“True story, I’ll pick you guys over everyone any day.” Those were the words that came into the team’s mind when remembering ex-Benson head baseball coach Jackson Gillett. “That’s what he told us almost every day” explains player Nick Preciso “and then he leaves us to go to Liberty High School”. Towards the end of Benson’s summer baseball season, the news came that the team would be getting a new head coach next regular season. Gillett got the position as head baseball and football coach at Liberty High School, and lured player favorite assistant varsity coach Desmond Boots to go with him. It was undetermined who the new head coach would be.
Head JV coach Adam Cohen stayed and was the front runner for the new position, but was not guaranteed it. The team was restlessly waiting to find out who would be coaching them next year and the news finally came. On Friday, November 5th, players got texts from the coaches that the new head coach was chosen. Brian O’Leary was named the new leader and face of Benson Baseball. Brian O’Leary grew up in Portland and attended Jesuit High School. He lettered in baseball for three years. As a utility player and then graduated in 1995. He was an assistant at Lincoln last year serving under two Benson graduates. The Lincoln team took first place in 6A PIL for the first time in 54 years. This will be his third year of coaching and is excited to experience it with Benson Baseball.
This year Benson is moving down to PIL 5A along with Wilson and Franklin which hopefully means the teams won’t get thrashed like they sometimes did by the bigger 6A schools. Franklin is in the same situation as Benson; for they’re getting a new head coach also replacing Robbie Trebelhorn. It is unknown why Wilson is moving down since they easily made the playoffs last year and dominated the PIL 6A in other sports.
Since baseball is becoming known as a slow, boring sport, O’Leary wants the team to play fast and aggressive. The team is expected to hustle on and off the field not wasting any time. The game may look slow, but really there is a lot going on. It just looks like they’re just standing out there doing nothing because that is time to pay attention and concentrate. Every player is always thinking on what he is going to do if the ball is hit to him because you can never know where it will be hit next.
“A Benson baseball player is here first, to be a student, second, to be a person of character, and third, to be the best ballplayer he can be. I expect to have the best students, the most character, and the hardest-working ballplayers in the city and the state. We will go a long way as a program when we stick to these priorities” O’Leary explains on what he wants Benson Baseball to be all about.
Benson Baseball isn’t only about winning. There are many different aspects of the program. The first priority is to become a good student. You can’t make it on the field if you can’t make it in the classrooms. This is the most important thing when it comes to any high school sport. Second is to be a person with good character. It’s all about representing Benson the best we can and it won’t happen if we don’t respect other people or they don’t respect us. Finally, there is being a good player. Ironically this is the least important of the three. Everyone wants to win, but that’s not the top priority. Even if the team has a losing season, the experience gained is far more important than winning.
-Connor Buckley
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