The Foundation: Why Bates Led the Way

When the Bates College Athletics leadership team looked at their technology roadmap earlier this year, they had already taken significant steps forward with Hub and Compliance + Recruiting (C+R). The question then became: what led them to prioritize AMS as the next step?

Like many NCAA Division III institutions, Bates constantly seeks ways to enhance efficiency to improve results and elevate the student experience. These goals often present a challenge, as enhancing student outcomes and experiences can sometimes increase the burden on staff.

The Growing Challenge

Over the past decade, Bates  observed a consistent increase in institutional demands:

• Compliance pressure: Growing need to meet State, Federal, and NCAA compliance requirements
• Rising student expectations: Student-athletes are increasingly seeking advanced support to meet their performance needs
• Expanded support landscape: The landscape of athletic development is rapidly developing with new tools for strength and conditioning, workload management, nutrition, physical health, recovery, and mental preparedness
• Resource constraints: Bates doesn’t have the resources for fully-staffed departments to manage each of these specialized areas within their athletics division

Rather than view these constraints as limitations, Bates saw an opportunity to innovate.

The Strategic Vision

After implementing Hub and C+R earlier in the year, the question wasn’t whether to add more technology—it was how to create something truly transformative. The athletics leadership team prioritized AMS as the logical next step on their roadmap, driven by a clear vision: to create a comprehensive solution that would address their resource constraints while elevating their capabilities to new heights.

The Integration Advantage

The combination of Hub, C+R, and AMS delivers powerful benefits:

• Single platform efficiency: All aspects of student-athlete development managed in one place
• Reduced staff burden: Eliminates working in multiple systems, cross-checking, and endless follow-ups
• Error reduction: One-stop solution minimizes mistakes and enhances accountability
• Maximized resources: Gets the most from existing staff and budget

The core insight: Bates sees the investment in Teamworks as a pivotal solution to maximize their resources and staff. The integrated platform will serve as a central hub for all Bates student-athlete data. This centralization will allow them to easily synthesize a comprehensive picture, enabling Bates athletics  to make more informed, data-driven decisions.

As Will Rothermel explains, “We believe that better information leads to better decision-making.”

Building Comprehensive Athlete Profiles

Bates’ aim is to consolidate existing data and strategically integrate new technologies and data points into the Athlete Management System (AMS). This will build a robust player and team profile that tracks progress throughout each student-athlete’s career.

Breaking Down Barriers: The Communication Revolution

Perhaps the most compelling aspect of Bates’ AMS implementation lies in its potential to solve a persistent challenge that has plagued athletics departments for decades: siloed communication between critical departments.

The Historical Problem

Traditional barriers that have prevented optimal information sharing:

• Staff limitations: Not enough people to facilitate constant communication
• Time constraints: Busy schedules preventing regular coordination
• Proximity challenges: Departments in different locations or working different hours
• System incompatibilities: Multiple platforms that don’t talk to each other

The AMS Solution

It is Bates’ hope that the AMS integration will streamline communication between sports medicine and strength and conditioning to make it develop a two-way flow of information that has never been fully realized before due to prototypical barriers like staff, time, and proximity for this level of information sharing.

This enhanced communication is particularly crucial around return-to-play decisions, where comprehensive data sharing between departments can significantly impact both student-athlete safety and performance outcomes.

Real-world impact: When considering an athlete’s recovery from injury, traditional sports medicine and strength and conditioning would likely coordinate through email updates and informal check-ins. With AMS, both departments work from the same real-time data, creating seamless collaboration that puts the student-athlete’s complete picture at the center of every decision.

Leadership Philosophy: Excellence Without Compromise

The decision to become the first Division III institution to implement AMS reflects something deeper than technology adoption—it reveals Bates’ core philosophy about what its student-athletes deserve.

The Vision Statement

Athletic Director Stacey Bunting and Deputy AD Will Rothermel capture this philosophy:

“Bates Athletics is invested in the holistic development of our student-athletes, and we are committed to equipping them with the very best tools for success on and off the field. Deepening our partnership with Teamworks and becoming the first Division-III institution nationwide to implement this innovative AMS platform is about providing our student-athletes with a system that not only propels them to compete at a championship-level, but gives them a foundation to be the best versions of themselves.”

