Sunday Morning Chat: PB Central’s Scott Benedict Part I

This morning, HSBN’s Anthony Uttariello sits down with one of the most successful coaches in Palm Beach County over the past 25 years, Scott Benedict, who last year won his 500th career game. Benedict built Wellington into a powerhouse before taking on a new challenge in a new school, Palm Beach Central, which he, too, developed into one of the top programs in the county right off the bat. In part one of a two-part interview, Benedict talks about his coaching background, why his peers look up to him, his coaching approaches and how he uses the fall season among other things. Enjoy!

Anthony: All right, lets start off with giving our readers a little background into your coaching career.

Coach Benedict: Born and raised in West Palm Beach, Florida. I went to high school at North Shore High School in West Palm Beach. I believe it is now the Middle School of the Arts. Then I played at, you didn’t say playing career, you said coaching career. (laughing)

Anthony: That’s all right, you can start with your playing career.

Coach Benedict: I played two years at Palm Beach Junior College for one of my mentors, Dusty Rhodes. Played my junior year at the University of Georgia. Signed with the New York Yankees after my junior year at Georgia. I played a couple of years, and then retired due to a shoulder injury. They have surgery for that injury now, but they didn’t back then. I immediately went into coaching. I helped out Coach Rhodes at Palm Beach Junior College a bit in the fall that year, when they had guys like Robbie Thompson and some pretty good guys. It was just after (Dante) Bichette.

I think my first head coaching job was junior varsity at Forest Hill High School, and that would have been in the early ‘80s. Craig Gerou was the head coach there. He had been a teammate of mine in our American Legion and junior college days. And he still is a tremendous baseball coach today. I learned a lot from him when I was a junior varsity coach at Forest Hill. I was there a year or two. I was an assistant baseball coach at Florida Atlantic University when I finished my degree. Coaching helped me out with funding my education. I was an assistant baseball coach there under two really good coaches. Steve Trailor at FAU and he went on to become the head coach at Duke and Pat Murphy who was the assistant with myself, he went on to be the head coach at Notre Dame and Arizona State. So that was great experience. We were ranked in the top five nationally both years in Division II.

Then I landed my first head varsity coaching job at my alma mater, North Shore High School. And I was there for a year. And then rumor had it Coach Gerou was leaving Forest Hill, so I think I went back to Forest Hill, and he didn’t go anywhere (laughing). So in ’88, Wellington High School opened up. No seniors, just like we did the first year here. In ’88, Wellington opened, and I got to start that program from the ground up. I was at Wellington High School for 13 years. Then I got to a point where I just felt like there wasn’t much left to do. We had won a state championship. We had four first rounders in a five-year period. I wanted a new challenge. I was going to Arizona State to be a graduate assistant and get my masters under Coach Murphy. During the move out there an assistant coaching position opened up at North Florida under Coach Rhodes again. I threw my name in the hat and got the job. I coached at the University of North Florida as the assistant head coach. Coach Rhodes was kind of grooming me to be the next coach. Due to family circumstances, I came back to West Palm after two years and opened another new school, Palm Beach Central High School. If this is our 10th year, the school must have opened in 2003. I’ve been fortunate, privileged to have the opportunity to start two programs from the ground up. So, my fingerprints are kind of all over them.

Anthony: Like you just said, you’ve been at Palm Beach Central since the start. I’m sure you had some expectations about the school itself and the baseball program. Tell me some of the ways that the school has exceeded your expectations that you had coming in.

Coach Benedict: We’re always looking to make it better, every year. Not only from winning a championship but also from a facilities standpoint. We’re always trying to do the best with what we have. Fundraising is a big task. We have a facility here that we can be proud of, but we’ve still got a ways to go. We’ve got a really nice playing surface. I think it took 10 years to win the first state championship at Wellington and we have not been able to accomplish that yet here and that’s always the ultimate goal. The hardest part is probably getting out of the district. But that’s the ultimate goal: to win a state championship. We’re just working hard to improve everyday and go through the process and hopefully be lucky enough to have that happen someday.

Anthony: Around the county you’re considered one of the coaches that other coaches look up to. You have a lot of respect from your peers. Why do you think that is?

Coach Benedict: Well, I know I had some good mentors that I tailor my coaching after and I think one of the most important things I can do is set a good example for the players. So I try to do that in terms of work ethic and mental toughness. Some of the traits that I try to instill in the players that I was able to obtain form guys like Bob Shaw and Dusty Rhodes are traits like being very demanding and being mentally tough. I’m probably a bit of a perfectionist. If I’m going to do something I want it to be done the right way. And also, I’m real big on fundamentals. That was instilled in my by Coach Shaw.

