McKell Barnes spent eight years as the head coach of the Bates College softball program. Barnes stepped down before the 2022 season. The current head coach of the Bobcats is Kat McKay.
In 2018, Barnes led the Bates softball team to its most wins in program history and the Bobcats' second appearance in the NESCAC tournament. Bates finished the season with an overall record of 20-14. The Bobcats returned to the NESCAC Tournament in 2019, finishing 15-21 overall, and the promising 2020 squad finished 6-2 in a pandemic-shortened season.
In Barnes' second full season, the Bobcats posted 14 wins, including a 4-4 record in the NESCAC East, the most in the program since 2012. The Bobcats finished fourth in the New England Small College Athletic Conference East Division standings in her inaugural campaign, with an overall record of 8-10.
“Bates offers the chance to work with faculty and student-athletes who embrace the importance of community, camaraderie and excellence throughout academics and athletics,” Barnes says. “I think that is a once in a lifetime opportunity.”
The fifth head coach in program history, Barnes previously served as an assistant coach at Bowdoin from 2012-13 and has coached with the Maine Thunder travel softball program, as head coach of its 16U team, since November 2011. At Bowdoin, under head coach Ryan Sullivan, Barnes helped the Polar Bears to back-to-back NESCAC Softball Championship appearances while compiling a 58-28 overall record.
The 2009 North Atlantic Conference Player of the Year at UMaine-Farmington, as well as UMF's Female Athlete of the Year in 2011, Barnes involved herself in coaching immediately after matriculating, while also teaching mathematics at Brunswick High School, her alma mater.
Barnes graduated from UMF with a bachelor's degree in education in May 2011, and is currently pursuing a master's degree in sports leadership from Northeastern University.
