and games. But this year, the team has faced—and is still facing—a multitude of challenges, such as having players living all across the United States.
OPEN FOR BUSINESS Bowdoin’s athletic facilities will open on Monday as the campus entered “yellow” status this past Wednesday. However, the hours are scaled back, and the athletic department has implemented an array of safety precautions.
Before COVID-19, going for a meal, meeting the team and touring the athletics facilities were all big highlights of recruits’ visits to campus. But not anymore—visiting campus is, at least for now, prohibited, dining halls are closed and many teams are spread out across the country.
Juggling new teams, conference championships and a subpar decade for the football team, Bowdoin’s athletic department faced triumphs, changes and challenges throughout the 1970s. In 1971, the College’s Board of Trustees and the President at the time, Roger Howell Jr., officially ruled in favor of co-education and accepted Bowdoin’s first class of women.
After a virtual fall, an extended winter break and the cancellation of their season, most of Bowdoin’s men’s hockey team is back on campus and ready to get back on the ice. Bouncing back from the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic’s impact on their season and the team’s social atmosphere, the team is excited to be reunited once again.
Outside the United States for the first time in almost a year, senior Renae Anderson’s experience in Finland has largely been confined to exploring her hotel room. But for a spot on the American Nordic skiing team at the U23 World Championships, sacrificing some sightseeing at the edge of the Arctic circle is more than worth it.
With winter break in the books, we’re back. But hold on. You’re probably wondering: where’s Paul, my favorite Orient columnist? Paul has made the bittersweet move to creating podcasts, which I will shamelessly plug and suggest you check out when they are released.
Varsity athletics for the winter season have already been canceled, but neither the NESCAC nor Bowdoin has made a final decision yet about the spring. The College has created specific times in the academic schedule for athletes to practice and compete.
Using TikToks shared on their Instagram story, Bowdoin’s Athletes of Color Coalition (AoCC) is celebrating Black History Month by highlighting different Black stories, broadcasting Black accomplishments and pointing out the propagation of Black stereotypes. “We wanted to focus on acknowledging people of color and Black people’s stories,” Angelina Mayers ’23, one of the AoCC’s social media coordinators, said in a Zoom interview with the Orient.
An estimated 10,000 spectators flocked to Whittier Field one Saturday afternoon in the fall of 1960 to witness what the Boston Globe referred to as the game of the week between Bowdoin and the University of Maine.
NESCAC CoSAoC Late last month, the NESCAC formed a Coalition of Student-Athletes of Color (CoSAoC) with representatives from all 11 member schools. The announcement describes their mission statement as trying to “encourage dialogue and solidarity around issues of race.” The coalition aims to work with all member schools’ athletic departments in their pursuit to support student-athletes of color, and they will encourage the diversification of athletic departments across the conference.
The Bowdoin Student Athlete Advisory Committee (BSAAC) and the Athletes of Color Coalition (AoCC) collected responses from over 450 student-athletes this past week in a survey emailed to all athletes about issues of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).
From the snowy streets of Brunswick to the sunshine of the Bay Area, Matt Moran ’10 has found his journey to the Golden State, one not traveled by many. Once a key player on Bowdoin’s football team, Moran is the Special Teams coordinator at one of the biggest football programs in the country: Stanford University’s Pacific-12 Conference (Pac-12) powerhouse.
Instead of focusing on the cancellation of their season, the men’s basketball team has shifted to cultivating a sense of community between upperclassmen and first-year members. Inspired by the push for anti-racism in athletics, they have been hosting biweekly meetings that are dedicated to discussions on diversity, equity and inclusion.
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.
Welcome back to “Well in, Lad.” Today, in this semester’s final edition of the column, to quote the passive-aggressive manager of The Orient’s Twitter account, “[I am talking] about the Premier League … again.” More specifically, I’m revisiting the following question: Is José Mourinho the manager who will lead my favorite club, the Tottenham Hotspurs, to prosperity?
Since the majority of upper-class skiers are dispersed across the world and distanced from Bowdoin’s campus, first-year skiers have filled the void this semester with unexpected leadership roles. “[The first years] have had a lot of ownership and autonomy in planning what the team does,” Head Coach Nathan Alsobrook said.
Disrupting ideas of activism and allyship, the Athletes of Color Coalition’s (AoCC) “The Art of Activism” interactive virtual event created a space for meaningful conversations and communicated the challenges faced by all BIPOC students, not just athletes, this past year.
Throughout the semester, athletes and coaches on all varsity teams, along with rowing and men’s rugby, have designed action plans to address issues of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). The plans, which are works in progress, show commitments to educating their teammates, but some athletes feel that more concrete steps are needed to fully address issues of DEI within their teams.
Bowdoin’s spring athletic teams will likely not compete during the spring semester, Ashmead White Director of Athletics Tim Ryan announced in an email to all student athletes on Thursday. Fall and winter teams will also not compete during the spring semester, with the possible exception of Nordic Skiing, given that it involves exclusively outdoor competition.
SMART COOKIES This fall, 78 members of the Bowdoin athletic community have been recognized as Academic All-NESCAC. Even though there was no formal athletic competition this fall, the conference acknowledged athletes’ academic achievements as they do every year.
Editor’s Note 11/16/20 at 7:27 p.m.: This article has been updated to reflect the correct names of Dayton Arena and Garry Merrill, as well as the amount of time that Ed Langbein ’57 spent as manager of Bowdoin’s football team.
