Bates College - Athletics

Athletics

The Bates Bobcats compete in the NCAA Division III New England Small College Athletic Conference, and Colby-Bates-Bowdoin Consortium. The official school color is garnet (the Garnet was the original mascot), though black is traditionally employed as a complement. Bates is home to one of the oldest college football teams and fields in the United States, Garcelon Field, renovated in 2010 to install a FieldTurf surface, new grandstand and scoreboard, and lights. The first college football game in Maine was played versus Tufts in 1875.

Bates fields 31 varsity teams. There are also intercollegiate club teams in cycling, ice hockey, rugby, sailing, ultimate frisbee, men's volleyball and water polo. The men's rugby team placed second in the nation in 1997 and has made it to the nationals or regionals all but one year since then. The women's rugby regularly makes it to the regionals and made it to the nationals in 2003. The men's club ice hockey team has won the league championship four straight years (2006, 2007, 2008, 2009) and won the 2008 and 2009 NECHA Cup. Recent NESCAC champions include men's track and field (2000). The 2004 women's basketball team was ranked the number one NCAA Division III team in the United States for most of February 2005 and finished the year ranked number six by the USA Today/ESPN Today 25 National Coaches' Poll. They lost to University of Southern Maine in the Sweet 16. In May 2009, Amrit Rupasinghe and Ben Stein won the NCAA Division III tennis doubles championships in Claremont, CA. Stein also reached the singles final. The pair had finished as losing semi-finalists the year before when the NCAA Division III championships was hosted by Bates College at the James Wallach Tennis Center. Since the 2010, the Varsity Women's Rowing Team has finished 2nd for team standings at the NCAA championship. The Varsity Men's Rowing Team has had similar success, with a second place finish at the 2012 ECAC/National Invitational and an international appearance at the Royal Henley Regatta in 2009. Bates' tradition with rowing was highlighted when Andrew Byrnes (class of 2005) won the Olympic Gold medal while rowing for the Canadian National team in 2008 in Beijing. In the winter of 2008, Bates Nordic Skier Sylvan Ellefson was the highest ranked skier in the EISA and placed a record 4th in NCAA Division I championships, the best ever for a Bates skier.

The Bates College athletics department was ranked 19th out of 420 in the 2005 NCAA Division III winter rankings.

In addition to outdoor athletic fields, Bates has indoor and outdoor tracks, a swimming pool, squash courts, an ice hockey rink, a boathouse, several basketball courts, indoor and outdoor tennis courts, an independent weight room with treadmills and elliptical machines, and an astroturf field.