Coach Kassie Bateman ’06 began wrestling as an Andover student, the first female to place in the Class A league tournament. Before becoming the head coach in 2019, Bateman served as the assistant coach for seven years, receiving the honor of New England Independent School Wrestling Association (NEISWA) Assistant Coach of the Year. Since becoming a coach, Bateman has made strides in the female wrestling world. In addition to that, she makes an effort to connect with each individual player, helping them achieve their fullest potential.
The culture that Bateman has fostered in the Wrestling program is built on three core values: hard work, respect, and team aspect. Bateman shared how training works best in groups.
“Our core values are hard work, respect, and team aspect. A wrestler can only do so much to train alone; they need their teammates to drill with and to push them to improve. Which is why we all need to work hard during our practice time to help everyone in the room get better to meet their goals,” wrote Bateman in an email to The Phillipian.
Co-Captain Eva Murphy ’25 highlighted Bateman’s unique perspective as an Andover Wrestling alum. Bateman brings an understanding of the school environment along with a positive spirit.
“Coach Bateman wrestled at Andover and it’s really great to be mentored by somebody who knows the school and knows the environment. You can tell she really sets the tone for how our meets and how our tournaments are going to go by bringing a lot of energy into every practice and every tournament that we have,” said Murphy.
Bateman continued, expanding on her leadership style in conjunction with the team goals. She also commended her fellow coaching staff.
“I try to help athletes balance their individual goals with the team goals. I let them know where the team could use them most, where I think they will perform best individually, and let them make the best decision for themselves. Wrestling is such a unique sport that you have individual successes that combine for a team score. Sometimes we make sacrifices for the team, and sometimes the team needs to sacrifice to help an individual meet their goal. That’s just the nature of it. We are extremely lucky to have such an experienced coaching staff; I have been lucky to coach with Coaches [Jason] York, [Richard] Gorham, and [Walter] Dunn for the past 13 years. We all bring something different to the table, but we all have such a passion for the sport and care about our athletes on and off the mat,” wrote Bateman in an email to The Phillipian.
Narek Hambardzumyan ’26 emphasized Bateman’s knowledge of each wrestler individually, their experiences, and their abilities.
“She definitely connects with the wrestlers. She knows everyone individually and knows what level they’re at and what their preferred skillset is [as well as] how they wrestle and how experienced they are,” said Hambardzumyan.
Additionally, Kai Wang ’27 noted that Bateman puts emphasis on team togetherness and works hard to create an encouraging environment.
“One quality she stresses on is definitely unity within the team and making sure everyone both feels supported and supports others,” Wang said.
Notably, Bateman’s organized and hosted the first-ever all-girls’ prep school wrestling tournament in 2014. Bateman described how, upon her return to Andover, she noticed that there were no opportunities for female wrestlers unlike what she experienced at Andover, something she felt needed to be changed.
“When I was competing in high school, there were lots of girls’ wrestling tournaments through an organization called USGWA (United States Girls Wrestling Association), and so I was able to compete at 3-5 all-girls’ tournaments during the season. When I came back to coach, and realized that those wrestling opportunities were no longer available, I knew I wanted to create those opportunities for female wrestlers. In 2014 we started the first tournament, and we had nine wrestlers from five schools compete, four of whom were Andover wrestlers. Watching it grow to the 100+ wrestler event it has become has been such a gift.”
In her time working as a Co-Captain with Bateman on team Abbot — the all-female team — Murphy noted her investment in expanding the female wrestling program. She highlighted Bateman’s efforts to help the team grow in size and ability.
Murphy said, “Particularly with my experience working with her through team Abbot she’s really invested in female wrestling and the development of female wrestling. One instance of that is how she has taken the annual girls tournament that we have at Andover every year from around four or five girls in its first year to now over like 100 in the 11th year and so it’s just really great to see how exponential the growth of girls wrestling is. Most people don’t know girls wrestling is actually the highest-growing high school sport in the nation. It’s great to know that we’re being coached by someone who is a pioneer in the sport particularly for women and how she is helping our team grow both in numbers and in skill.”
In terms of goals for the season, Bateman has one focus: playoffs. Increasing the number of Big Blue wrestlers in prestigious tournaments such as the National Prep Championships counts as a win.
“Having a winning record is always nice, but it’s really the post-season that’s important to us — the Class A league tournament, the New England Championships, and the National Prep Championships. We always want to maximize the number of wrestlers that we have and qualify for New Englands and Nationals. If we can help individual wrestlers improve throughout the season to qualify for these events, we are happy. Tournaments are always more fun with more of our wrestlers in them,” wrote Bateman in an email to The Phillipian.
