SPRING 2008 Community College Magazine - Northampton ...

the current commissioner of the PCAA, has known our recent retiree
since he began coaching at CCAC 23 years ago. “I always admired
and respected Bill,” says Bell. “He will truly be missed, both as a
leader and as a person. He is a class act.”
Indeed, there is much about Bill Bearse that defi nes “class.”
Assistant Director of Athletics Adrian Yaguez says his boss opened
his eyes and helped him to be more diplomatic and approachable.
“And when you think of Bill,” he says, “that is exactly what he is –
approachable. He is never too busy or overwhelmed or preoccupied.
No matter what the situation, he always has time.”
It is that knack for the personal, that genuineness about the
man that fosters such loyalty toward him, either on the intimate
or the professional side of things. NCC’s women’s softball coach,
Sam Carrodo, like Yaguez, has benefited from Bearse’s insights.
“In my 10 years working for him,” Carrodo says, “Bill has helped
me understand the community college student and athlete. He has
been by my side, guiding me and showing me how to become a
better coach.”
By all accounts, Bearse is of solid character – as coach, as
leader, as friend. He is perhaps what Bell calls him, as one from
the eastern part of the state, and as someone everyone can count on:
“The Rock of the East.”
Along with his admired leadership in the PCAA and the EPCC,
Bearse’s scoreboard is lit with more impressive stats: he has served
as the College’s baseball, golf, cross country and bowling coach,
and was named Coach of the Year four times in golf, and once in
bowling. The Coach has published a number of articles on coaching,
and, carrying the rank of associate professor, he was honored with
the Outstanding Professional Educator’s Award in 1992.
Bearse held three directorships at Northampton, simultaneously:
athletics, physical education and sport management; the latter
program being one that he also largely created. Before putting the
sport management curriculum together though, he attended 30
credits of class time on the subject at the University of Georgia, just
to make sure his program was done right.
Career stats for Bearse shout from the page with a loud and
brassy voice. The man himself, however, is anything but blood, guts
and glory. With all those Spartan wins, all that department growth
under his belt, all that driving success – you might conjure the
image of a tough-talking, cigar-chomping, fi st-pounding win-or-else
mentality, a coach with no other thought than to scratch and club to
the top of any heap in his way.
Don’t bet on that. Bill is a gentleman, of the soft-spoken
“Southern gentleman” variety. When you first meet him, you will
probably be struck by his Southern drawl, for which he has taken
much good-natured ribbing from Northern friends and colleagues.
Stay with him long enough though, and you’re sure to hear him
carry on another distinguishing feature of his Southern cultural
heritage: storytelling.
He has a good stock of them. Like the time he and some
colleagues arrived early for a working retreat at the Pocono’s Split
Rock Lodge. “We got there a little early,” Bearse says, barely
suppressing a grin, “and I figured we should use our time wisely. So,
I sort of talked my friends into doing some water skiing. I figured
we’d be done in plenty of time.”
Unfortunately, time being a slippery commodity, he lost
track of it. And to complicate things, his supervisor – then-dean
of students, and now-president Dr. Scott – arrived a bit earlier than
Along with his admired leadership in the PCAA and the EPCC, Bearse’s
scoreboard is lit with more impressive stats: he has served as the College’s
baseball, golf, cross country and bowling coach, and was named Coach of the
Year four times in golf, and once in bowling. The Coach has published a number
of articles on coaching, and, carrying the rank of associate professor, he was
honored with the Outstanding Professional Educator’s Award in 1992.
14 NCC ● SPRING 2008