An outstanding all-around athlete for the Red Dragons in the 1970's, Bonnie S. May ’77 has made her professional mark as a successful head volleyball and softball coach at Smith College in Northampton, Mass., for the past quarter-century.
A native of Poughkeepsie, N.Y., May graduated from Poughkeepsie High School. She was a four-year member of both the SUNY Cortland basketball and softball teams in the earliest days of intercollegiate competition.
Her Cortland basketball and softball squads both competed in the New York State championship and the Eastern Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (EAIAW) tournaments. Her softball team won the 1977 New York State title, while she captained the basketball team as a senior.
She also played three years for the Cortland ice hockey club in the newly constructed Park Center and two years with the soccer club. She sang with chorus, was a junior counselor at the Outdoor Education Center at Raquette Lake and was an Arethusa sorority sister who lived at the sorority house for three-and-a-half years.
May graduated cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in physical education from Cortland and, in 1983, earned a master’s degree in physical education from Emporia State University in Kansas.
After her Cortland graduation, she worked as the director of the McGraw (N.Y.) Recreation Park, the head volleyball and assistant basketball coach at Marist College, and a physical education teacher at Traver Road Elementary School in Pleasant Valley, N.Y.
May joined the Smith College faculty in 1980 as a physical education instructor and the head volleyball and basketball coach. Since 1983, she has also been a mentor coach in the Exercise and Sports Studies Graduate Coaching Degree Program.
In volleyball, May has 530 career victories at Smith — the second-most in New England ranked 13th among active volleyball coaches nationally. Her Coach of the Year honors include three times with the New 8 Conference and once each with the NEWMAC and the New England Women’s Volleyball Association Division III. Her teams, which have played in three NCAA Division III Tournaments, won titles in the NIAC (1981, 1989), the ECAC (1987), MAIAW (1988), NEWMAC (2005), and the Seven Sisters (1986, 1987, 1988, 1995, 2005).
As the Smith softball coach since 1981, May has amassed 333 wins — sixth best in New England and ranked 28th nationally among softball coaches. Twice named the New 8 and NEWMAC Coach of the Year, she was also voted the NFCA England Regional Coach of the Year in 1998. Her squads won titles in the MIAW (1987), the New 8 Conference (1998) and the ECAC (2004) while participating once in the NCAA Division III Tournament. She coached the Smith varsity basketball team in 1980-81 and was the junior varsity coach from 1981-87.
A past volleyball and softball sport chair and commissioner of officials for the MAIAW, May has been active as a director and coach at field hockey, volleyball and basketball camps. A former board member, she has assisted the Volleyball Hall of Fame for the past 17 years. A member of the American Volleyball Coaches Association, she serves on its Division III Top 25 Poll Committee.
A New Agenda Northeast Hall of Fame member, May has been active in raising funds for the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, the Jimmy Fund and AIDS Research, while also assisting in cleaning up local riverbanks and state hospital grounds.
UPDATE- March, 2015: May was acknowledge for her achievements by being inducted into the Emporia State HPER Hall of Fame in 2010 and being selected to the NCAA Volleyball Rules Committee. She continues to participate in the Pam Mass Challenge where she has just finished her 10th race raising over $10,000. Last years race raised $35 Million for the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and the Jimmy Fund.
