Coaching Staff

Mark Harriman
Head Coach / Quarterbacks Coach

Mark Harriman is the 19th head coach in the 117-year history of the Bates College football program. In 2011, Harriman brings a 23-81 record into his 14th season with the Bobcats, including two outright Colby-Bates-Bowdoin (CBB) titles and one shared CBB crown from the 2009 season. Harriman is also assistant director of athletics at Bates. After coaching linebackers and/or serving as defensive coordinator in his previous 12 years at Bates, Harriman is coaching quarterbacks for the 2010 season. He is also the team’s academic coordinator and Admissions liaison. His recruiting areas of responsibility are western Massachusetts and metropolitan New York.

To Harriman, academics are linked inextricably with athletics at Bates.

“We want all of our players to realize their potential on the field and in the classroom,” Harriman says. “To accomplish this, we look for individuals who have a great work ethic on and off the field and who have a passion for football. We demand two things of everyone, regardless of their abilities: accountability for their actions in every phase of their lives, and a willingness to be a team player. In other words, Bates football players put the good of the team and their community ahead of the pursuit of personal accolades.”

A native of Westbrook, Maine, Harriman served as the defensive coordinator at Harvard for four seasons before arriving at Bates. The 1997 Crimson were the only Division I-AA team ranked in the top five in rushing defense, pass-efficiency defense and scoring defense, helping produce Harvard’s first undefeated Ivy League title.

Harriman’s efforts earned him American Football Quarterly’s 1997 Division I-AA defensive coordinator of the year honors. Prior to his stint at Harvard, his defense helped Princeton win two Ivy League titles. A 1980 graduate of Springfield College, Harriman was an All-New England linebacker.

Harriman lives in Monmouth, Maine, with his wife, Sue.

Duncan Averill
Defensive Backs / Strength and Conditioning

Duncan Averill is in his second year of coaching at Bates, following stints at four other football programs in New England. In addition to coaching defensive backs and coordinating strength and conditioning for the Bobcats, Coach Averill is the team’s video coordinator and a special teams assistant. Prior to Bates, he coached at: Husson University, where he coached both wide receivers and defensive backs over three years, and helped lead the Eagles to an ECAC Bowl appearance in 2008; Norwich University, where he coached running backs for one year; Maine Maritime Academy, where he was a defensive assistant for two years, including the Mariners’ ECAC Bowl Championship season in 2005; and his one year at his alma mater, Bridgewater State College, where he played wide receiver for the Bears during two NCAA Division III playoff appearances. A native of Farmington, Maine, and a graduate of Mt. Blue High School, Duncan lives in Auburn with his wife Lee and 2-year-old son Logan. His recruiting areas of responsibility include Connecticut, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Eastern Massachusetts.

Skip Capone
Special Teams Coordinator / Defensive Line

Skip Capone is the senior member of the Bates coaching staff; he’s now in his 15th season as a coach for the Bobcats, and his second as the team’s special teams coordinator. Prior to his time at Bates, Coach Capone was the head coach at Lewiston High School, where he led the Blue Devils to two Maine State Class A championships. His recruiting areas are Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. Skip resides in Auburn with his wife, Marie, and has two children, Krysta and Matt Capone ’07, a former track and field standout and the former interim head coach of both the men’s and women’s track and field teams at Bates.

Mark Clements
Receivers

A 2011 graduate of Saint Joseph’s College of Maine, Mark Clements is in his first year of coaching at Bates. Coach Clements earned a Bachelor’s degree in physical education at St. Joe’s, where he played catcher for the Monks baseball team. Prior to transferring to St. Joe’s, Mark attended Maine Maritime Academy and played football for the Mariners. In 2006, Mark captained and quarterbacked his Gorham High School team to the Maine state championship game. Mark’s uncle, Gene Keene, also coached receivers at Bates in 2003. He now lives in Auburn.

Chris Kempton
Defensive Coordinator / Inside Linebackers

Chris Kempton is now in his sixth season at Bates, where he serves as defensive coordinator and also coaches linebackers. Coach Kempton, the Bobcats’ former special teams and defensive backs coach, previously coached for six years at Colby College and was a high school head coach in Maine for six years. He graduated from the University of Maine at Orono with a bachelor’s degree in physical education. Coach Kempton’s recruiting areas include Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Central and Eastern Massachusetts. He lives with his wife Kim and daughters Paycen (5) and Logan (3) in Winthrop.

Walter Polky
Outside Linebackers

Walter Polky is in his second year as a coach at Bates, after serving as outside linebackers coach in 2010. Coach Polky is also special teams assistant and video assistant. Walter coached outside linebackers at Husson University for three years; during his tenure there, he graduated from the University of Maine at Orono, where he majored in sociology, and then earned a master’s degree in counseling psychology from Husson. Before transferring to Orono, Polky was a student and football player at Southern Connecticut State University, where he was a two-year starter for the Owls at defensive end. Walter grew up in Fayette, Maine, and was an All-State player at Winthrop High School.

Mike Ryan
Outside Linebackers

A 2011 graduate of the University of Connecticut, Mike Ryan is in his first season coaching outside linebackers at Bates. Coach Ryan served as a student defensive assistant for the UConn football team for three and a half years while at Storrs, as the Huskies went to the 2008 International Bowl, the 2009 Papajohns.com Bowl and the 2010 Fiesta Bowl, in addition to winning the 2010 Big East Conference championship. Mike earned a bachelor’s degree in coaching and administration at UConn. Before transferring to Connecticut, Mike attended Salve Regina University for a year and played offensive line for the Seahawks. The Colchester, Conn., native played offensive and defensive line and captained the football team at Bacon Academy. He now lives in Lewiston.

Daryle Weiss
Offensive Coordinator / Offensive Line

Daryle Weiss is in his fourth season of coaching at Bates, and his second as the Bobcats’ offensive coordinator. Coach Weiss has served as the team’s recruiting coordinator and offensive line coach in all four of his years in Lewiston. Prior to coaching at Bates, he was head football coach at Westbrook High School in 2007, after a six-year stint as head football coach at Rockland High School. A New Jersey native, Coach Weiss graduated from New Jersey City University with a degree in special education. Weiss was a professional actor for five years, and trained at the Lee Strasberg Theater and Film Institute in New York City. Coach Weiss’s recruiting areas of responsibility includee New Jersey, Rhode Island, Oklahoma, and Eastern and Western Massachusetts. He lives in Turner with his wife Kelly, his 13-year-old son Marshall and his 7-year-old daughter Abby.