Bond selected AD at Coast

Bryce Alderton

Barbara Bond, who began teaching and coaching at Orange Coast College

in 1975, will now get the chance to lead the athletics department of

a school that has become somewhat synonymous with her name.

Bond, 54, was selected to be the school’s seventh athletic

director July 1 and began her new post immediately. Bond, an

assistant athletic director for the past three years, replaced Fred

Hokanson, who retired after four years as AD and 35 years as a

faculty member at the college.

“I learned a great deal while at [Hokanson’s] elbow and regularly

observed what he was experiencing, so I’m not anticipating a lot of

surprises,” said Bond, a Laguna Beach resident. “[Hokanson] charged

me with handling many of the day-to-day responsibilities of the

division, like managing budgets and personnel and overseeing coaches.

I think I’ve got a pretty good understanding of this job.”

Bond, who has coached five sports during her Coast tenure, takes

over a department and campus going through several current changes

and more planned on the horizon.

Margaret Gratton, who served as OCC’s president from 1996-2002,

said Coast is in stable hands with Bond.

“[Bond] is virtually imprinted with the spirit of Coast -- its

history, legacy, values and mission,” Gratton said. “During her time

at Coast, Barbara has gained solid experience in almost every aspect

of the division that she now leads.”

That department includes 19 full-time faculty members and coaches,

13 part-time, adjunct instructors and coaches and 10 staff members.

Those coaches, faculty and members are seeing the initial stages

of a revitalization project on campus.

Crews began installing synthetic grass on the soccer field last

month with completion expected in time for the fall soccer season.

The synthetic surface, called FieldTurf, will also be installed

inside LeBard Stadium, which is also receiving renovations to comply

with the Americans With Disabilities Act. The stadium’s playing

surface will widen to accommodate a full-sized soccer field in

addition to a football field.

Bond hopes to attract the state soccer finals within the next few

years.

Work on a new softball field is scheduled to begin in December

while a sports complex consisting of a football fieldhouse and locker

rooms for baseball, softball and soccer, is scheduled for

groundbreaking in 18 months.

An Olympic-sized swimming pool, new tennis courts -- on the same

site as the current courts -- and a fitness center are other proposed

campus projects.

“Many projects are in [line] and are moving forward,” said Bond,

who began her career at Coast coaching field hockey and women’s

basketball in 1975.

At the conclusion of the 1979 field hockey season, the Santa Ana

Valley High grad who went on to play volleyball and softball at Long

Beach State suggested that field hockey be scrapped, citing an

apparent lack of demand. She suggested offering women’s soccer and

Coast soon became one of the first local colleges to field a team.

Bond took over as head coach and guided the Pirates to six

conference championships and two state titles in 22 years at the

helm. She was named the Orange Empire Conference Coach of the Year

five times and, in 2002, the National Soccer Coaches Association

voted her the West Region Coach of the Year.

The duties of her new position will prevent Bond from coaching a

sport.

“I’d love to be coaching soccer on that new field this year, but I

guess I’ll have to be content with watching the games from the

stands,” Bond said.

Bond will serve the upcoming athletic year as president of both

the OEC and the community college football league -- the Mission

Conference.

She cited two main responsibilities facing her as athletic

director and the school’s Dean of physical education and athletics

division.

“First, it’s my responsibility to shape the college’s athletic

facilities for decades to come,” Bond said. “My second major

responsibility is to be an advocate for bringing new faculty members

into the athletic department. We’ve lost 11 coaches to retirement

over the last three or four years and haven’t replaced any of them.”

Whoever coaches a sport at OCC will step into a department steeped

in success. The Pirates have won the OEC Sports Supremacy Award --

recognizing the best overall athletic program in the conference -- 22

of the last 25 years.

“We have the best athletic program in the state and we don’t

expect that to change,” said Bond, whose children, Kai and Brett,

played water polo and volleyball and both graduated from Coast. “I’ve

grown up on this campus.”

Bond is an avid athlete who has won three world championship rings

in softball.