Despite accomplishments contract was not renewed
CHENEY — For the second time since March 31, Eastern Washington University athletics director Lynn Hickey has fired a head coach.
Following her earlier decision not to retain long-time women’s head basketball coach Wendy Schuller, Hickey announced on May 10 that soccer coach Chad Bodnar’s contract will not be renewed.
Bodnar, who was hired away from Walla Walla Community College in 2014, expressed shock in a Monday night Tweet that said: “Not sure why or how I wasn’t given a renewal for my contract and no explanation given but that’s up to the higher ups.”
Having just completed his seventh season at Eastern, Bodnar was named as the third head coach in the history of the Eastern program on Dec. 23, 2013 after spending 10 years as the head coach at Walla Walla. In that time, he compiled an overall record of 73-44-15 (.623%) and was 38-19-8 in Big Sky play.
His teams won the 2017 conference regular season crown and qualified for a second consecutive NCAA Tournament. The 2016 EWU team won the conference tournament and qualified for the program’s first postseason berth. Bodnar’s 2021 team lost its final match to Montana and failed to make the conference tournament.
In Eastern’s release, Hickey offered a standard response: “We appreciate Coach Bodnar and his years of service,” she said. “Chad established EWU women’s soccer as a consistent competitor in the Big Sky Conference and we look forward to continuing that level of competitiveness with new leadership for our program.”
Bodnar was named the Big Sky Coach of the Year (2019) and coached Chloe Williams to three-straight Big Sky Offensive MVP awards (2015-2017). He also coached the 2019 Big Sky Defensive MVP (Taylor Matheny) and Newcomer of the Year (Madison Kem).
In his Tweet, Bodnar noted the team’s academic accomplishments. “We had a 3.6 GPA or above and graduate our players.”
He also reflected on the climate where he worked. “We used to have a close family of coaches and a close community and times have changed obviously,” Bodnar said.
As with Schuller’s replacement, the school will conduct a national search for its next soccer coach.
Paul Delaney is a retired Free Press Publishing reporter and can be reached at pauldelaney53@comcast.net.
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