BRUNSWICK – With a pale red Bates College baseball cap perched atop his head, George Purgavie sat back in his small, black folding chair, crossed his arms, and watched.

Like coaches and scouts from at least 13 other colleges and universities from across the country, Purgavie, the head men’s soccer coach at Bates, watched a match on Bowdoin College Field 4 on Saturday between Maine’s Under-17 team representative from Coastal Soccer and Maryland’s Baltimore Bays during the U.S. Region I Soccer Championships.

Unlike the rest of those coaches and scouts, he has all of the inside information on Maine’s players.

He is, after all, their coach, too.

Purgavie, 55, lives in Yarmouth. He’s been at Bates for 26 years, having arrived in Lewiston by way of Middlebury and the University of South Carolina following a brief professional soccer career.

“I graduated college, played pro, and I was actually teaching and playing pro in the off-season,” Purgavie said. “I decided to get my graduate degree with a Division I program that was just starting, and did really well. Then, I wanted to get back into New England. Middlebury stepped up and gave me the opportunity to come back, and that was the conference I really wanted to be in”

New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) rules prohibit Purgavie from coaching his own college players during the school’s offseason, but there are no rules against coaching potential players.

“This is why I love coaching club-level soccer,” Purgavie said.

And Purgavie has found at least one new recruit: Duncan Briggs, who graduated from North Yarmouth Academy less than one month ago, will play soccer at Bates this fall.

“It’s a great tournament, you see the best of the best here,” Purgavie said. “Having it right here in our backyard is even better.”

In addition to the ability to scout potential recruits, though, Purgavie said coaching younger players fills a void in his summer routine.

“I’d go nuts if I couldn’t coach something in the offseason,” Purgavie said. “Having the chance to take kids here and help them develop, that’s the best part.”

And Purgavie isn’t alone, not even at his own school.

The team with the best chance to represent Maine in a semifinal round match is the U-16 team, the Coastal Thunder.

That team’s head coach? Bates assistant Seth Johnson.

“They have a bunch of great players on that team, too,” Purgavie said, “and it doesn’t hurt that their coach is also an assistant at Bates, either.”

Johnson’s team earned a draw Saturday after winning 6-1 over Rhode Island in Friday’s opener. A win Sunday over Western Pennsylvania, and the Thunder will advance to the U-16 semifinal round.

“We have to finish better, and we can’t afford to give up a goal, either,” Johnson said. “We need to come out, play well and win the game. That’s the thing about these tournaments is everything comes into play, right down to goal differential.”

Purgavie’s team, meanwhile, dropped a 4-1 decision to Maryland on Saturday, ending its chances of moving on after a draw Friday with Eastern New York.

“We fought hard,” Purgavie said. “We just needed to get a goal or two in the first half, and we got a little unlucky.”

Next year, Purgavie said he’s likely to drop down to coach a U-13 or U-14 team, and follow the team through the ranks, much like he’s done in the past.

But no matter the level at which he is coaching, whether it’s 13-year-old budding stars or polished, Division III college players, Purgavie said Saturday the goal is constant.

“It’s all about developing young men, and hoping you do a decent job of it,” he said.