Rick Devereux
First in a series.
Things are changing for Orange Coast College athletics. The soccer
fields have been given a new surface. Legendary LeBard Stadium is
undergoing reconstruction. And the school has a new athletic
director.
Well, kind of new.
Barbara Bond was the assistant athletic director under Fred
Hokanson, who resigned after four years as AD for the Pirates and 35
years as a faculty member. Plus, Bond has been a coach at OCC since
1975, so 'new' is a pejorative word. She is a fixture at the college
and in the community.
"Barbara is just OCC through and through," men's soccer coach
Laird Hayes said. "She was the best choice. She bleeds OCC colors."
The first color that Bond had to deal with was green, as in money.
One of her first duties was to rally the school for portions of the
more than $200 million bond, Measure C, which passed in November
2002. Thanks to her hard work and fortuitous circumstances, the
athletic and physical education department will receive major
upgrades and renovations.
"Physical education had all its ducks lined up and ready to go
when the bond passed," Bond said. "We were lucky enough to get our
projects approved. Part of that is the soccer field was going to be
replaced with a soccer field. The rest of the school is if you take
down a building you don't really know what type of building is going
to go up in its place. So for us the footprint was already there. The
soccer field was going to be a soccer field. Because the footprint
was already there, we've been the first ones out of the shoot."
Bond is very familiar with the conditions of the soccer fields.
She has been the school's only women's soccer coach since its
inception in 1979. She said the field has such a crown to it that
people on the opposite side look like they're kneeling because the
crown cuts off the view of their feet. Coincidently, the soccer field
will be the first facility to make use of the renovation and the
women's soccer team will be the first to host an event on the new
facilities. Bond will be present at the dedication Aug. 31 before the
game against Mt. San Antonio College but won't be able to coach on
the new field. She said a similar situation happened to her
predecessor.
"They redid the track and [Hokanson] was the track coach for like
32 years," she said. "They get a brand new track and he never coached
on it. It was finished the year he became athletic director.
Ironically enough, the same thing is going to happen for the soccer
