Video: Road trip! 400 miles, six hours, and three Bobcat teams

Last weekend, when three Bates teams headed to Clinton, N.Y., to face the Hamilton Continentals, we came along for the ride and the games.

Whether watching movies (Bridesmaids for the field hockey team), hitting the books, or just zoning out, these Bobcats acted out their own buddy road-trip movie.

For soccer player Beaufils Kimpolo-Pene ’20 of the Bronx, the trip was a good time to live up to the NESCAC ideal of, as he says, “student first, athlete second.”

“I do my homework and take care of that first,” he says. “And then once I’m on the field, my mind is clear. Focus on one goal, and that’s winning the game.”

A long bus trip together creates “human interaction, and that’s quality time.”

Which the men did, beating Hamilton 2-1, with Kimpolo-Pene scoring a goal (which he’d predicted). The women also defeated the Continentals, 1-0, while field hockey fell, 3-2.

A long bus trip together creates “human interaction, and that’s quality time,” says head coach Stewart Flaherty.

From talk shows to locker rooms, everyone talks about “building team chemistry,” says Flaherty. “But I don’t see another way to do it other than putting them in situations where they are around each other for an extended period of time.”

All aboard!