Phyllis Graber Jensen/Bates College

Al Fereshetian, shown giving a team talk at the 2018 Maine Men's Indoor Track & Field Championships, is retiring after 26 seasons leading the men's cross country and track and field programs at Bates.

Men's Track and Field 6/11/2021 12:38:00 PM Andy Walter

Al Fereshetian retires after 26 years of coaching men's track and cross country at Bates

Al Fereshetian's All-Americans

All-American	# of Awards (Highest Finish(es) and Year)
Paul Kolter '97	2 (2nd, Weight Throw, 1997)
Spencer Potter '97	1 (4th, Weight Throw, 1997)
Justin Freeman '98	1 (8th, Cross Country, 1997)
Billy McEvila '99	1 (NCAA Champion in Weight Throw, 1998)
Lucas Adams '00	5 (2nd, Weight Throw, 2000)
Matt Twiest '00	5 (4th, 3,000-Meter Steeplechase, 1999)
Mike Danahy '00	4 (3rd, 5,000 Meters, 1999)
Jamie Sawler '02	3 (NCAA Champion, Weight Throw, 2002; NCAA Champion, Hammer Throw, 2002)
Justin Easter '03	5 (NCAA Champion, 3,000-Meter Steeplechase, 2002 & 2003)
Jesse Carney '03	1 (8th, Weight Throw, 2003)
Matt Ondra '04	1 (7th, Pole Vault, 2004)
Scott Cooper '05	2 (7th, Weight Throw, 7th in Hammer Throw, 2004)
Joel Anderson '05	1 (7th, 5,000 Meters, 2005)
Dustin Gauthier '05	1 (8th, Weight Throw, 2005)
Joe Northrup '05	3 (7th, Decathlon, 2004; 7th, 4x400 Relay, 2005)
Mitch Krauss '05	1 (7th, 4x400 Relay, 2005)
Joel Colony '06	1 (7th, 4x400 Relay, 2005)
Dan Johnson '06	1 (13th, Cross Country, 2005)
Adam Macbeth '06	1 (7th, 55-Meter Hurdles, 2006)
Sam Thomas '07	1 (7th, 4x400 Relay, 2005)
Noah Gauthier '08	3 (NCAA Champion, Weight Throw, 2008)
Rich McNeil '10	3 (5th, Hammer Throw, 2008 & 2010)
Chris Murtagh '11	2 (5th, Weight Throw, 2011)
Ethan Waldman '11	1 (6th, Shot Put, 2011)
David Pless '13	10 (NCAA Champion, Shot Put, 2011, 2012, 2013)
James LePage '13	2 (3rd, Distance Medley Relay, 2012)
Nick Barron '13	1 (3rd, Distance Medley Relay, 2012)
Noah Graboys '14	2 (3rd, Distance Medley Relay, 2012)
Tully Hannan '14	2 (5th, Cross Country, 2012)
Ben Levy '14	2 (3rd, Distance Medley Relay, 2012)
David Hardison '13	1 (5th, Decathlon, 2013)
Sean Enos '15	9 (2nd, Shot Put, 2014; 2nd, Hammer Throw, 2015)
John Stansel '15	2 (6th, Distance Medley Relay, 2014)
Mark McCauley '15	2 (6th, Distance Medley Relay, 2014)
Eric Wainman '15	2 (3rd, Heptathlon, 2015; 3rd, Decathlon, 2015)
Gregg Heller '16	1 (8th, Distance Medley Relay, 2015)
Allen Sumrall '16	1 (31st, Cross Country, 2015)
Nick Margitza '16	1 (6th, Shot Put, 2016)
Patrick Griffin '17	1 (8th, Distance Medley Relay, 2015)
Rob Flynn '18	1 (8th, Distance Medley Relay, 2015)
Adedire Fakorede '18	3 (3rd, Weight Throw, 2016)
Jack Kiely '18	1 (7th, Mile, 2018)
James Jones '20	1 (28th, Cross Country, 2018)
Brendan Donahue '20	1 (Heptathlon (uncontested), 2020)
Justin Levine '20	1 (5,000 Meters (uncontested), 2020)
Ryan Nealis '21	1 (Mile (uncontested), 2020)
John Rex '21	2 (5th, Hammer Throw, 2021)
Bart Rust '22	1 (3,000 Meters (uncontested), 2020)

LEWISTON, Maine -- Al Fereshetian, known as "Coach Fresh" to generations of Bobcats, announced his retirement Friday after 26 years as head coach of men's cross country and track and field at Bates College, capping an exceptional 41-year coaching career that touched the lives of hundreds of student-athletes and gained consistent regional and national success.

Of the more than 500 Bobcat athletes Fereshetian coached at Bates, 48 earned a total of 101 All-America honors, including nine individual NCAA titles (see table).

