Published: April 21, 2007 11:59 pm      

Longtime Bethany educator calls it quits

The man considered by his peers to be synonymous with Bethany Christian High School will be retiring at the end of the school year.

Dan Bodiker is retiring this year after 43 years of teaching and coaching in the Bethany Christian school system. He is currently the athletic director and teaches driver’s education at the high school, but has worn many hats throughout the years.

“A lot of people, if they don’t know anything about Bethany Christian, know about him,” Principal Allan Dueck said.

Bodiker began his teaching career in 1964 — 10 years after Bethany Christian was built — after graduating from Goshen College. For a 38-year period, from 1965 to January 2003, he did not miss a single day of work, fulfilling his duties as teacher, athletic director, driver’s education instructor and coach.

After initially becoming athletic director upon his hiring, he shifted his focus to the classroom, where he became a physical education and health teacher. At Dueck’s request, he reclaimed his position as athletic director in the fall of 1996, which he currently holds until the end of this school year.

Bodiker noted that part of the reason he was brought to Bethany was to introduce varsity sports into the Mennonite community. With his efforts, basketball, soccer and baseball all became staples of BCHS athletics in 1965.

He compiled an all-time career record of 918-719-39 as a coach. His first boys basketball team finished the season with a 9-7 record. That spring, the first baseball team finished 4-1, then in the fall the first boys soccer team compiled a 6-1-1 record.

He continued coaching year-round until he was 50, and during the 1988-90 basketball seasons, he even coached the JV and freshmen boys and varsity girls teams at the same time. Bethany’s 1987 baseball team, coached by Bodiker, won a sectional championship, made even more significant since it was during the one-class system.

Bodiker decided to retire from coaching in 1997, but along the way he helped the current boys head basketball coach and guidance counselor Jim Buller gain much-needed experience as head basketball coach.

“I had the passion and excitement and he had the knowledge,” Buller said.

Buller took over the basketball program in 1979, five years after Bodiker stepped down as head boys basketball coach.

Bodiker’s accomplishments garnered him a spot in the Elkhart County Sports Hall of Fame in the fall of 2006.

Bodiker always makes it a priority to attend events going on around the Bethany community, whether it be sporting events, music competitions or dramas.

“I always believed that if I wanted to see them at my events, then I should go see theirs,” Bodiker said.

As driver’s education instructor, Bodiker used to insist that his students learn how to drive a stick-shift vehicle — that way they would be able to drive any vehicle at any time. Even though most teens preferred using an automatic, Bodiker said that several former students would later let him know they appreciated the stick-shift tutorial.

“One girl told me that being able to drive a stick shift helped her get a job as a missionary in Africa,” Bodiker said.

Working at Bethany is the only career that Bodiker has ever known, and he is grateful for all of the people he has worked with.

“As a teacher, it is a great place to teach,” Bodiker said.

Bodiker feels that attending all of the events he has been to over the years has left him a little burned out, though he will still volunteer his services at sporting events from time to time.

He also will be able to watch his son Scott coach middle school basketball and high school soccer at Highland High School in Ohio.

“Someone told me about coaching that ‘you’ll know when it’s time to get out,’ and they were right,” Bodiker said. “I feel about this the same way now. It’s time.”

Respond: (574) 533-2151, ext. 316

justin.cripe@goshennews.com