BOWDOIN COLLEGE has hired James Wells to take the lead for the Polar Bears football team during the 2015 season. Wells comes from Endicott College, where he held a 75-48 record over 12 seasons.
Most recently the head coach at Endicott (Mass.) College, Wells is a 1991 graduate of Trinity (Conn.) College.
“JB has demonstrated an unquestionable commitment to supporting the academic, community and athletic interests of members of his program at Endicott, and we are excited for the future of our football program under his leadership,” said Ashmead White Director of Athletics Tim Ryan. “JB’s success as a head football coach speaks for itself and his personal experience as a two-sport athlete in the NESCAC will be invaluable. We are thrilled to welcome JB and his family to the Bowdoin community.”
“The thing that brings me to Bowdoin is an opportunity to come home, back to the NESCAC and what the league stands for philosophically,” said Wells. “The only way that we’re going to achieve the goals we all have — as players, coaches and as a Bowdoin community — is if we are working in complete harmony together. We’re going to work hard, we’re going to work smart and we’re going to work together to make sure Bowdoin football is marching in the right direction towards CBB (Colby-Bates-Bowdoin) and NESCAC Championships in the future.”
The only head football coach in the history of Endicott, Wells helped establish the program which began intercollegiate play in 2003. Since that time, he has developed the Gulls into one of the top teams in the region, leading his team to a pair of New England Football Conference Championships and NCAA Tournament appearances in 2010 and 2013 and consecutive ECAC North Bowl victories in 2011 and 2012.
Over his 12 seasons at Endicott, Wells has accumulated a 75-48 record (.640).
On the field, Wells has helped develop nine All-Americans and over 100 NEFC All-Conference winners. Coach Wells has been honored as the 2010 Gridiron Club of Greater Boston Division II/III Coach of the Year, the 2010 New England Football Writers Division II/III Coach of the Year and the 2013 New England Football Conference Coach of the Year.
Off the gridiron, Wells’ teams have produced over 200 NEFC Academic All- Conference honorees and four Capital One Academic All-Americans.
Coach Wells began his career as the tight ends coach at Brown University in 1991. He then returned to his alma mater as a graduate assistant coaching the offensive line at Trinity College from 1992- 1993 before serving as offensive line and strength coach at Bates College from 1994- 1995. He then moved on to the University of Chicago, where he coached the running backs in 1996 and the quarterbacks in 1997.
He returned to Trinity College for one year (1998) before being named assistant head coach and offensive coordinator at Illinois Wesleyan University from 1999-2001. Wells helped the Titans to the first back-toback College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin championships since 1964- 65. Wells was then named head coach at Endicott, the first coach in the program’s history, on November 29, 2001.
Wells received a B.A. in History from Trinity College in 1991, and a M.Ed. from Endicott College in 2005.
At Trinity, Wells was a three-year starter and letter winner at guard and center, as well as being an outstanding shot putter and discus thrower on the indoor and outdoor track teams. He earned the college’s prestigious Blanket Award in Athletics, presented to athletes who earn 10 or more varsity letters during their four years. At the time, only 38 blankets had been awarded in the history of the college.
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