Multi-sport athletes, in this age of specialization, may be going the way of the slide rules and manual typewriters that collect dust at antique shops. And multi-sport coaches? About as rare as velociraptors, you say?
Meet Brad Bonds, Allen County-Scottsville High School’s Renaissance Man. A three-sport athlete himself while a student at AC-S, Bonds has coached both softball and girls’ basketball at AC-S, and he has excelled at both. Before he spent the last eight years building up the Lady Patriot basketball program to where it reached the state championship game in March, Bonds spent three seasons coaching the AC-S softball team.
He compiled a record of 97-24-1 on the softball field and reached the state tournament one time, perhaps more impressive than his 164-81 record in girls’ basketball. A math teacher at AC-S, Bonds can tell you those are pretty good percentages. Having come within a whisker of riding in a state-championship parade through Scottsville, the 39-year-old Bonds can also tell you a thing or two about what it takes to succeed in high school athletics.
He talked about his success in two sports, his approach to coaching, and his plans going forward during a recent interview. Following are excerpts of that interview.
Sporting Times – Coming up through AC-S and playing three sports, did you envision yourself as a coach back then?
Bonds – I have always wanted to put myself in position to be a coach. I remember coaching my little brother in Little League and Senior League baseball. I found myself working with kids naturally. My mom ran a day care center. I would take the kids outside and play games. So coaching was something I always envisioned myself doing.
ST- When did you start your coaching career?
Bonds – In 1998 at Barren County Middle School. I was actually student teaching at Glasgow Middle School and coaching boys’ basketball at Barren County Middle School. I was granted the opportunity to do that, and the rest is history. Everything just started falling into place.
ST – And you gravitated to coaching girls while at Barren County?
Bonds – I was seventh grade boys’ basketball coach and assistant to the eighth grade coach for two years at Barren County. Then I started helping with the high school softball team as an assistant. I decided to give up the middle school boys’ basketball and move to the high school. I found that I loved working with the female athlete. So that’s why I chose to become the eighth grade girls’ basketball coach along with being assistant softball coach. It felt right. My demeanor fits better with the female athlete. You can strategize a lot more with the female athletes. They’re not as athletic, but you don’t have to deal with the athleticism on the opponent’s side either. It’s more of a strategic game. Then I was given the opportunity to be the head softball coach at Barren County. I coached there for two years and was the eighth grade girls’ basketball coach for two years. Then the opportunity came to come home to Allen County as an assistant
girls’ basketball coach under then-head coach Angel Bonds, my aunt. I felt like at that point that I really wanted to be a head basketball coach. But I needed to be a high school assistant for several years first.
ST – But you became a head softball coach first?
Bonds – It just so happened that coach Rick Roberts decided to resign as softball coach. In 2004 I was assistant girls’ basketball coach only. In 2005 I became the head softball coach. In 2007 I was given the opportunity to become head basketball coach, so I chose to give up softball. I coached with Angel for one season, then Gary DeWitt came back for his second stint. We worked together for three years.
ST – You have had great success as a head coach in two sports. That’s somewhat unusual these days. How have you done it?
Bonds – Good teams do have to have a good leader, but I have been extremely blessed to have some fantastic athletes who want to work hard on a daily basis and that have a vision. I’ve also been extremely blessed in every position I have ever been in to have assistant coaches who have been very loyal. When you can surround yourself with a great coaching staff and good players who want to work hard, success is inevitable.
ST – But it must be hard to translate the skills and strategy needed to be successful in one sport to a second sport?
Bonds – I was an old baseball guy, with that vision of being a baseball coach. So when I started with softball, a lot was the same. There are some differences. I didn’t have a clue how to teach pitching, but I always had someone along with me who could do that. So I could strategize basically the same. I did have a lot to learn about softball, especially my first two years at Barren County. but when I was able to take over here at Allen County, I felt like I had that experience to make the transition from baseball to softball. I had a lot of fun. It comes down to just having a passion about the game and making sure your players see that passion and have the discipline to want to work hard every day.
ST – Which sport do you prefer?
Bonds – I’ll be honest with you, I miss softball. When I gave up softball to be head coach here, immediately I missed it, so I joined in with a travel team and coached a travel team for a couple years. I miss the weekend tournaments, and I miss the coaching peers. The relationships I gained in those few years as a softball coach are very valuable. I do not miss having to work on the field, dealing with rainouts, trying to make up games. That was very stressful. I don’t miss that. But the actual competition and trying to compete at a high level, I miss those things. But I’m able to appease that appetite on the basketball court. We have taken this program to where it is competing at a high level. I’m one who believes that if you’re going to do it, do it right and compete amongst the best. I love competition, win or lose.
ST – What is it that’s more enjoyable about coaching female athletes?
Bonds – I think a lot of times the male athlete has the attitude that I’m going to out-athlete you. It’s every difficult, if you’re not given a lot of athletes, to go out and compete, specifically here in the 4th Region. When you can’t jump higher and you’re not quicker, it’s difficult to negate the athleticism of the other team. It’s a compliment to this region that there are a lot of teams built on athleticism, and they go a long way on that. But my mind is different. I like to strategize. I like to do some things differently. And I feel that my demeanor is more suited to the female athlete.
