For her final Bates sportrait, Amanda Kaufmann ’22 of Somers, Conn., was looking for a pose that captured a hunger for greatness. And that’s what she got. “My favorite of four years,” she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mohamed Diawara \u201923 of Philadelphia wanted a pose that would display the photo on a pendant he wears to honor a friend who died. Burns “made sure it worked,” Diawara says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first-year Bates baseball players wanted to recreate an 1879 team photo. “He was as excited as we were, and helped us make our replica as accurate as possible.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“When people get together and they’re all enthusiastic and they’re all having a good time, then they free up, take more chances,” says Burns. “Creativity demands taking chances, both on my part and their part. It’s a partnership.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here are 16 of our favorites, featuring quotes from the Bobcats gathered by Bates Communications intern Aaliyah Moore ’24 of Phoenix:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Why would I want to hide my strength?\u2019 <\/h5>\n\n\n\n
Competitive swimmers, both male and female, are known for developing broad shoulders and skinny hips, explains Natalie Young \u201824 of Windham, N.H. For a woman, that means having a body type \u201cthat more closely resembles the \u2018ideal\u2019 male body type.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Young\u2019s specialty is the butterfly, which \u201crequires a great deal of upper-body strength, more than other swimming events.\u201d For Young, broad shoulders \u201csymbolize the countless hours of dedicated work that I have poured into this sport over the years. \u201cTruth is, I have no shame in my broad \u2018swimmer shoulders.\u2018 I view the female swimmer body type as my ideal body type. It\u2019s literally something that I wear as a badge of honor. Why would I want to hide my strength?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Young says her creative sportrait, \u201creflects the pride that I feel being a swimmer and conveys the confidence that it has given me in my body type.\u201d The pose has another purpose, she says: a bit of \u201cintimidation for the competition.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n After the wipeout of the 2020\u201321 sports season, Bates athletes, especially seniors, returned to the field, court, pitch, and slopes in high gear. <\/p>\n\n\n\n For her creative sportrait, Daphne James \u201822 of Sausalito, Calif., wanted to showcase the excitement and energy that marked the reopening of Bates sports but also \u201csomething fun and goofy, especially because skiing can be serious and intense. So this pose came to mind. It says, \u2018I\u2019m just here to have a good time and happy to be a Bobcat!\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n The pose is also a \u201cgood reminder of why we do our sports and what got us here: love of our sport and for being a member of a team.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yeah, it happens: throwing up after a really tough workout. As one scholarly paper notes, \u201cNausea and vomiting are relatively frequent symptoms in athletes.\u201d As Colby Stakun-Pickering \u201923 of Wellesley, Mass., puts it, \u201charder and harder workouts occasionally mean a trip to the trash can.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Like other Bobcats, senior soccer players Ciaran Bardong of Manhasset, N.Y., Luke Protti of Amherst, Mass., and Charlie Cronin of South Portland, Maine, wanted to cook up something special for their final Bates sportrait.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOne of us suggested fake mustaches, and we instinctively knew that chefs hats and cooking utensils were essential additions,\u201d says Cronin. \u201cOne could say we’re Michelin starred.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n On a scale of 1 to 10, we\u2019re 9 3\/4 obsessed with this Harry Potter look served up by women\u2019s cross country runner Mary Richardson \u201922 of Blue Hill, Maine. \u201cI grew up reading Harry Potter and felt inspired to pay homage for my senior year sportrait,\u201d she explains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Richardson says her childhood was \u201creally crafty\u201d (as in creative, not wizardly). \u201cMy mom always made Halloween costumes for me and my sister, so we’ve always had capes and crazy hats laying around.\u201d Packing for her return to Bates last August, Richardson spied a Gryffindor scarf peeking out from a bin in her closet. Paired with her glasses, the look was complete.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What looks like a staid pose by the first-year members of the baseball team is actually a brilliant homage to a 143-year-old team picture taken at the dawn of Bates intercollegiate athletics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe old picture was found by a senior, Antonio Jareno, who suggested that the first years recreate it,\u201d explains Josh Sherman \u201825 of Lexington, Mass. The historic photo depicts the baseball team in only its seventh year of existence, 1879.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The team back then didn\u2019t have an official coach \u2014 it wouldn\u2019t until 1906. Instead, a student team manager helped run the club. Holding the bowler hat at back left is the student manager, Harry Merrill, Class of 1880. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Merrill\u2019s appearance in the 1879 photo suited the Bates first years because it allowed them to include Sherman, the student manager of the modern-day team. