Carolyn Court speaks during the
2014 Scholar-Athlete Induction Ceremony on May 24, 2014. (Photo by
Sarah Crosby/Bates College)
Carolyn Court retired with Emeritus honors in 2004 from her
position as Associate Professor of Physical Education and the
women's track and cross country coach at Bates College, after a
quarter century of teaching young women to run faster, jump higher
and throw farther. She came of age as an athlete and coach in the
early days of gender-equity efforts in American sports and is
acclaimed as both a role model and talented coach.
During her tenure, 15 female track or cross country athletes won
a combined 27 All-America awards. In 1995, she was named Coach of
the Year in New England Division III after her team advanced to the
NCAA Cross Country Championships; the Bobcats also qualified in
1997. At the NCAA Division III Track and Field Championships in
2004, her indoor team finished 3rd and her outdoor team finished
8th. She also accompanied Liz Wanless '04, Bates' national champion
in the indoor and outdoor shot put, to the Olympic trials.
Court's athletes have excelled in the classroom as well. Of the
29 women who had won the Milton Lindholm Scholar-Athlete Award as
of her retirement, 14 competed for Court. She also coached two
Fulbright Scholars.
A 1972 graduate of Wethersfield (Conn.) High School, Court was
state champ in the 440-yard run in 1971 and the 880-yard run in
1972. She graduated from Southern Connecticut State University in
1976, earning All-America honors in the 880-yard run as a sophomore
and co-captaining the women's outdoor team her senior year. Court
went on to Penn State for her graduate degree and was an assistant
coach there for two years. She joined Bates in 1979 and became the
architect of the existing programs, introducing cross country that
year and adding outdoor track in 1983.
Active nationally, Court served on the NCAA Track & Field
rules committee from 1981 to 1987 and in 1985 co-hosted the
Division III NCAA Indoor Track championships at Bates, the first to
combine both men and women. Court also worked as an assistant
manager of the 1994 U.S. women's World Cup team and was on the U.S.
Olympic Festival coaching staff in 1993. On sabbatical in 1990, she
helped run the NCAA Division I Track and Field Championships. She
also served as the American delegate to Korea and Japan during the
Junior Worlds.
In 1997 Court was inducted into Southern Connecticut's Hall of
Fame and the Wethersfield High School Hall of Fame in 2001. She was
given a President's Award in 1996 by the Auburn-Lewiston Hall of
Fame. In 2005 the Maine Women’s Intercollegiate Indoor Track
Champions award was named the “Carolyn Court Trophy”
and that same year she received a Lifetime Achievement Award from
Maine High School Track Coaches Association.
Active in the local track community, Court has served the city
of Auburn's summer track program since 1993 and has won several
state titles. That involvement has helped Edward Little HS reap
numerous conference and Maine track and field titles. Her daughter
Nicole is now a sophomore at Dakota Wesleyan and is a three-time
All-American in Track and Field. Court presently works as an Ed
Tech at the Lewiston Middle School and is finishing her fifth year
in a self-contained behavioral Special Ed classroom. She has been a
volunteer coach with the Lewiston Middle School Track Team since
her retirement.
In recognition of Carolyn’s stellar coaching career, her
leadership as a staunch advocate for the rights of female athletes
and her continued involvement with the Bates, Lewiston-Auburn and
Track & Field communities, it is an honor to offer membership
in the Bates Scholar-Athlete Society to Carolyn Court.
