Niki Bond and her husband Justin are the parents of Allison, a senior at McAlester High School. Allison is a varsity softball and soccer player for the Lady Buffs. Justin, also known as coach Bond, coaches softball and varsity boys golf at McAlester.
For the last two years, Niki has served as the Booster Club President for the softball team, but recently turned that honor over to the parent of a younger player so she could enjoy Allison’s final year of high school athletics.
“For me, the best thing about volunteering is getting to know the players on a deeper level. These kids are fantastic, so funny, and much wittier than I ever was at that age, it’s my privilege to just have the opportunity to be around them and help them be successful,” Niki said. “It’s important to know which player likes the blue Gatorade and who prefers the purple, who wants grapes and pineapple at tournaments and who will croak without beef jerky and who gets heartburn before games and only wants the red Tums.”
With any volunteer position, it takes other parents volunteering their time to make the machine work. A fact that is not lost on Niki.
“McAlester softball has a wonderful group of parents that will do anything to help the program. Our softball parents are tremendous, the dads will show up with weed-eaters to make the field look great and the moms wash endless loads of filthy softball laundry. It truly takes a village to have a successful program,” said Niki. “The cheerleaders come and decorate the softball locker room, our coaching staff works tirelessly doing all the invisible things that keep a team going, grandparents help fundraise, and our local businesses always support us generously.”
Like Allison, Niki graduated from McAlester making Allison a fourth generation Buffalo. Niki’s grandfather was part of the Class of 1930, while her parents were in the Class of ’65 and ’66. Niki and Justin are in the Class of ’93 and ’95 and Allison will be in the Class of ’22.
“I think McAlester is a great place to raise a family because of the small town atmosphere. If you look around at our games you will see moms and dads, stepparents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, family friend, classmates and just people from the town that see the lights on and come out to watch a game on a nice evening. I think it’s important that players have fans in the stands, it makes them feel proud to have their friends and family see them do good things,” said Niki.
The Bond family is a sports family, planning trips around sporting events and travel.
“My family would say that we like to camp and hike, but that is a lie…they like to camp and hike and force me along when all I really want is a hotel room and a good book. It’s fun to go have some big adventures, but it is a little sad that our daughter is leaving home soon for college and our time running crazy with sports will be over,” said Niki.