What This Means in Practice

• Not settling for less: Division III doesn’t mean accepting inferior support
• Championship-level tools: Access to the same technology caliber as the larger athletic programs
• Holistic development: Supporting the complete person, not just the athlete
• Future foundation: Building capabilities that benefit students beyond sports

Bates’ comprehensive adoption of all three Teamworks systems—Hub, C+R, and AMS—demonstrates their belief that advanced sports technology and data-driven athlete development aren’t exclusive to Division I programs.

Implementation Reality: Building for Long-Term Success

Bates approaches its AMS implementation with the wisdom that comes from understanding both the potential and the challenges of transformational change. “While we have lofty goals to achieve, all of this transition and implementation takes time,” Rothemel acknowledged with refreshing honesty.

Year One Strategy

While Bates has established lofty achievement goals, transition and implementation takes time. Their first-year approach focuses on foundation-building rather than immediate perfection:

• System refinement: Bates anticipates that they will spend much of this year refining the information that flows into this system
• Staff education: Better ability to educate everyone on how to optimize this level of data
• Historical context: Many may not have had access to this level of data
• Gradual optimization: Building toward a larger vision over time

Bates anticipates spending much of this year refining the information that flows into the system to better educate everyone on how to optimize a level of data that many may not have had access to historically. This measured approach recognizes that successful technology adoption requires both technical implementation and cultural adaptation across the athletics department.

The Three Pillars: Prepared, Available, and Ready

Bates’ holistic approach through the integrated Teamworks platform centers on three fundamental outcomes that define athletic excellence.

Prepared

Student-athletes receive comprehensive data-driven training and development programs that are guided by complete athlete profiles. Every training session, recovery protocol, and performance metric contributes to a deeper understanding of what each athlete needs to reach their potential.

Available

Optimized communication between sports medicine and strength and conditioning to minimize injuries and maximize playing time. When departments work in harmony with shared real-time data, student-athletes spend more time competing and less time sidelined by preventable issues.

Ready

Systematic support and data-driven insights that enable student-athletes to perform at their highest level when opportunities arise. Whether it’s a championship game or a career-defining moment, comprehensive preparation ensures the Bobcats can seize their opportunities.

The Ripple Effect: Setting New Standards

Bates College’s pioneering adoption of AMS represents more than a single institution’s innovation—it’s a proof of concept for what’s possible across Division III athletics.

The Broader Impact

• Proof of concept: Demonstrates that resource constraints don’t prevent innovation
• Competitive advantage: Early adoption creates recruitment and development benefits
• Peer influence: Other Division III institutions are watching and learning
• New standard: Potentially reshaping expectations for technology adoption across the division

By viewing their resource limitations as an opportunity to innovate, rather than a barrier to excellence, Bates has positioned itself as a leader in athletics technology adoption. Their comprehensive approach to student-athlete development through integrated data management represents a new model for college athletics at all levels.

Key Takeaways for Other Programs

• Technology multiplies impact: Integrated platforms amplify limited staff and budget resources
• Being first creates advantages: Early adoption provides competitive benefits in recruitment and development
• Culture matters as much as technology: Success requires organizational commitment to change
• Long-term thinking pays off: Benefits compound over time, making early investment particularly valuable

The Real Measure of Success

The true impact won’t be measured in technological metrics, but in tangible outcomes:

• Student-athletes receiving more comprehensive, coordinated care
• Departments working together seamlessly, not in silos
• Decisions based on complete information rather than fragmented data
• Staff spending time on development rather than administrative coordination

Bates’ integrated approach creates a foundation where better information leads to better decisions, departmental silos become collaborative partnerships, and every student-athlete receives championship-level support. Bates has proven that excellence in student-athlete development is achievable at any resource level with the right vision, tools, and commitment to putting student-athletes first.

Learn more about Teamworks AMS.