Nate Carson ’14 remembers every bright detail of the day he was offered his new job as UMaine-Farmington’s interim head women’s basketball coach—because he was skipping out on his old one.
“It was a really nice day, so I said, ‘I’m going to go play hooky from work, play 18, and it’s going to be an awesome day,” Carson recalls now. “And on my way to go play, at about nine in the morning, Jamie texted, ‘Can I call you?’”
Carson didn’t know whether Jamie Beaudoin, UMaine-Farmington’s interim director of athletics, was calling to offer him the women’s hoops job—or calling to break the news that he wasn’t. Carson was right: The day just kept getting better.
“Jamie made me the offer, and then I shot the best round of my life, which was hysterical. It wasn’t even close,” Carson says, laughing.
Here’s hoping that his good fortune follows Carson into his new position. The long-time understudy to legendary UMF men’s hoops coach Dick Meader and a former Beaver student-athlete himself, Carson assumed his new role in mid-October. In it, he’ll take the reins of a UMaine-Farmington women’s basketball program that has known only one coach for the past 20 years.
There may be no one better prepared for the job, according to Beaudoin. “He is a proud UMF alumnus, has a strong familiarity with our program, and has great knowledge of the game of basketball.”
A member of Coach Meader’s squad that reached the 2014 NAC Championship game, Carson served as an assistant coach for the UMaine-Farmington men’s basketball team for the past six seasons, five under Meader.
When Meader retired in 2020, Carson was a finalist for the men’s basketball head coaching position. But UMF ultimately gave the job to his former teammate, Sam Leal. Carson admits it was a moment of introspection. He used what he learned to help him pursue the chance to lead UMF’s women’s basketball program.
“I felt like I knew where I needed to improve, in my interaction with the players,” Carson says. “I coached a lot of those guys for a number of years, so I took that time with them for granted. When I met with the women, we were going back-and-forth for the full hour. I think that was a big improvement for me.”
In his first weeks on the job, Carson has zigzagged between getting to know his new student-athletes on the court, implementing his strategy, and adjusting to being a head coach.
“For the first 10 minutes, there was a little nervous tension—for me and for them: They don’t know what to expect, and I don’t know what to expect,” Carson explains. “But within 15 minutes, the tension was gone. I just fell into the rhythm of directing practice and making sure people were doing what they were supposed to be doing.”
Carson hopes to take a holistic view of the impact he can have on players. He remembers how his own experience as a student-athlete at UMF broadened his perspective about new people, new opinions, and new ideas. And it led to his post-UMF work in a high school and within the field of mental health.
“This is a short time in their life where they get to choose who they become and choose if they want to change themselves if they’re not on the right path,” Carson says. “But this time has an end, so use it wisely. If something is important to them, I want them to go after it. And I want to help them where they need it.”
Carson is one of several new faces on the UMaine-Farmington coaching staff for 2021-22.
Alyssa Williamson, UMaine-Farmington’s new softball coach, is a name familiar to those who follow prep softball in the Pine Tree State. She’s a four-time All-State honoree at Scarborough High School, two-time state champion and Miss Maine Softball and Gatorade Player of the Year in 2014.
Williamson eventually found her way to Merrimack College, where added to her playing resume with multiple First Team All-Northeast 10 awards and NCAA Division II All-Region honors, in addition to Academic All-America distinction from the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA).
More recently, she served as an assistant coach at Suffolk University, where she helped six Rams earn all-conference accolades and has been a travel softball coach and hitting facility instructor. She was named UMaine-Farmington softball’s new head coach on August 6, 2021.
“One thing I’ve noticed since arriving here is that UMaine-Farmington softball has been a little bit overlooked in the NAC and among Division III programs in Maine, but there really is a firm foundation here,” Williamson says. “Using that foundation to further build the program and foster its growth will be the goal.”
Robert Hollis ’18, the North Atlantic Conference Runner of the Year in 2015, has returned to UMF as an assistant cross country and track and field coach. Hollis has been working as an endurance coach, and he finished eighth in the 2021 Maine Marathon.
Ryan Pratt, ’21 graduate of UMaine-Farmington, will return to the Beavers’ baseball program as an assistant coach. He extends his family’s proud UMF coaching lineage by following the path of his mom, long-time field hockey coach Cyndi Pratt.
“I’m excited to have Ryan join our baseball staff,” Chris Bessey, UMaine-Farmington’s head baseball coach, says. “He was an outstanding player and has a bright future as a coach.”