The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper The Spokesman-Review
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883
Current Temperature
40°F
Current Conditions
Broken clouds
View complete weather report
Subscribe now

Moss Adams employees try out Olynyk’s hairstyle

The staff of Moss Adams show off their locks Tuesday on Kelly Olynyk Hair Day, part of the March Madness fun at the Spokane accounting firm. At far right is managing partner Rick Betts. Ali Marshall, fifth from left, stands atop two large plastic buckets to simulate the Gonzaga 7-footer’s height. (Jesse Tinsley)
By Jennifer Pignolet jenniferp@spokesman.com

If Gonzaga men’s basketball center Kelly Olynyk has practical reasons for keeping his long locks out of a ponytail while he plays, no one at the Spokane office of accounting firm Moss Adams has been able to figure them out.

That doesn’t mean they didn’t try.

Tuesday was Kelly Olynyk Hair Day in the Moss Adams office on the 18th floor of the Bank of America Financial Center.

Some wore wigs, and others with lengthier tresses kept their hair down, Olynyk style. All wore the signature headband across the middle of their foreheads.

“I don’t know how he wears those things,” receptionist Rosalee Saad said while peeling the band off her forehead, where it had left its mark. “He must have them made special. Extra large.”

Others complained of a slight loss of circulation in their frontal cortex regions due to the constraints of the elastic.

Company recruiting manager Ali Marshall took her immersion into Olynyk’s character one step further and used five-gallon buckets as stilts to approximate the player’s 7-foot height.

Marketing manager Anna Bresnahan said the spoof was the brainchild of managing partner Rick Betts, a Gonzaga Master of Business Administration graduate and co-founder of Spokane’s annual Hoopfest.

Bresnahan said Betts is a “huge basketball fan,” and March Madness is a big deal at Moss Adams, as it is in many workplaces.

The game will be on in the conference room Thursday afternoon, virtually the only disruption the CPAs tolerate during tax season.

Bresnahan said the Spokane office often competes during the tournament with offices located near other universities across the country. This year, the main rivalry is with the Kansas City office located near another first-seed team, Kansas University.

Office bracket challenges are of course part of the festivities.

“I have Gonzaga winning the whole thing,” Bresnahan said of her own bracket, seemingly unfazed by any superstition of making bold predictions out loud.

Predicting Olynyk’s post-college plans may prove to be just as difficult.

Olynyk graduated in December with a degree in accounting and is enrolled in Gonzaga’s MBA program.

If the NBA doesn’t come calling, “We’d take him,” Bresnahan said.

In that case, every day at Moss Adams could be Kelly Olynyk Hair Day.