Bates Coach Web Harrison decides he must step aside

After nine straight losing seasons, including this year’s 0-6-1 campaign heading into Saturday’s season finale with Tufts, Bates College football coach Web Harrison decided it was time to step aside and let someone else try to make the Bobcats of Lewiston a winner.

“I’m doing this primarily because of how I saw the direction of things,” said Harrison, speaking Wednesday about his sudden announcement Tuesday that he is resigning after 14 seasons at Bates, effective the end of the current campaign. “I didn’t feel the program is going in the right direction.”

Harrison stressed he was not asked to resign by anyone in the Bates administration. He said he received no external pressure to leave from anyone at the Division III institution.

“I have a four-year contract. That wasn’t the case. There’s the obvious pressure that comes with a lack of success for whatever reason. That’s the kind of pressure you feel when things aren’t going well. For me, this was a very personal decision. I want to see things get a little better at Bates. There comes a time when the only way to do that is with change,” Harrison said.

News of Harrison’s resignation as the senior coach of the CBB stunned fellow coaches Howard Vandersea of Bowdoin and Tom Austin of Colby.

“I found out yesterday and I was shocked about the whole thing and sad in some ways,” said Vandersea, who has coached against Harrison for eight seasons. “We were college classmates together. We’re both Bates graduates, class of ’63. I’ve known Web for many years. He’s always been a very professional coach who has his kids playing as hard as they can.”

Austin, a University of Maine graduate who played football against Harrison during the old State Series, said he was also saddened by the announcement.

“It was disappointing,” said Austin. “Web and I played against each other and we coached with each other at BU (Boston University) from 1969-73. He’s a quality gentleman.”

Harrison, whose career record at Bates is currently 39-69-3, left his assistant’s post at BU to coach at his alma mater in 1974, serving as an assistant to football coach Vic Gatto. When Gatto resigned in 1978, Harrison was named interim coach. After leading the Bobcats to a 6-2 record and CBB championship his first season, he was named the permanent coach.

A Vietnam War veteran, who served in the Marine Corps in the 1960s, Harrison has been the men’s lacrosse coach at Bates from 1977 to the present. He was named New England Lacrosse Coach of the Year in 1984 and was a finalist for National Coach of the Year honors the same year.

Harrison said he plans to remain the lacrosse coach at Bates for now, but won’t rule out returning to the gridiron in the future.

“I love Bates and I love coaching football. I’ll miss coaching football unbelievably. It’s what I’ve done for 25 years. I view myself as a football coach,” said Harrison.

Bates Athletic Director Suzanne Coffey said she hopes to conduct a national search to find a replacement for Harrison and hopes to name the new coach by the spring of 1992.

“We have tremendous respect for Web as a coach and person,” Coffey said.