This week\u2019s Alumni Spotlight shines on Bill Ashby, formerly of Lubec, who is the Athletic Director and Men\u2019s Soccer Coach at the University of Maine at Fort Kent. Bill graduated from UMM in 1991 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in History.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I serve the University of Maine Fort Kent as its Athletic Director and Men\u2019s Soccer Coach. \u00a0I also teach several business and physical education classes for UMFK. \u00a0This past fall soccer season was my 31st\u00a0as a college head coach, in which my UMFK men\u2019s soccer team won its 2ndUSCAA National Championship. \u00a0After starting my coaching career at UMM, I moved on to Husson College for three years and Maine Maritime for another six years. \u00a0After MMA, Pam and I moved out of state for the next eight years. \u00a0I coached at the University of Mary in Bismarck, North Dakota for four years, then we moved to Kentucky and worked for Brescia University where I held a four year term as Brescia\u2019s Athletic Director and Soccer Coach. \u00a0During our time out of state Pam and I started a family. \u00a0Being Mainers, we both wanted to raise our children in Maine, fortunately the University of Maine at Fort Kent was looking for an Athletic Director\/Men\u2019s Soccer Coach! This will be my 10th\u00a0season as UMFK\u2019s AD and soccer coach. \u00a0My men\u2019s teams have won 390 games and I have been selected as a coach of the year 16 times. \u00a0I also hold the record for most wins as a soccer coach at Maine Maritime Academy (64 wins), University of Mary (58 wins), Brescia University (50 wins) and UMFK (183 wins). \u00a0It has given me great joy knowing over 20 of my players have gone on to becomes professional soccer coaches at the college, Major League Soccer and U.S. National Team levels!<\/p>\n
UMM gave me the opportunity to learn my career via on the job training. \u00a0My path as a college coach was atypical. \u00a0I started at UMM in the fall of 1981 as a student\/athlete. \u00a0During the fall semester, after the soccer season I, suffered a knee injury while working construction. \u00a0For the next 2.5 years I took classes at several colleges, rehabbed my knee, and started my soccer coach education by working on my soccer coaching licenses. \u00a0I also had the opportunity to coach high school soccer at Lawrence High School in Fairfield, Maine. \u00a0In the fall of 1984 my knee was healed and I was ready to continue my education at UMM. \u00a0UMM was in need of a soccer coach at this time and I had made my decision to become a soccer coach. \u00a0Opportunity met need and I became the head soccer coach at UMM!<\/p>\n
My advice to current UMM students is to enjoy your journey at UMM. \u00a0It will end all too quickly. Four years will go by in a flash. \u00a0Explore and try new things, get out of your comfort zone and expand your experiences. Work on making lifelong friends. The friends you make now will become your most valuable resource as you move forward in life and your career. Take a class that is outside of your main interest, it has been my experience these classes often open doors of opportunity! \u00a0Learn the life lessons UMM will teach you. \u00a0Learn how to be on time, learn how to be disciplined in your school work, and learn to take accountability and responsibility for your actions and maybe more importantly, your inactions.<\/p>\n
My time at UMM provided me with a solid base to build my career. \u00a0My educational degree work along with the practical experience of being able to hone my skills as a college coach, athletic administrator and leader gave me the tools I needed to advance and be successful in a highly competitive field.<\/p>\n
The people of UMM, teachers, administration, and staff took personal interest in me as a person and cared about my success as a student. \u00a0I hope and suspect the same is true for today\u2019s students at UMM. \u00a0UMM gave me the opportunity to experiment in how to be successful, the okay to push my envelope of ability, sometimes exceeding my capabilities. I often stumbled, sometimes I fell, but there was always an opportunity to get up and try again. \u00a0This is the model of success UMM helped me establish, so far it has worked pretty well!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This week\u2019s Alumni Spotlight shines on Bill Ashby, formerly of Lubec, who is the Athletic Director and Men\u2019s Soccer Coach at the University of Maine at Fort Kent. Bill graduated from UMM in 1991 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in History. Tell us a little bit about what you are doing now: I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":145,"featured_media":4057,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,6],"academic-area":[],"umaine-feed":[],"region":[],"class_list":["post-4056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n