{"id":121123,"date":"2019-01-10T14:11:32","date_gmt":"2019-01-10T19:11:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=121123"},"modified":"2021-02-10T09:04:34","modified_gmt":"2021-02-10T14:04:34","slug":"look-what-we-found-pat-cosquers-ostrich-egg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2019\/01\/10\/look-what-we-found-pat-cosquers-ostrich-egg\/","title":{"rendered":"Look What We Found: Pat Cosquer’s ostrich egg"},"content":{"rendered":"

A beaded\u00a0ostrich\u00a0egg sits on the windowsill of Pat Cosquer\u2019s memento-filled office at the Bates Squash Facility, located at 56 Alfred Plourde Parkway in Lewiston.<\/p>\n

The elegant egg was a gift to Cosquer \u201997 from women\u2019s squash co-captain Lauren Williams \u201816 of Bulawyo, Zimbabwe. Female artists from Ndebele tribes in South Africa and Zimbabwe craft the beading on the eggs by hand.<\/p>\n

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A beaded ostrich egg sits on the window ledge in Pat Cosquer’s office. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>\n

When Williams arrived at Bates in 2013, she had never even visited campus. \u201cFor her to physically, emotionally, and mentally take this leap of faith to come to Bates was emblematic of the kind of person she is,\u201d Cosquer says. She personified the drive that he identifies with women\u2019s squash at Bates. \u201cJust the blind faith and trust she put into squash and me really meant a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cosquer received the gift from Williams and her family at graduation. It was \u201ca valuable validation,\u201d he says. \u201cIt meant that her experience had been meaningful and worthwhile.\u201d He appreciates that each and every one of his players, domestic or international, could have chosen colleges other than Bates and sports other than squash. \u201cIt\u2019s a really special decision that I don\u2019t ever take for granted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cosquer\u2019s goal as coach of Bates squash is for his sport to reflect the ethos of the college. \u201cThe more students from around the world with diverse backgrounds, socioeconomic status, race, and religion we can expose each other to,\u201d he says, the deeper the experience.<\/p>\n

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Cosquer poses with the gift from a former player, now a history teacher and a squash and tennis coach. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re sort of doing here,\u201d he says, is asking individuals with different interests and backgrounds and orientations to \u201cadapt to situations that may be uncomfortable for them. In a way we\u2019re sort of preparing young people for life after Bates, for life after squash, for adulthood.\u201d That preparation goes far beyond winning squash matches, \u201chonoring the rigors and stresses of everyday life as a college student.\u201d<\/p>\n

A four-year letterwinner in squash and baseball, Cosquer, a 1997 Bates graduate, amassed a 60-22 individual squash record and was team captain and team MVP his senior year under Hall of Fame coach George Wigton.<\/p>\n

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The beaded ostrich egg represents traditional Zimbabwean artwork dating back to medieval times. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>\n

As Cosquer glances around his small office located off the center\u2019s squash courts, he thinks about the progression his program has made. His appreciation for Williams, now a history teacher and head coach of girls’ squash and tennis at Loomis Chaffee School in Windsor, Conn., represents his pride in all of his players, many of whom go on to coach and mentor.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m proud of who they were when they were here. I\u2019m more proud of who they\u2019ve become.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A beaded\u00a0ostrich\u00a0egg sits on the window sill in the memento-filled office of Bates squash coach Pat Cosquer ’97.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":91,"featured_media":121129,"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":[24,130,11012],"tags":[8112],"class_list":["post-121123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-athletics","category-collaboration","category-student-life","tag-squash"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121123","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\/91"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121123"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121123\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":121367,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121123\/revisions\/121367"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}