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Jeff Benson’s ship has finally come in. That is, his softball ship.
A longtime baseball addict, Benson, 45, adopted softball as his sport of choice when daughter, Kori, asked to play as a youngster.
“I had always been a baseball guy, but when Kori wanted to get involved in softball, I switched over and started learning everything I could about it,” Benson said. “It surprised me how different it was. The strategies and skills are really a lot more different than most people think. It’s a faster game because the field is small and everything happens so quickly.”
Basic fundamentals of softball are close to baseball, but then again, they aren’t. When Benson came around to appreciating softball’s nuances, he started to gain a reputation as a really good youth and travel coach. He was a natural, too.
Those who know Benson will tell you that he is one of those people who has never met a stranger. His self-deprecating humor endears him to practically everyone. His honest enthusiasm for and with his players is infectious. His teams smile and laugh a lot. They respond by wanting to give him everything they have between the lines.
Rusty Rigney, president of National Scouting Report, saw Benson’s skills up close when Rigney’s daughter, Rachel, played travel softball with Kori Benson.
“I’ve never seen anybody quite like Jeff,” Rigney said. “He is a funny, funny guy. But when he steps into that dugout and his teams put a foot on the dirt, their opponents are in trouble. Jeff’s teams always, always come to play and will wear you out before you know it.”
Rigney liked Benson so much that when NSR needed an extra hand in its video department, he asked Jeff if he wanted to try editing? Benson excitedly said yes. He was a quick study and soon became very proficient at both video editing and scouting.
“Jeff comes across as a good, ol’ country boy, and he is,” said Rigney. “He’s also very intelligent and a very good scout. He surprised all of us in the NSR home office. Of course, we loved having him here because he kept something going all the time.”
Then, out of the blue, an opportunity came along to be the volunteer head coach at his younger daughter’s high school in Oak Grove, Ala.
In typical fashion, Benson explained what happened.
“Well, they ran out of people to ask to coach the team and I was the only one left,” Benson deadpanned.
For the next few years, Oak Grove turned heads by advancing deep into the state playoffs. But after Benson’s youngest daughter, Erin, graduated from high school, he left Oak Grove to become an unpaid assistant coach at her new school, Wallace State Community College, a member of powerful Alabama Community College Conference (ACCC).
It was a big step up for Benson. Wallace had just won the NJCAA national championship. For Benson, taking the job was yet another step in an unlikely climb through the coaching ranks. But it didn’t come easily.
“I would get up at two o’clock in the morning, go to work driving a truck, finish up about eleven in the morning and them drive the hour or so over to Wallace for practice,” Benson said. “But I loved every minute of it.
“We were a really good team and went to the state tournament, but we couldn’t get over the hump and came up short in going to the NJCAA World Series.”
Then things really got interesting.
After Wallace State struggled to a 4-10 record to start the 2016 season, legendary head coach Jayne Clem retired unexpectedly. That left Benson with his hands on the steering wheel of a JUCO national power one third of the way into the season. Moreover, he was replacing a coach with a career .790 winning percentage and two national titles in 34 years at the helm.
“It was a surprise, to say the least,” Benson acknowledged, “but there was nothing else we could do but show up, practice and play the games.”
Benson brought new life to the Lions (48-20), who won 44 of their final 54 games and captured the NJCAA state title. Later this month, Benson will coach the team in the NJCAA World Series in St. George, Utah.
Asked about the team’s remarkable turnaround, Benson deflected any credit. “The girls just decided they wanted to make something of their year, so they came together and started playing hard,” he said. “We played some really tough competition early on, so they knew what was ahead of them. But it was all them. I really didn’t have all that much to do with it.”
However, Benson’s remarkable story doesn’t end there. Because he does not have a teaching degree, Wallace State couldn’t offer Benson the permanent head coaching position, even though he was recently voted Regional Coach of the Year by his peers.
That little obstacle didn’t prevent Marion (Ala.) Military Institute from offering Benson its head coaching position. After visiting the junior college, Jeff jumped at the opportunity to coach the team that won only two games in 2016.
“It was totally unexpected, but I’m very grateful,” Benson said. “The school is very prestigious. It prepares young people academically who want to get into West Point and the Air Force Academy. The softball team struggled this year, but that’s what I like about it. We’ll work hard, have fun and see what happens.”
Rigney said he is confident Benson will succeed.
“We’re very proud of Jeff’s success,” Rigney said, “and we know that Marion Military Institute has themselves a very special coach in Jeff.”
National Scouting Report is dedicated to finding scholarship opportunities for athletes who possess the talent, desire, and motivation to compete at the collegiate level. We’ve helped connect thousands of athletes with their perfect college.