"It has been a blessing and privilege to serve as the men's coach of cross country and track and field for the past 26 years," said Fereshetian. "It has been an honor to have the chance to work with so many outstanding young men who were in many cases great athletes, but in every case great people."

He added, "I owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to Bates College for providing me this opportunity, and for supporting me and my family through some difficult times and circumstances. I came to Bates because I knew it was a first-class institution, and I knew it to be a place where I could invest the rest of my career. It has met and exceeded all of those expectations."

Fereshetian is one of only two coaches to lead the Bates men's cross country and track and field programs since 1952, when Walter Slovenski became coach and remained until his retirement in 1995. Fereshetian has held the program's reins ever since. The college will address the program's coaching staff plans in the coming weeks.

"It is difficult to imagine the world of Bates men's track and field without Al Fereshetian at the helm," said Director of Athletics Jason Fein. "As one of only two coaches to lead the program in the last seven decades, Al has given so much to educate, coach, and mentor our students. His teams have been successful both on and off the track, and his alumni continue to be some of the most engaged I have ever experienced. On behalf of our entire department, I want to wish Al and his family all the best as he begins his next chapter."

A potent mix of ebullience, intensity, and creativity fueled Fereshetian's gift for getting the most out of his athletes. A young Bobcat might enter the Bates program as a sprinter or distance runner, but ultimately score state championship points as a thrower or jumper. Fereshetian's coaching style was his alone.

"Coach Fresh is a friend, a dad, a brother, and a mentor," said three-time All-American thrower Adedire Fakorede '18 in a 2018 story about Fereshetian. "He just does it all."

Fereshetian led the men's cross country team to seven NCAA Championship team appearances, including the team's last full season in fall 2019. He also coached the track and field team to regional and national prominence, including two NESCAC titles, the 2012 New England Division III Men's Indoor Track and Field title, and the 2013 New England Division III Men's Outdoor Track and Field title. At the New England Division III Outdoor Championship meet alone, Fereshetian's Bobcats have placed among the top seven teams in every year since 1999, including 12 top-three finishes.

"Al is a throwback guy," University of New Hampshire head coach Jim Boulanger, who served as an assistant with Fereshetian at UNH, said in 2018. "He is not a specialist; he can do anything. I always tell people that if you posted a job description that said 'cross country and throws coach,' Al is one of the few people in the country who could do that legitimately at a high level."

Indeed, after the death of longtime Bates throwing coach Joe Woodhead in 2010, Fereshetian began coaching all of the throwing events for both the men's and women's programs at Bates, and he was able to maintain that group's tradition of excellence with hardly a missed beat.

A native of Arlington, Mass., Fereshetian grew up playing ice hockey and took up running for conditioning purposes, sparking a lifelong passion. He graduated from the University of New Hampshire in 1983, then started his coaching career as an assistant for the women's track and field team at UNH before assisting at the University of Kansas from 1984 to 1988. As the head coach at Appalachian State University, Fereshetian's men's cross country teams won three Southern Conference championships from 1989 to 1994. (In 2010, Appalachian State inducted Fereshetian into its Athletics Hall of Fame.) In 1994, his team was ranked 20th in Division I. Fereshetian was the Southern Conference Coach of the Year three times for cross country and four times for track and field.

Fereshetian guided Bates men's track and field and cross country to three straight Program of the Year top-10 rankings from 2012 to 2014, an honor recognizing programs that score NCAA Championship team points in all three athletic seasons. In 2011, he was named NESCAC Men's Track and Field Coach of the Year, and New England Men's Track and Field Coach of the Year by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association. He was also named NESCAC Cross Country Coach of the Year in 2011. In March 2012, Fereshetian won Coach of the Year honors for the third consecutive calendar season, when he received New England Men's Indoor Track and Field Coach of the Year honors from the USTFCCCA.

On the occasion of his retirement, Fereshetian expressed his appreciation for his past and present colleagues in Bates Athletics, and his optimism for the future of the program.

"I am incredibly thankful for the many colleagues and associates that I have been able to partner with throughout my career," he said, noting former Bates ADs Suzanne Coffey, "who first gave me this opportunity," and Kevin McHugh and current AD Fein.

Former women's coach Carolyn Court "welcomed me in and showed me the ropes early on, and Jay Hartshorn, the current women's coach, has been an amazing partner to work with and who is largely responsible for extending my career to this point."

Fereshetian also thanked former longtime assistant coaches Woodhead and Todd Goewey, and current associate head coach Curtis Johnson and assistant coach Jacob Ellis. "I have been blessed to work with not only great young men, but also a staff and support crew second to none."

"Change is never easy, but there has also never been such a good and opportunistic time for that to take place. With a great staff in place, a strong roster and an exciting group of young athletes ready to join the program, Bates can look forward to some exciting things in the years to come. A change in leadership will ensure that the energy needed to catapult the program to new levels will be present. I look forward to watching that take place!"

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