College — YVCC coach dyes hair to reward team's high marks
By ROGER UNDERWOOD
YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC

Their season is done, their team lost more games than it won and their coach's hair has changed color.

GORDON KING/Yakima Herald-Republic Chuck Bodeen, coach of the Yakima Valley Community College fastpitch team, shows off his dyed-blonde hair after his squad earned a cumulative grade-point average or 3.5. Although he thinks it turned out a little more red than blonde.

For one thing, the Yaks were much more competitive in coach Chuck Bodeen's second season despite some debilitating injuries. For another, they offset their tribulations on the field by being lights out in the classroom.

Before the season, Bodeen had promised his players that if they compiled a collective grade point average of 3.2 or higher, he would dye his hair.

Or what's left of it, at least.

Well, when grades were posted after winter quarter, the 13 players' total wasn't 3.2. It was 3.5.

So at a team pizza party last month, Bodeen made good on his pledge — allowing his brownish hair to be dyed blonde. Freshman pitcher Brooke Bigby did the honors.

"I was kind of hoping it would turn more of a white color, but it's become kind of reddish," Bodeen said. "I don't really have a lot of hair, especially on top. But I'd be glad to do it again. The kids had a lot of fun doing it."

Leading the academic dynamos were sophomore catcher-outfielder Casey Riedner and sophomore first baseman Whitney Honn, each with 4.0 marks.

"Casey has been a national academic all-American since last fall," Bodeen said. "Those two girls helped that GPA get up toward 3.5, but it wasn't just them. We had six girls out of the 13 on our team make the president's list. That's pretty neat."

Riedner and Honn made the NWAACC's all-academic team for spring quarter, as did YVCC baseballers Dustin Oftedal, Hunter Sissom and Sean Worley.

Although YVCC's fastitch squad finished 8-20 in Eastern Region play and 15-27 overall, it suffered fewer blowouts than the previous season.

"We didn't win as many games as we'd have liked," Bodeen said, "but we played much better softball than last year. We were much more competitive."

This despite the loss of sophomore Jess Garcia, who'd batted .477 in 2006, for two-thirds of the season with a shoulder injury, two concussions and a wrist problem.

And Honn, a standout on Yakima Valley's regional championship basketball team, missed 12 games with a shoulder ailment.

"Those girls were a big part of our offense," Bodeen said. "Still, the only team we didn't beat in our region was Wenatchee. We played some very good softball."

And in the process, posted some very good grades, which in turn made things a bit hairy for their coach.

"That was the first time I've ever done anything like that," said Bodeen, who in 2005 retired from his duties as vice principal and athletic director at Eisenhower High School. "But it was fun, and I'd be glad to do it again."