Bates College Women's Tennis

Gastonguays enduring legacy of winning tennis at Bates. Drawing the NCAA Division III Mens Tennis Championships for the second time in five years in 2008 is just the latest example of the activism and dedication regularly shown by Gastonguay to his program and alma mater. Twice honored as the NESCAC Coach of the Year, Gastonguay has led the mens program to one of the longest periods of sustained excellence of any sport in school history. The team has qualified for the NESCAC tournament each year since it began in 2001 and also qualified for the NCAA Championships for seven straight years beginning in 2000. In 2006, Gastonguays top singles player at Bates to date, Will Boe-Wiegaard 06, won the NCAA Division III Mens Singles Championship despite being unseeded. In 2002, Gastonguay was selected as the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Division III Northeast Region Mens Coach of the Year. Gastonguay became the head tennis coach of the Bates womens program in 2001, and he was named NESCAC Womens Tennis Coach of the Year in 2003. Gastonguay was inducted into the Lewiston-Auburn Sports Hall of Fame in 2006. A Lewiston native, Gastonguay graduated from Bates in 1989 as the winningest tennis player in Bates College history, amassing a combined record of 149-41 in his four-year playing career. He set three of the top four single-season marks in school history and became the Bobcats second-ever All-American in tennis in his senior season, during which he was a finalist for the NCAA Arthur Ashe Award. Gastonguay competed professionally in International Tennis Federation Satellite, Challenger and ATP Tour events, where he achieved world rankings in singles and doubles. He served as a practice partner for former ATP Tour top ranked player Ivan Lendl during the last four years of his career.

In 2024–25, Coach Sharma became the first head coach dedicated solely to the women’s tennis team at Bates College in nearly a quarter century—and wasted no time setting a new standard. In his debut season, he led the Bobcats to a significant leap forward, tripling the team’s NESCAC wins from the previous year and securing a program-defining victory over #16-ranked Williams College. That win marked the program’s first ever over Williams and its highest-ranked triumph in recent memory, propelling Bates to a national ranking of #37—their best in years. Sharma brings firsthand experience as a former NCAA Division I student-athlete. He competed for the University of Richmond, where he served as team captain his senior year. His time at Richmond helped shape his approach to leadership and player development, combining the demands of high-level collegiate competition with a deep commitment to team culture and personal growth. Sharma’s leadership, the team has found a new competitive edge. In addition to the landmark win over Williams, Bates notched doubles victories against strong programs like Bowdoin, Tufts, Hamilton, Vassar, and more, while earning notable singles wins against teams such as Middlebury, Colby, and RPI. Even in narrow three-set losses to top-tier teams like Wesleyan and Wellesley, the Bobcats showed resilience, depth, and progress. Off the court, Coach Sharma’s influence extends across the national tennis community. He was invited to speak on a panel for recruits and parents at IMG Academy and was selected by former Baylor head coach and ITA Coach of the Year Matt Knoll to attend the prestigious College Tennis Recruiting Showcase held at Columbia University in partnership with Dwight Global Online School. Before arriving at Bates, Sharma served as Director of Tennis at Marist College, where he coached the MAAC Rookie of the Year on the women’s team. On the men’s side, his coaching helped guide six players to All-Conference honors and led the team to back-to-back postseason appearances during his tenure. Sharma’s coaching philosophy is rooted in freedom, trust, accountability, hard work, and teamwork—principles that build not only strong players, but strong people. Outside the world of tennis, Coach Sharma is an accomplished techno music producer and has the rare distinction of being the only college tennis coach to have DJed at legendary clubs including Berghain and Tresor in Berlin, and Basement in New York City.