{"id":130730,"date":"2020-02-07T11:06:05","date_gmt":"2020-02-07T16:06:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=130730"},"modified":"2023-01-24T13:45:46","modified_gmt":"2023-01-24T18:45:46","slug":"video-lewistons-matt-charest-is-a-bobcat-for-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2020\/02\/07\/video-lewistons-matt-charest-is-a-bobcat-for-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Video: Lewiston&#8217;s Matt Charest is a Bobcat for life"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Peter Casares has been the head coach of the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ swimming and diving program for 13 years.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One of the first things he did after his hiring was offer lessons for schoolchildren in the community. One of his first pupils was 9-year-old <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gobatesbobcats.com\/sports\/swimdive\/2019-20\/bios\/charest_matthew_cnn6?view=bio\">Matt Charest \u201920<\/a> of Lewiston.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8220;Matt would come in on Sundays two or three times a month to work with me one-on-one,&#8221; Casares said. &#8220;And when we decided to run a swim camp, I mentioned to him, as a 9-year old, \u2018You know, you\u2019re a good swimmer, you learn really well, I can tell this matters to you. So maybe you should look into this swim camp we have.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><span style=\"color: #009779;\"><em>Video by Aaron Morse.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Lewiston&#039;s Matt Charest: A ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Bobcat for life\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/S0bW3v6GV2A?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Charest attended that swim camp and immediately fell in love with it.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8220;Getting to stay overnight really got me interested in ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½,&#8221; Charest said. &#8220;Getting to have food at the dining halls was amazing for me as a kid, getting ice cream all the time.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The now-senior captain of the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ men&#8217;s swimming and diving team returned every summer, first as a camper and then as a counselor, becoming a Bobcat for life.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_130777\" style=\"width: 680px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2020\/02\/Charest-Pool004-toned.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-130777\" class=\"size-large wp-image-130777\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2020\/02\/Charest-Pool004-toned-670x900.jpg\" alt=\"Matt Charest as a young boy at the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ swim camp. (Photograph courtesy the Charest family)\" width=\"670\" height=\"900\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2020\/02\/Charest-Pool004-toned-670x900.jpg 670w, https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2020\/02\/Charest-Pool004-toned-223x300.jpg 223w, https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2020\/02\/Charest-Pool004-toned-1143x1536.jpg 1143w, https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2020\/02\/Charest-Pool004-toned-149x200.jpg 149w, https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2020\/02\/Charest-Pool004-toned.jpg 1428w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 670px) 100vw, 670px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-130777\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Matt Charest as a young boy at the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ swim camp. (Photograph courtesy the Charest family)<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8220;The thing about Matt is that he is an extraordinary leader by example,&#8221; said <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gobatesbobcats.com\/sports\/swimdive\/2019-20\/bios\/berry_nathan_egsi?view=bio\">Nathan Berry &#8217;23<\/a> of Augusta, Maine. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8220;All the way up from being swim campers together and doing morning practices when we were counselors together. And now, seeing him in practice every day, I look over and he\u2019s kicking really hard, and he\u2019s moving, and I\u2019m like, \u2018Man, I can\u2019t lose to Charest!\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Next up for Charest and his team are the NESCAC Championships, Feb. 20\u201323 in Williamstown, Mass., where his goal is to qualify for NCAAs in March, in a relay event.<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_130768\" style=\"width: 850px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2020\/02\/2019-11-09_ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½_Sportriats_Burns-563.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-130768\" class=\"wp-image-130768 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2020\/02\/2019-11-09_ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½_Sportriats_Burns-563-e1581096665755-840x900.jpg\" alt=\"Men's Swimming\" width=\"840\" height=\"900\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2020\/02\/2019-11-09_ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½_Sportriats_Burns-563-e1581096665755-840x900.jpg 840w, https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2020\/02\/2019-11-09_ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½_Sportriats_Burns-563-e1581096665755-280x300.jpg 280w, https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2020\/02\/2019-11-09_ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½_Sportriats_Burns-563-e1581096665755-187x200.jpg 187w, https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2020\/02\/2019-11-09_ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½_Sportriats_Burns-563-e1581096665755.jpg 1194w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 840px) 100vw, 840px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-130768\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Matt Charest &#8217;20 is an &#8220;extraordinary leader by example,&#8221; says teammate Nathan Berry &#8217;23 of Augusta, Maine. (Brewster Burns for ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Graduation is just a few months away, but the past 13 years have given Charest, who hopes to coach his own swim team one day, a proud connection to ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ that few others can claim.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8220;It will always be a part of me,&#8221; Charest said. &#8220;And I can\u2019t thank this pool enough and everybody that\u2019s supported me enough. So, it\u2019s bittersweet, but I\u2019m excited for the future.&#8221;\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> From swim camp to Lewiston High School to ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½, senior swim captain Matt Charest&#8217;s connections to the community run deep. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":758,"featured_media":130774,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":[],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"bates_author_byline_override":"","_estimated-read-time":"","_post-template":"\/usr\/local\/webserver\/webpve\/htdocs\/new-www.bates.edu\/wp-content\/themes\/b\/news\/single-big-header-image.php","_header-color":"#000000","_photo-credit":"Phyllis Graber Jensen","_header-effect":"parallax","override_related_with_tag":"","_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"Lewiston native and ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ men's swimming senior captain Matt Charest basically grew up in Tarbell Pool. From swim camp to Lewiston High School to ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College, Charest's connections to the community run deep. And he is a Bobcat for life.","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":""},"categories":[24,31,11012,11009],"tags":[5263,10830,12109,11314,8348],"class_list":["post-130730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-athletics","category-lewiston-auburn","category-student-life","category-the-college","tag-lewiston-high-school","tag-lewiston-auburn","tag-matt-charest","tag-peter-casares","tag-swimming-and-diving"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/758"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130730"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130730\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":130779,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130730\/revisions\/130779"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}