Tyler Sheikh was the head men's soccer coach at Bates from 2018-2021.
In 2019, his second season as head coach of men's soccer at Bates, Tyler Sheikh led the Bobcats to a 9-6-1 record, the program's most since 2008, including a 5-4-1 record in the New England Small College Athletic Conference, tying for the most NESCAC victories in team history since 2000. That followed an 8-7 record in his debut season at Bates in 2018.
Coach Sheikh was named the ninth head coach in team history in July 2018, following a successful stint at Knox College in Illinois.
"I've always felt a pull to the NESCAC, the best conference in the country" said Sheikh, referring to Bates' New England Small College Athletic Conference. "Six years ago, an opportunity like this was kind of a pipe dream. Now I feel prepared to realize a goal for me and my budding family: to return home to New England and work with the young men at Bates."
Sheikh said he feels drawn to Bates specifically by its authenticity. "I feel something a little different on campus at Bates, the idea of realness in people. Bates' egalitarian ethos fits me perfectly," he said. A major goal for his Bates program, he says, is mental toughness, "always taking it to the competition. We should be a program that's fun to watch and has fun."
A Connecticut native, Sheikh played soccer at Division I Quinnipiac University (Hamden, Conn.), where he earned a history degree in 2008.
He served as head coach at Knox College from 2015 through 2017, compiling a 39-10-9 record, including a 22-2-4 mark in Midwest Conference play. Sheikh's Knox teams excelled defensively and offensively. In 2017, Knox’s Midwest Conference champion side set conference records with 12 shutouts in 20 regular season games and allowed only one goal in nine regular season conference games. Conversely, in 2015, the team ranked third in Division III in goals scored per game.
Sheikh was head coach at Illinois College (Jacksonville, Ill.) in 2014, where he led the Blueboys to a 10-7-2 record, their first appearance in the conference playoffs in over 20 years, and the school's best-ever conference mark (6-3-1). Prior to Illinois College he served as head coach of both men's and women's soccer at Mount Aloysius College (Cresson, Pa.) for two seasons in 2012-2013. He was credited with turning around the Mount Aloysius men's and women's teams, winning 2013 Men's Soccer Coach of the Year honors in the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference.
Sheikh holds a master's degree in Education from the University of Connecticut. He is married to Alea Sheikh and the couple have two young daughters, Miller and Avery.