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Adding to the fun of sportraits, says Sherman and others, is that Burns supports their creativity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe photographer was very excited by our desire to recreate the photo as exact as possible, so he helped us adjust our positioning and told us each where to direct our eyes so that our replica could be as accurate as we could make it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n For his first Bates sportrait two years ago, Mohamed Diawara \u201923 of Philadelphia posed with his arms spread wide, one hand holding a football. \u201cI was celebrating my arrival at Bates,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Two years later, Diawara again chose to hold a football. But this time, he put his hands together and put his head down, so the viewer sees another face: the one pictured on the chain he\u2019s wearing, that of his close friend and football teammate in high school who died from gun violence in 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n \u201cI wear the necklace because I always want to keep his love for the game and legacy alive. It\u2019s my way of knowing that I\u2019m carrying him with me,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019m looking away, because it\u2019s about his face, not mine. He\u2019s part of my heart now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n This homage to the iconic cover of the album Queen II <\/em>was created by four members of the men’s rowing team. <\/p>\n\n\n\n At top in the photo is Thomas Monahan of Louisville, Colo., and below, from left, are Xavier Fallone of Niskayuna, N.Y., William Corcoran of Chevy Chase, Md., and Jasper Tucker of New Canaan, Conn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n Respectively, they’re assuming the poses of Brian May, John Deacon, Freddie Mercury, and Roger Taylor from the 1974 album cover.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tucker came up with the idea on the spot, explains Monahan. \u201cThe long black Under Armor tops we wear for our winter rows were perfect for the pose.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Beyond the gear, \u201cit\u2019s the spontaneity that makes it so great,\u201d he says. \u201cThe hundreds of hours we train together produce an incredibly close-knit group of guys. This closeness and the comfort we have with each other is what make Bates men\u2019s rowing so special and these moments so frequent.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fun fact: A photo of Marlene Dietrich taken during filming of the 1932 movie Shanghai Express<\/em> was the inspiration for Queen\u2019s cover photo, taken by Mick Rock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The juniors on the softball team were on the lookout for a pose for their creative sportrait, and landed on the idea of rowing and looking ahead together. <\/p>\n\n\n\n From left, Kama Boswell of Bellevue, Wash., Lindsey Kim of Palo Alto, Calif., Amanda Taylor of Fair Lawn, N.J., Katherine Merisotis of Coventry, Conn., and, keeping an eye out, Cassidy Musco of Walpole, Mass. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This is a go-to pose for lacrosse player Shelby Howard \u201823 of Ashland, Mass. \u201cI did this pose my freshman year, and will most likely do it once more as I am a rising senior.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n An alpine stance and lacrosse sticks as ski poles pokes fun at Maine\u2019s long winter. \u201cLacrosse is a spring sport, but in Maine, it\u2019s also a winter sport since we start playing in February.\u201d And winter can be hard to escape. \u201cWe also went to Chicago for our pre-season trip this past year, where we played outdoors in snowy conditions, so I think this photo foreshadowed that.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n In explaining the choice to pay homage to the iconic photo of the flag raising on Iwo Jima, Liam Evans \u201922 of Sauquoit, N.Y., respects the limits of a war metaphor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s not meant to glorify war, or equate track to the toll war takes,\u201d says Evans. Instead, he and his fellow seniors wanted to \u201cconvey the demanding nature of track and field, the perseverance one must adopt to succeed, and the idea of individual achievement and collective triumph.\u201d From left, Garrett Evans (Liam\u2019s brother), Liam, Paul Speliakos, and co-captain Charlie Hansen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s about having a soldier\u2019s mentality to succeed in track and field. Mental fortitude is just as important as physical preparation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n A simple relay baton became a eye-opening prop for track sprinter and jumper Jeandodie Tangishaka ’25 of Goodyear, Ariz. <\/p>\n\n\n\n While the baton is a simple piece of sports equipment, it carries huge importance.”The handover is the most important part of any sprint relay,” explains Tangishaka. “The quality of the baton exchange between any two runners can determine success or failure.” You can have the four fastest runners in a relay and still do poorly. “Ideally, both runners should meet at full speed and avoid slowing down” during handoff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tangishak says that he peered through the baton “to emphasize the importance of seeing and running as one with the baton in order to make the perfect exchange.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI’ve always admired female athletes who pose so confidently and I wanted to emulate that,\u201d explains Amanda Kaufman \u201822 of Somers, Conn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She references a brief YouTube video of sprinter and hurdler Sydney McLaughlin<\/a>, the world record holder in the 400 meters hurdles and a 2020 Olympic gold medalist<\/a>. \u201cShe\u2019s down in the blocks, does a hair flip to bring her face to the camera, and then winks. That\u2019s awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe train hard, September to May. It\u2019s a grind. But the environment at practice every day, being surrounded by other hard working women, really makes the grind worth it. We make each other better and we are better together!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think the facial expression the photographer captured was a hunger for greatness and it is a reflection of the grittiness that we see at practice every day.