College Knowledge: Bates College

LEWISTON, ME -  Paul Gastonguay lives and breathes Bates tennis. The men’s and women’s head coach graduated as the winningest tennis player in the school’s history, and just seven years later in 1996, he came back to lead the program that was so close to his heart. Gastonguay has also coached the women’s program since 2001, and in his time at the helm, he has coached 11 men’s and women’s players to 31 All-American selections, one NCAA singles and doubles champion and earned ITA DIII Northeast Coach of the Year honors in 2002. 

More importantly though, Gastonguay has built a winning culture. His teams perennially rank amongst the top of the DIII standings and earned trips to seven straight NCAA tournaments starting in 2000. 

Coach Gastonguay talks about the culture at Bates, what coaching at the school means to him and gives advice to prospective student-athletes. 

What type of athlete and person are you looking to bring to Bates?

We have worked hard to build a culture that revolves around character, work ethic and a passion to be the best. I have been blessed to coach so many amazing people over the years and they all have the same qualities. This energy is infectious and attracts more student- athletes that share those same qualities.  

As a coach, what are your main focuses with each individual student-athlete once they arrive on campus?

I do my best to form a solid relationship with every student-athlete in our program. To facilitate that and to make the biggest impact on each athlete, I do individual/small group workouts twice a week with every athlete. This allows me to develop every athlete and focus each session on what that athlete needs to get to the next level. We develop every athlete into an all-court player so they have options against every style of player. 

You have quite a few former New England juniors on your men's and women's teams. How crucial is recruiting locally?

I love that we have several Maine players and former USTA New England juniors on our teams. New England has a long tradition of outstanding student-athletes that are used to playing in our climate. Indoor tennis is a big part of the New England college tennis experience and it helps to have athletes that thrive on indoor courts. I love when our athletes' families can get to matches at home or on the road. On the men's team we have: Nick Forester, Cam Davis-Kania, Nikesh Desai  and Thorne Kieffer and Eli Criss and Ramiro Davila entering this fall. On the women's team, we just graduated Captain Hannah Sweeney - who was our number one singles player for four years, and we have Alexandra D'Aquino, Victoria Scott, Abigail Zerbey and Drew Williams entering this fall.