Intramural badminton has adapted to the College’s health guidelines without losing its spirit of competition or its fun atmosphere. “I thought [badminton] was a good way to get out of my room, especially because it’s different with COVID this year,” Ben Heinrich ’23 said in a FaceTime interview with the Orient.
FOR THE COMMON GOOD Women’s soccer has taken advantage of their virtual season this fall to raise over $40,000 for different organizations around New England. Beginning with a virtual 5K for Maine Inside Out, an organization that reaches out to those who have been incarcerated and experienced structural racism, the team raised almost $3,000 in partnership with the volleyball team.
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.
Once bustling with life from eager riders and half a dozen horses, an unfamiliar silence overtook Underwood Farm, the local, family-owned equestrian facility that the club uses. For a team once racing toward the finish line at a breakneck pace, the Bowdoin Equestrian Club found itself grinding to a halt as a result of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
Taking substantive action as outlined by their team’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) action plan, men’s lacrosse will be running a 5K tomorrow to raise money for Harlem Lacrosse, an organization that empowers youth at risk of school dropout and academic decline through lacrosse and academic support.
VOTES Bowdoin’s athletes turned out to vote on Tuesday, according to the Bowdoin Orient’s Election survey. Of the 328 athletes who responded to the survey, 321 athletes, or 97.9 percent of the total, said they planned to vote.
Men’s rugby regards itself as one of the most close-knit teams on campus and takes pride in the hard work that its players put in throughout each season. In this unusual year, the rugby team is trying to replicate this success, both on and off the pitch.
After graduating from Bowdoin in 2012, Barrett Takesian ’12 founded Portland Community Squash (PCS) an academic, social and athletic program committed to mentoring children and teenagers in the Portland area—opportunities that are typically hard to find.
Wotcha, lads and ladettes! Today I’m talking about the strange start to the 2020-21 English Premier League (Prem) season—the wacky race in England (click here to watch old, Prem-themed Wacky Races parodies made by YouTube channel 442oons).
AN EXTRA YEAR Yesterday, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Presidents announced that all Division III athletes can compete in athletic competitions and practices this academic year without losing a season of eligibility. This is a one-time waiver, and the Presidents hope that it will allow student athletes to have more flexibility in deciding their academic plans for the spring 2021 semester.
This fall marks a new chapter of athletics at Bowdoin. First years are restricted from practicing with their upperclassmen teammates, and all athletes are required to wear face masks, even as their sweat soaks the fabric.
Historically, voter turnout among college students and young adults has been lower than for most other age brackets. To combat this trend, the College is working to increase engagement across the community through the new initiative NESCAC Votes.
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 Department of Athletics released its Building and Supporting an Inclusive and Diverse Athletic Community Action Plan on October 15 in an aim to address bias reported within the department. The action plan is broken up into three sections—Access to Information, Ongoing Evaluation, and Education and Action.
DIVERSITY, EQUITY AND INCLUSION WEBSITE With the rollout of its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Action Plan, the Athletic Department has also created a new webpage that has a list of resources for students in minority groups on campus.
Graduating in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic meant many changes to post-grad plans for the Class of 2020. However, for former women’s basketball team captain and Division III (DIII) standout Maddie Hasson ’20, basketball has managed to stay a constant in her transition to life after Bowdoin.
Aiming to create a welcoming atmosphere for first years and further strengthen their team’s camaraderie, Bowdoin sailors are staying positive through virtual meetings and workouts despite challenges the broader athletic community faces from the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).
Hi, Mom, Grandma Maggie, Grandma Rosie, Ben and whoever else reads my column! Today, you are in for a treat. I am talking about the one and only Zlatan Ibrahimovic. More specifically, I will discuss why millions of soccer fans, including myself, consider him to be one of the most iconic athletes of all time.
The NESCAC Presidents’ decision to cancel competition this winter disappointed Bowdoin’s winter athletic community. However, it was not unexpected and plans are well underway to create a meaningful experience for winter athletes. While there is still a small possibility that formal competition between schools with similar coronavirus protocols could occur, Ashmead White Director of Athletics Tim Ryan stresses that the department’s focus will be providing an alternative high-quality experience for winter athletes.
While many upperclassmen football team members are physically disconnected from the first years on campus, the Polar Bears have found ways to stay close-knit through Zoom calls. Training consistently and vigorously and maintaining team spirit, they hope to return, whenever that might be, stronger than before.
In recent years, there has been a higher general level of acceptance in the Bowdoin athletic community towards students who identify as LGBTQ+ and non-binary than existed previously. However, student athletes who identify with one or more of these terms still often grapple with particular challenges that vary according to their unique identity and the culture of their team.
The presidents of New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) member schools announced October 8 that all regular season competition as well as championships for the 2020/2021 winter season are cancelled. In their announcement, the presidents of the NESCAC member schools pointed to limited off-campus travel, restrictions on visitors to campuses, and strict social distance protocols as reasons for cancelling the season.
Despite an unprecedented fall, the Bowdoin women’s soccer program is striving to stay connected and optimistic. In the face of adversity, this unstoppable program proves to be closer than ever, bonding and training virtually in order to stay competitive with the few NESCAC rivals who have all team members on campus.
Though life looked different at the College in 1930—all-male with fraternities on the rise—athletics were, just as they are now, a central part of the Bowdoin experience. Roughly 560 students were enrolled at the start of the 1930-31 academic year, and many played more than one sport, leaving some teams, such as football, with a lack of players for off-season training.