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cross country runners seem rarely at a loss for inside jokes, which is how good friends and roommates Eli Boesch Dining ’23 (left) of Concord, N.H., and Clem Taylor-Roth ’23 of Juneau, Alaska, came up with their grass-watering vignette.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “We think of Eli as our plant guy. His hat says ‘John Deere Golf,'” explains Taylor-Roth. “He works in the college greenhouse and is an environmental studies major.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n “And Clem always has this signature water bottle, a massive hydroflask,” says Boesch Dining.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Last fall’s photo sessions were held outdoors at the Ladd Library Arcade, so Boesch Dining grabbed a bunch of nearby grass (“sustainably harvested,” notes Taylor-Roth). His friend held it while Boesch Dining did the watering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tend the garden, and see the results, they say. “Put in the work, sleep well, hydrate, eat healthy, and put up mileage: Your speed and success as a runner will grow.” says Boesch Dining.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The juniors on last year’s women’s basketball team chose this fierce and determined pose for their creative sportrait, taken on Nov. 5, 2021, well before the start of their historic season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was a pose, but these Bobcats were hardly poseurs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n With major contributions from the four \u2014 from left, Meghan Graff of South Portland, Maine, Jenna Berens of Durham, Conn., Brianna Gadaleta of Chappaqua, N.Y., and Kayla Bridgeman of Brooklyn, N.Y. \u2014 the Bobcats went on to win their first NESCAC title, then advanced to the second round of the NCAA Division III tournament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The sportrait “brings out the competitiveness of our team,” says Graff. <\/p>\n\n\n\n (The smoke, by the way, was created by a fogging device that Burns borrowed from a local electrician, who uses it for HVAC testing.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n This creative sportrait “shows our personalities very well,” says golfer Maddy Kwei \u201825 of Pasadena, Calif. She’s holding the tee in her teeth as her friend and teammate Nerea Barranco Aramburu \u201825 of Zarautz, Spain, takes the backswing. “We’re each other’s supporter and competitor on the course, and that’s the best part.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n “We both love to have a laugh on the course and with our coaches and teammates,” she adds. “We’re here to compete seriously, but also Bates golf wouldn’t be Bates golf without some smiles and fun.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" After sports head shots are done, it’s time for Bobcats to celebrate self and team by striking a pose of their own. “The key to the whole thing is enthusiasm,” says photographer Brewster Burns.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":148,"featured_media":147663,"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":[24,223,224,11012],"tags":[12327,12309],"class_list":["post-147624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-athletics","category-slideshow","category-society-culture","category-student-life","tag-aaliyah-moore","tag-sportrait"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147624","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=147624"}],"version-history":[{"count":27,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147624\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":153266,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147624\/revisions\/153266"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2022\/06\/2021-11-04_Bates_Sportraits2-572.webp\")
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\n\n\n\nWhy we do what we do<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
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\n\n\n\nTrashion Show<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
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During the sportrait session for the indoor track team, Stakun-Pickering was at a loss for his creative pose. Then he spied a trash can, and decided to show a different side of being a track athlete. What the viewer sees, he explains, \u201cis what my teammates and Coach might see as they rally me back to the track for more sprints.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nHome cookin\u2019<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
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\n\n\n\nYer a wizard, Mary!<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
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\n\n\n\n1879 to 2022<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
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\n\n\n\n\u2018Part of my heart\u2019<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
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\n\n\n\nQueen for a day<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
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\n\n\n\nAll aboard<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
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\n\n\n\nWinter rules<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nBand of Bobcats<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
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\n\n\n\nSeeing and running<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
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\n\n\n\nHunger for greatness<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
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\n\n\n\nFertile imaginations<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nPoised pose<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
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\n\n\n\nSupporter and competitor<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
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