Hull, Western Christian (Athlete) 2012
You see Bonnie DeBoer won almost every time she got in the blocks, took a handoff or hit the long jump take off board. She was that good.
In her 4 years at Western Christian she ran about half of her meets on cinder tracks and the other half on all weather surfaces that were not near the quality that kids run on today. But regardless of the surface, if Bonnie was in the race, the battle really was for second
Despite graduating from high school almost 35 years ago, her personal records are still among the states all time bests and she still holds Western Christian records in the 100, 200, 4×100 and long jump.
As a freshman, Bonnie placed 5th the 100 and 200 at the 1975 state meet. Those results must not have set well with her as she came back to win both events in 1976, ‘77 and ‘78. She added the long jump and the 4×100 relay for good measure in 1977 and 78 for 10 state titles in all; and oh yeah, the girls state meet was just one class until 1977.
Her PR of 11.8 in the 100 is # 4 on the all time list; her 24.2 in the 200 is also # 4 and her best of 18-11 ¾ is still the 6th best long jump ever. With her on the anchor, Western Christian ran the 4×1 in a best of 49.1 in 1977, a mark that is just off of the current all time list.
Bonnie led Western Christian to state team titles in 1977 and ‘78. She was inducted into the Iowa Girls Athletic Union’s Hall of Fame in 1982 and the 1978 team was inducted in 1993.
After graduating from high school she attended Dordt College for 1 year before transferring to and graduating from St. Joseph School of Nursing in Sioux City. She has enjoyed a long and rewarding career as a registered nurse.
Bonnie is married to Kevin Wolterstorff and they have 4 very talented, athletic children. It is an ancient cliché’, but the apple didn’t fall far from the tree. Trevor and Tyler play basketball at Dordt and Brooke and Abby attend Western Christian. Trevor and Tyler played on state championship basketball teams in high school. Brooke has played on state title winning basketball and volleyball teams. She is the reigning 2A champion in the 100, 200, 400 and 4×100 relay and was recently chosen as the 2A volleyball Co-Player of the Year.
Bonnie DeBoer was one of the best ever. She is very humble and doesn’t seem to be real comfortable when it comes to talking about her accolades or those of her children. But finding people who were willing tell stories of this ladies accomplishments was easy.
Her faith in God is very strong. She knows she was blessed with an incredible talent, and her opponents knew it too!