I think the game should be played the correct way. The game hasn’t changed much over the past hundred years. It’s fundamentals. They are a big key and I think sometimes they get neglected. I think you have to revolve everything around the pitching and your defense. But I think fundamentals like running and baserunning are perhaps the most neglected parts of the game. We try to make our teams very fundamentally solid and competitively strong. We want our kids to be mentally tough. Our offseason strength training and conditioning program is pretty demanding. I think we’ve built some mental toughness there and it consumes a lot of time.

Anthony: You talked a little bit about the fundamentals and obviously a lot of that comes straight down from watching Major League Baseball. After the strike, a lot of the teams were looking to the long ball to try and get fans back into the stands. Do you see it as a positive that is now starting to change in baseball, and that teams are going back more towards fundamentals, stealing bases and hit-and-runs to win?

Coach Benedict: I definitely see it. Not only on the major league level but also in the college and high school level. The ability to handle the bat is tremendously magnified. Speed is a tremendous asset. Speed shows up everyday. With teams playing more small ball and handling the bat, that makes the ability to play fundamental defense that much more important. Not as many teams are playing for rallies as they are for runs. There’s a lot more handling of the bat and putting pressure on the defense. The other side of the coin you better be able to handle it when you’re on defense and be able to execute your cutoffs, relays, pickoffs, rundowns, bunt defense, first and third defense. No matter what it is, you’ve got to be prepared to handle it. You’ve got to invest a lot of time in defense to prepare for that small-ball game.

Anthony: Talking to some of your coaches, they’ll say that you’re really a college coach coaching at the high school level. We’ve talked to some other coaches and they say you’re one of the better coaches around. What do you think you do within your program that may be different then some of the other programs and some of the other coaches?

Coach Benedict: Oh boy, for me it’s a seven-day-a-week deal. We spend a lot of time practicing. I try to make sure they have their priorities straight so they can try to budget their time. Because if we’re going to compete on a high level against the type of competition we play against, you’ve got to maximize your potential. The only way you’re going to do that is through repetition. and that takes time. You’ve really got to prepare and try to get the most out of your players. Anthony, I’m trying to remember what the exact question was…

Anthony: Just something you do different than other coaches, even during the off-season. I know your coaches said that you aren’t big on fall ball.

Coach Benedict: No, I’m not. The fall I think is for getting bigger, faster, stronger. A lot of times that’s the difference when going up a level from high school to junior college; junior college to four-year college, four-year college to pros. A lot of times strength, speed flexibility is the difference in players and teams. We have a program that I believe strongly in for that area. When we hold our workouts, it’s very regimented. They have cards they have to fill out, they have to break six records on their cards each week. Flexibility is huge. In our 10 years here, I can’t even remember five pulled muscles. Flexibility is a very neglected area. I’ve never really seen this bigger, faster, stronger program we use fail since I first put it in back in the early ‘90s at Wellington. A lot of success has been obtained from that. In practice, we do a lot of drills and a lot of fundamental work. We want to make the routine plays and the great plays will happen. Once again, it all goes back to being fundamental strong and I’m bouncing around, but back to the bigger faster stronger program. What we’re trying to do is build a wall granite in their lower back, butt and legs, and the human body is physiologically predisposed. It won’t let you get big in certain areas without getting big in others. So there’s five core lifts they have to chart each week and add stress to the body, and they can never sacrifice technique for weight. I’ve seen guys gain a lot of arm strength through that. I’ve seen guys take a second off their 60 time over the course of a year or two through this off-season program.

Anthony: Each year no matter what your record is at the end, you send another group of players off to college whether it be to play ball, or maybe just get an education. What’s the one thing that you hope you players learn during their time with you at Palm Beach Central?

Coach Benedict: That if you work hard good things will happen. Good things happen to people who work hard. You can’t all be big league baseball players, but we can be major league people. Work ethic…when they get out in real life things are going to get tough and you better be able to get up and dust yourself off, or your family is not going to eat. I’ve had guys go on to pro ball, and I’ve had guys get some free education and take some financial hardship off their parents. I’m every bit as proud of those guys that come back with degrees and they’ve got a job and a family and they’re productive citizens and husbands and fathers as I am of the guys that have made it all the way to the show. The main thing is that good things will happen if you work hard. Good things will happen if you work hard. You learn a lot of lessons in this game in terms of adversity and teamwork and dedication. You can learn a lot of lessons through the game of baseball, and that’s one of the things that I really enjoy about it.

Part II of the Sunday Morning Chat with Coach Benedict is coming next Sunday!

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