{"id":105570,"date":"2017-02-03T12:07:52","date_gmt":"2017-02-03T17:07:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=105570"},"modified":"2023-11-21T11:08:17","modified_gmt":"2023-11-21T16:08:17","slug":"bates-at-night-alumni-gymnasium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2017\/02\/03\/bates-at-night-alumni-gymnasium\/","title":{"rendered":"Bates at Night: Alumni Gymnasium"},"content":{"rendered":"

For years, local resident Don Robitaille, 85, has been coming to games in Alumni Gymnasium and leading the crowd in a cheer.<\/p>\n

A student who once led the cheer graduated, Robitaille explains during a break in Tuesday night\u2019s women\u2019s game, so he stepped in.<\/p>\n

Robitaille went straight to the Navy after high school, and while he didn\u2019t attend Bates he feels a hometown connection. \u201cI\u2019m just a big fan of Bates,\u201d says Robitaille, who retired from the soda vending-machine repair business more than 20 years ago. \u201cFor me, it\u2019s a way to do my part for the game.\u201d<\/p>\n\t\n\t

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Head coach Alison Montgomery talks to the team during a timeout on Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2017.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t

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Referee Jeff Coffin talks with a fellow official during halftime at the women's game vs. the University of Maine at Farmington.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t

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Bates defeated visiting UMF, 71-42, as captain Ali Coppola '17 of Tarrytown, N.Y. set the Bates record for career rebounds.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t

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Don Robitaille of Lewiston leads a cheer for Bates during the game on Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2017.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t

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On the court, Jim Coffin has been a college basketball referee for 10 years, and has always enjoyed working in Alumni Gym.<\/p>\n

The court surface, he says, has more bounce than most. \u201cWe don\u2019t get our feet hurting as much.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coffin mentioned another, literal, atmospheric point. \u201cThey used to have the heat cranked right up here, and you used to have a huge home court advantage, because everyone would be getting tired in the second half, including the referees.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s true \u2013\u2013 Alumni Gym is no longer a sauna. Recently installed heating controls mean a more level temperature and, perhaps, a more level playing field. But the close quarters, history, and energy of Alumni still pose a challenge to visiting teams.<\/p>\n

Oh, about the game. The women had a resounding 71-42 victory over visiting University of Maine at Farmington, as captain Allie Coppola \u201917 of Tarrytown, N.Y., set a record for career rebounds. She wasted no time, collecting seven of her 16 rebounds in the first quarter to solidify her place in Bates history.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An octogenarian cheerleader, a ref with tender feet, and the newly temperate climate in Alumni Gym.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":148,"featured_media":105573,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":[],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":""},"categories":[24,31,17,11009],"tags":[11217,10830],"class_list":["post-105570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-athletics","category-lewiston-auburn","category-partners-public","category-the-college","tag-bates-at-night","tag-lewiston-auburn"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/148"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105570"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105570\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":105621,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105570\/revisions\/105621"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}