LEWISTON – Mix em up. Work them together. Young people will learn in ways they never would in a classroom.

“Colleges are about educating the mind, the body and the spirit,” said Stefanie Pemper, Bowdoin College’s women’s basketball coach. “It’s not just about educating the mind.”

Nor is it about winning, said Pemper, one of the most winning coaches in the school’s history. Last winter’s 30-1 season was one of Bowdoin’s best.

It’s all about the women, said Pemper, who gave the inaugural speech Thursday in the 2004-05 Great Falls Forum. The lecture series is sponsored by Bates College, the Lewiston Public Library, the Sisters of Charity Health System and the Sun Journal.

“The challenges for a team sport are very different from a musical group or a debate team,” said Pemper, who has worked at Bowdoin since 1998, when she left Harvard University as the assistant coach to take over the top coaching job at the Brunswick college.

For the team members, it’s a public trial that can be less forgiving than a classroom failure.

“When you get a D’ on a test, nobody really has to know but you and the professor,” Pemper said. “When you lose a game, everyone knows.”

During her 45-minute lecture, the California native told the team’s story by talking about several of her players – from the quiet Mainer who hunts with her dad to the pop-music-loving woman from Massachusetts who loves pink and frilly things. Both women and many others learned to come together.

“You can have those extremes on teams,” Pemper said. Their majors can vary from literature to chemistry, and they can be from different states or different countries. However, working together on a team and succeeding demands finding a way beyond the differences.

“I tell them, She’s just like you in that she likes basketball,'” said Pemper.

The coach has had extraordinary success since her arrival.

In her debut season, the team finished with a record of 19 wins and six losses. The next year, it fell to 12 and 11. It was the only time in her tenure that she came close to a .500 season. Since then, she has gone 21-8, 26-2 and 26-3.

Last year’s overwhelming season – their only loss came in the contest for the national Division III title – surpassed every goal, she said.

“I didn’t know the bar went that high,” said Pemper. “I don’t know if we’ll ever get there again.”