By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
If a stranger happened to sit down during a conversation between veteran high school coaches Kevin Bordewick and Steve Alexander, it might be difficult to immediately ascertain whether the two were even friends, let alone best buddies for nearly four decades.
Kevin Bordewick begins his 17th season as Washburn Rural's girls head coach and his 33rd in the program on Monday. [File photo/TSN] 
Steve Alexander, introducing Kevin Bordewick for Topeka Shawnee County Sports Hall of Fame induction in 2023, will serve as a Washburn Rural assistant coach this winter. [File photo/TSN]
But that's understandable considering the fact that the unshakable bond between the two men is based in part on making sure that the other one never thinks they've gained the upper hand in their decades long back and forth.
That fierce loyalty, almost always tinged with wit and maybe a touch of sarcasm, is likely to be evident at times this winter as Bordewick and Alexander re-visit their coaching roots while sharing the bench for the Washburn Rural girls basketball team.
And Bordewick, who began his coaching career as Alexander's assistant in boys basketball at Class 1A Blue Valley-Randolph, said he's waited a long time to get the chance to turn the tables and boss his friend around.
"Heck yeah. This is payback after 35, 40 years,'' Bordewick joked. "I've got a lot of ammo, a whole warehouse full.''
For his part, Alexander admits that some of that payback may actually be deserved.
"When Kevin was my assistant, he was coaching the JV game and I'm sitting three rows back behind the bench doing stats or something,'' Alexander recalled. "There was some call and I lost it and I throw my clipboard and it bounces down to the floor.
"I went down to the floor to get it and (Bordewick) got T'd up because I wasn't on the bench. He tells the refs, 'I don't even know that guy.' But they go, 'You do, too. We know that's the head coach.' ''
Bordewick remembers the incident well.
"I was already voicing my displeasure with the call and then there's this clipboard that flies by me on the stairs and I get a technical,'' Bordewick said.
"Being his assistant I really re-thought maybe I should have become a computer programmer or maybe I should have gone into visual arts, maybe movie production or something. I really re-thought my career.''
Bordewick eventually took over the girls programs for the Rams in basketball, volleyball and track but he and Alexander remained together at Blue Valley for five years before Alexander moved on to Seaman and Bordewick had a brief two-year stint as boys coach at Oskaloosa before becoming a staple in the girls volleyball and basketball programs at Washburn Rural.
Both Alexander and Bordewick credit close friend Bill Annan, now a women's assistant at Division I Oral Roberts for getting them to Topeka. Annan served as a boys assistant at Seaman before Alexander took on that role when Annan moved to Washburn Rural to guide the girls program.
Bordewick came on to board and served as Annan's assistant for 16 years, including three Class 6A state championships, before Annan moved on to college coaching and Bordewick succeeded him with the Junior Blues.
Fast forward and Bordewick is starting his 17th year as the Junior Blues' head girls coach, with 12 Class 6A state tournament appearances, eight final fours, two state titles and two runnerup finishes, while Alexander is joining Bordewick at Rural after 24 seasons with the Seaman girls as head coach and eight years as an assistant, leading the Vikings to a 5A state title game as a head coach and on the bench for the school's state championship run in 2024.
Bordewick and Alexander said they have been thinking about getting the opportunity to coach together again for years, but the chance really didn't present itself until Alexander retired as a counselor at Seaman before the 2023-2024 school year.
"When I became an assistant coach (at Seaman), he said something about it and I said, 'Well, I can't come out and be an assistant coach for you if I'm still being a counselor at Seaman,'' Alexander said. "I won't do that.''
"It first started is when he resigned as the head coach and we thought, 'Let's think about it,' '' Bordewick said. "But he was right. It would have been really awkward for everybody with him still at Seaman, but now that he's retired from counseling it was possbile.''
"And he didn't really have an opening until this year,'' Alexander said.
Alexander hopes to turn this coming season into several years with the Junior Blues.
"My wife is not of retirement age, so I probably have at least four years,'' he said. "I've told her, 'As long as you're working I might as well be coaching.' ''
Of course, his pal Bordewick, who Alexander introduced for induction into the Topeka Shawnee County Sports Hall of Fame in 2023, might have something to say about that.
"Let's make everything perfectly clear,'' Bordewick said with a chuckle. "If he doesn't pass the mustard, he's out. We're in double secret probation.''
