John Bates enters his eleventh season as an assistant coach for the Bruins in 2024. Bates serves as the recruiting coordinator and defensive coordinator for the football program and oversees the defensive backs as a position coach.
As the defensive coordinator, Bates has coached two All-Americans, two NWC Defensive Players of the Year, 52 All-Northwest Conference defensive players, and 15 national Team of the Week defenders in ten full seasons for George Fox. Of those decorated athletes, 18 have played for Bates' vaunted secondary that he coaches up in practice.
Bates has an extensive background in coaching, most recently working as Chris Casey’s defensive coordinator at Aloha High School from 2011-12. Prior to his stint at Aloha, he was the defensive coordinator and recruiting coordinator at Nebraska Wesleyan University in Lincoln, Neb., from 2004-10. NWU was consistently ranked in the top 10 nationally in multiple defensive statistical categories during his tenure there, peaking at No. 2 in scoring defense in 2008 by allowing only 11.2 points per game.
During 2002-03, he coached at Western Oregon University as the defensive line coach in the fall and worked in Europe as the defensive coordinator for the Chrysler Vienna Vikings in the spring.
A 2000 graduate of Whitworth University with a bachelor’s degree in physical education, Bates remained at his alma mater to begin his coaching career as an assistant in 2000-01, primarily coaching linebackers. In 2001, Whitworth won the Northwest Conference crown and made the NCAA Division III playoffs, the Pirates’ first postseason appearance in 25 years. He completed his master's degree of education in secondary education from Whitworth in 2006.
Bates and his wife Dana, a health and human performance professor at Pacific who serves as the director of the athletic training education program, reside in Carlton, Ore. They have two children, Ryan and Alexandra.
