A lot of changes are happening within the Athletics Department at Bates. New turf fields, plans for a new gym facility, and new hires, including Will Rothermel as interim Athletic Director. The Bates Student asked Rothermel about his plans for sports administration at the college. 

While serving as the Interim Athletic Director, what are your main goals for Bates athletics, and what do you want to accomplish during your time in this position?

I think first and foremost, it goes back to getting a better understanding of what our student needs are, but also what our staff needs are, which takes a lot of listening and collaboration. It’s easy to jump into action sometimes by skipping a step or two, but my hope is that we can kind of take a step back while also doing a lot of the day-to-day stuff that needs to be done. Just having a moment to really work with our staff and our students and hear what their experience is. I’ve gotten a glimpse into that, but just seeing the full cycle of a year and what that looks like is so key. 

I think there are so many things that I’m still learning, while I also feel like I have enough information to be dangerous. I still have a lot to learn and I think that takes a collective; working with our administrative team in athletics is a key part of that. But, you know, there’s a lot of people there. It’s a big enterprise and we need to figure out how to best position people for success, and ultimately have a great platform for our students to strive for excellence.

What would you say are some of the strengths and weaknesses of Bates athletics?

Passion and commitment, and that’s from alumni, that’s from families, that’s from our coaching staff, that’s from our students. It is a unique and special place where we are. We are not cookie cutter in any way, which I love. 

I just think there’s such character and quality that manifests in our facilities, but I also think that kind of speaks to the challenges too. That’s why we’re addressing these things like the fitness center. That’s why we have challenges around team space and the alumni gym. But I think we can play into those as our strengths as well.

What is the biggest obstacle that student athletes face at Bates, and how will you work to remedy this?

I think there’s just a lot that they are juggling, and there’s a lot of pressure that is probably self-imposed a lot of times, but it’s very real. We have to appreciate and understand that, and provide them with the tools and resources they need to confront those things, whether it’s resilience or leadership training or nutrition, performance, recovery. 

Yes, we do need to identify some areas for improvement around facilities, but I think we’re already doing that. We’ve added another turf field with Russell Street. We have lights over there now. I mean, that doesn’t just help our varsity teams too, it expands the programming that we can have into the evenings. Having an artificial surface just exponentially increases the utility for those spaces. While those things are all relative, I think there are some programmatic things that we can do. 

I think sports psychology and mental performance are some of those things that need to be leaned into. And we hopefully can be on the cutting edge, which I think we already are, but expanding that to be more broadly available to all of our student athletes.

How will you bring your prior experiences, both as a student athlete and your professional experience in sports management and marketing to Bates, and can you give a specific example? 

My wide variety of experience is really helpful for this moment in time having been at just a number of different types of schools—from VCU Division 1, pretty high-level basketball where there was a lot of promotional, marketing aspects to that, and then a place like Ithaca, that is a similar composition to Bates. 

I think there are scalable things that we can do, perhaps at Bates, and I think we’re starting to dabble with some of those. We want to do something that’s sustainable.

I think we have some opportunity for generating some school spirit and doing more with simple things like events, getting students excited to attend. Sometimes that does take food or a T-shirt, or some sort of contest, but I think those things could be ramped up. And I think we had some success at prior places that I’ve been, that tend to go a long way with generating some of that school spirit.

I’ve already had some new experiences in my career having been here the last few months, but it’s all good, and it’s helped inform my approach to athletics administration and just having the ability to not necessarily be so reactive, but be thoughtful and have a good response and good approach to things moving forward.

There’s been a lot of change within the athletics department recently. The new turf field on Russell, the turf infield for the baseball field, coaching hires for women’s lacrosse, a new strength and conditioning coach, and now you’re the Interim Director of Athletics. I want to know a little bit more about why all of a sudden, all these changes in the Athletics Department are happening? Why has there been such a big turnover of coaches and staff, and what do these changes mean for Bates athletics this year and for the future?

I think it speaks to athletics in general. There’s a lot of moving pieces that can have domino effects. Our former Women’s Lacrosse coach had an incredible opportunity to go lead a Final Four program and be closer to family. So I think those then kind of lead to other changes. And we’re happy for her to have that opportunity, and that’s what led to this women’s lacrosse position being open, for instance. And I think the size [of the program]. 

We have 31 programs. Facility-wise, I think those things have taken time, and now they’re just kind of coming to the forefront as of late. Even the Fitness Center planning, as I understand it, has been part of the conversation for the last seven or eight years. But how do we address this, and what does it look like? Where is it going to be? And now the rubber is finally starting to hit the road. I think we have some great opportunities with every change that happens. It’s a chance to refocus and sharpen our vision.