LEWISTON, Maine -- The No. 23 nationally ranked Bates men's squash team hosts No. 16 Navy and No. 17 MIT to start the 2024-25 season this weekend, and the Bobcats are eager to bring their exciting mix of veteran talent and promising rookies to the table. The match against the Naval Academy is set for Friday at 5:30 p.m. and Bates takes on MIT Saturday at 2 p.m.

"We are approaching every week this season with the mindset we are going to work hard and we are going to make sure that we are as prepared as possible," head coach Reinhold Hergeth said. "But we're not going to necessarily focus on achieving specific results or specific goals. We're going to let that take care of itself. If we know that we have worked hard and we know that we are prepared, then all we can say is when we walk on the court that everybody else needs to bring it on, because we are ready." 

The Bobcats are led by a trio of senior captains, all of whom will compete in the starting lineup when healthy.

Alec Spiro (Portland, Ore.) is the No. 1 player in the lineup for Bates and a two-time first team All-NESCAC selection. He was also a captain last year, and brings a strong team-first mentality to an individual sport.

"When he's playing well and he's in a good place, it has a huge impact on everybody else," Hergeth said. "As long as Alec can help get a point for the team, then that's all he really wants because he is a proper team player. And even though he's been first team All-NESCAC and in the top 40 to 50 players in the nation over the last few years, it doesn't really matter to him that much. It's all about the team." 

Harris Ramlee (Southville City, Selangor, Malaysia) and Max Good (Shaker Heights, Ohio) join Spiro as team captains. Ramlee will miss some time to start the year due to injury, but he was a second team All-NESCAC selection two years ago. Good starts the year at No. 6 and has won some clutch matches during his time as a Bobcat, including multiple match-clinching wins in 5-4 victories for Bates.

Four of the nine starters to begin the year for the Bobcats are seniors, with Labeeb Ali (Plano, Texas) playing at the No. 3 position and Philip Han (Seoul, South Korea) slotting in at No. 8.

"We had a meeting in the summer with the five seniors and we basically just spoke about how much it would mean for them to have one last successful year, just putting everything into it," Hergeth said. "That mentality has really helped everybody else, especially with these five seniors all just being great people, great players, really hard working. So it's had a huge impact on the team." 

Hergeth hopes the leadership of the seniors will help three talented first-years have a smooth transition to the college game. Dennis Welte (Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany) gave Spiro all he could handle in a challenge match earlier this year and debuts at the No. 2 position for Bates. Angad Sethi (Stamford, Conn.) opens the year at No. 4 while Ryan Kim (New York City) is right behind him at No. 5. 

Sophomore Maks Celm (Poznan, Wielkopolska, Poland) stands at six-feet, six-inches tall, and is one of two players in the lineup right now who is not a senior or a first-year. He is playing at the No. 7 position and is joined by fellow sophomore Gus Silverman (Brunswick, Maine) at No. 9. A lot could change once Ramlee is back from his injury and junior Ashton Monteiro (Riverside, Conn.) returns from abroad next semester.

For Hergeth, not having any expectations is the key to unlocking the team's potential.

"I tell our players, you can't expect to win every match, but you have to believe you can win every match," Hergeth said. "Squash is such a complex sport that you don't know how you're going to play. You really have no idea. You can prepare as well as you possibly can and you could have a horrible day. Most of the time, that's because players put a level of that expectation on themselves because of the hard work they've put in -- they expect that the hard work will pay off -- and squash does not work that way."