Kyle Bodamer: Rebel, Legend, Hero.
There’s a movie, one of the true American classics, a little gem known as “Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure.”
Midway through this all-time great (which I may have seen more times than is reasonable), there’s this exchange between our hero and his wannabe-girlfriend.
“There’s a lotta things about me you don’t know anything about, Dottie. Things you wouldn’t understand. Things you couldn’t understand. Things you shouldn’t understand.”
“I don’t understand.”
“You don’t wanna get mixed up with a guy like me. I’m a loner, Dottie. A rebel.”
Take out the loner part (he has too many friends) and keep the rebel part, and you have Coupeville High School junior Kyle Bodamer.
Sure, he’s a baseball and tennis player for the Wolves, and a pretty darn good one, but Bodamer, who celebrates his birthday today, is more than that.
Much more.
He’s the guy who tempts the wrath of the Fun Police by dressing up as a nun and ticking off stuffy, over-privileged rival private schools with his antics during volleyball matches.
That’s a legend right there.
He’s one of the dudes who finishes the tennis season with partially-healed burns on his legs because he dives on CEMENT courts like he’s still wearing a baseball uniform and he thinks the court will be as soft as the infield.
Or because he doesn’t care that it’s hard. It’s just in his way.
He does it all, this American rebel.
Swatting killer bees with Brian Norris on the tennis court.
Macking on baseball mom cupcakes.
Or, coming really, really close to nailing CHS baseball coach Willie Smith in the head with a line drive double a moment after Smith yelled at him to “Pull your head out of your butt and concentrate, Bodamer!!”
They both had mega-watt smiles as Bodamer gave him the stare-down from second, two showmen on the same crazy wavelength.
He is one of the most entertaining people to pull on the Wolf uniform and we, his fans, hail him.
Never let the Fun Police win.
Shine on, you crazy rebel. Shine on.
Coupeville Sports 