ST – So you think you have a better opportunity to succeed with females who might not be the best athletes?
Bonds – I think if you can put a systematic approach in with girls, I think you can compete with athletes better. I’ve always said that I don’t think I would ever go back to coaching guys, but I might. I have a son coming up through the program.
ST – What coaches or teachers influenced you along the way?
Bonds – I had a Little League coach who was very inspiring to me. He instilled discipline, work ethic, and vision. To me, the leadership he instilled in me when I was young is really what still carries me today. Coach John Butler at Barren County has been a tremendous mentor to me. He was an assistant softball coach to me at Barren County, and I learned a lot from him about coaching and about life. He helped me start my coaching career. When I came to AC-S, what I learned under Angel Bonds and Gary Dewitt was very valuable.
ST – Who among your coaching peers do you have great respect for?
Bonds – I have a lot of respect for anybody who is in coaching today. It’s tough. Times have changed. It has turned into a year-round sport. The time you have to put into it to be successful is crazy. I think this district is incredibly difficult, year-in and year-out, with Glasgow, Barren, Monroe and Allen. Two of those teams do not go to region every year. That’s an extremely historic four teams. So I have a lot of respect for the coaches in this district. This region, when you start talking about Lavonda Johnson and what she does with her program at Bowling Green, the teams they have had at Franklin-Simpson in the past, and you throw in South Warren that is on the way up and has a tremendous coaching staff. When you start looking at our region as a whole, there are good teams and great coaches. Being able to compete against them is fun, but it’s also very, very difficult.
ST – What you did this past season, winning this region and advancing to the state championship game, is that the highlight of your coaching career to this point?
Bonds – I feel like my experience as a softball coach, taking a team to the state tournament, helped me this past season in basketball. It helped me be able to help the girls relax and calm down so they could play at the state tournament. To say it’s the highlight of my career, it may well be. In softball, we weren’t in the final game. This was probably the most exciting that coaching has ever been. It was also every exhausting. But it was rewarding to see those girls compete at the highest level. It was the most fun I have ever had coaching.
ST – You had a true superstar on that team in Morgan Rich, who will play at the University of Kentucky. What was it like to coach her?
Bonds – Morgan is a tremendous athlete, but she is a fantastic person. When you have the character qualities that she has, it makes her better and makes the team better. She wasn’t selfish. She made her teammates better. Obviously, she was our star and everybody knew that. But what she did for her teammates was absolutely amazing. She made sure they were prepared to compete at high levels. And when things weren’t going right for her, maybe her shot wasn’t falling or she was having knee pain and not able to move like she normally could, she always found a way to make others step up and play. She was a great leader and great person. When you have those kind of kids, success is going to be there. I have known Morgan since she was little. She has always been in the gym, always wanting to make herself better. She has great things in store at UK and even greater things when she graduates from there.
ST – Building this program to where you have had such success, does that make it more of a challenge to maintain that?
Bonds – Yes, it’s a challenge. But the work ethic is here. I believe the girls will want to stay at that high level. We have great kids here, kids who want to work hard. I think we’ll surprise some people. I don’t think we will take the nosedive that a lot of people think is going to happen because we have quality kids who want to work and stay at the level we’re at.
ST – You talked about coaching being a year-round job now. With the trend toward specializing in one sport at an early age, an athlete can easily devote 12 months to one sport. But, as someone who has played and coached multiple sports, how do you feel about specializing?
Bonds – I encourage kids to do other things. I think if you concentrate on one, burnout is a possibility. And, at the end of the day, there are so few players who go on to the college level. I want our athletes to be able to experience what they want to experience in high school. If it’s a situation where they don’t like the other sport or whatever, that’s fine. But I encourage our kids who don’t play other sports to take some time off. I want them to refresh mentally and physically. I think there’s value in that down time. I think that makes for a well-rounded person.
ST – Speaking of being a well-rounded person, how does participating in athletics contribute to a student’s development?
Bonds – The athlete learns discipline, motivation, and loyalty, how to work together. There are so many characteristics that they can develop that will help them in life. We have former players who come back and say thank you for teaching us this because I see what it would be like if I didn’t have it. The kids who go through our program are some of the highest academic kids.
ST – Do you see yourself coaching for a good number of years?
Bonds – At beginning of the year, I had said this was probably my last year. I’m going to see Morgan out. My wife and I had talked about just going to watch her play her games at UK. I actually talked to a couple coaches and asked how do you know when it’s time, and they said you’ll know. Honestly, when we finished the season, not winning the state championship kind of left a little something unresolved in me. Whether we will ever be in position to compete for a state championship again, I have no idea. But I don’t know that I’m done with what this job has to offer me. I can tell you that I’m excited about the upcoming season because I know that there’s something else out there that I’m supposed to do. If the timing is right for me to move on to something else, I will do so. But right now I feel like this is what I’m supposed to do.
