Coaching Staff
Peter Lasagna Office: (207) 786-8263 E-mail: plasagna@bates.edu
Peter Lasagna enters his 14th season as head coach of men’s lacrosse at Bates College in the 2013-14 academic year, having just won his second NESCAC Coach of the Year award from the New England Small College Athletic Conference. Lasagna has led the Bobcats to four appearances in the NESCAC Championship.
In 2013 Lasagna led the Bobcats to a 7-6 regular-season record, including a 5-5 mark in NESCAC games. Bates made its first appearance in the NESCAC Men’s Lacrosse Championship tournament since 2007, earning the sixth seed and falling in a competitive quarterfinal game at Tufts.
Bates recorded its most victories, overall and in conference play, since 2006, when the team was 9-5 and 5-4. It is Lasagna’s second time being named NESCAC Coach of the Year: he also received the honor in 2005.
Only the third head lacrosse coach ever at Bates, under Lasagna’s leadership four Bates players have been named USILA All-Americans (most recently Kevin Helm in 2012), and a fifth went on to play for the Boston Cannons of Major League Lacrosse.
A 1982 graduate of Brown University, Lasagna came to Bates after 18 years of coaching the Bears at his alma mater, including the last eight as head coach.
Lasagna compiled a 65-51 record as the Bears’ head coach, 30-18 in Ivy League games. Brown went to three NCAA Division I championship tournaments during Lasagna’s tenure, including an appearance in the national semifinals in 1994 and the quarterfinals in 1995. Lasagna was named Division I Coach of the Year by the United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association that year. He was also named Division I Coach of the Year by the New England Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association in both 1994 and 1995.
Lasagna won more NCAA playoff games at Brown than any other Brown head coach.
A well-known voice in the collegiate lacrosse community, Lasagna has also been the back-page columnist for the award-winning magazine Inside Lacrosse since 2001. He has served as master of ceremonies at two US Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association’s coaches’ conventions.
In 2002, Lasagna was inducted into the New England Lacrosse Hall of Fame, and in 2011 he was inducted into the Greater Rochester (N.Y.) Lacrosse Hall of Fame.
Bill Mason
Assistant Coach
Bill Mason begins his first year as Bates’ assistant coach in the 2012-13 academic year. Mason played at Western New England University under head coach John Klepacki, where he helped the Golden Bears reach the Elite Eight of the NCAA Division III Men’s Lacrosse Championship. Mason served as an assistant coach at WNEU in 2012, assisting the offense and goalies for a squad that went undefeated in its conference and ranked 15th in Division III and competed in the NCAA tournament. “I am very excited to be at Bates and working with such a well-respected coach. Coach Lasagna is a true legend of the sport and I look forward to learning from him. I’m also looking forward to coaching in the NESCAC, the most competitive conference in Division III lacrosse. Bates lacrosse is ready to take the next step, and I am privileged to be a part of this team.”
Will Akie ’08
Assistant Coach
Will Akie enters his second season as assistant coach at Bates in 2013. Akie is a 2008 graduate of Bates College, where he earned four varsity letters. As a midfielder, Akie took faceoffs and was one of the Bobcats’ top ground ball retrievers in his senior season.