Masters in Coaching Podcast- Episode XLV

Tim Cates talks with Ben Benavides about returning to his alma mater and coaching the high school football team. His dedication on and off to the field to his players has helped turn around the program from a 1-win team to making the Texas HS State Playoffs last season. Ben also talks about his experience going through the Masters in Coaching and Athletics Administration Program at CUI Irvine.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
From a star linebacker at his highschool to now coaching at his alma mater.
He has guided his high school footballteam back to the Texas State playoffs
in only four years at the helm, he's guiding his players on and off
the field. We talked to headcoach Ben Benavidez of John F. Kennedy
High School in San Antonio, Texas. Next, it's episode forty five of

(00:24):
the Masters in Coaching Podcast. Let'sgo well, Welcome into episode forty five
of the Masters in Coaching Podcast.It continues to grow on iHeart Radio wherever
you download the podcast Spotify. Weappreciate it. We thank you for watching
as well on YouTube or whatever sourceyou are finding this in the outlet you

(00:47):
are finding it on. Thank youso much for watching and listening. So
excited to talk to our next guesthere in episode forty five, the head
football coach athletic coordinator at John F. Kennedy High School in San Antonio,
Texas. He has Ben Ben aVitus and he joins us now, coach,
Welcome, how you doing doom?Appreciate you guys, Yeah doing O
kaids. You've got them with practiceat this point. Awesome. You're going

(01:07):
into year five now is the headcoach at your alma mater. First off,
let's just talk about this year.Heading into this season. How are
things looking for you guys. We'vegot a pretty good core group of our
athletes from last year that were starters, and we're our main contributors on the
football team coming back. I havea two All State kids. John F.
Kenny hasn't an All State kids sincetwo thousand and nine, so I

(01:30):
have two All State kids that werejuniors last so they're gonna be seniors this
year coming back. So we're prettyexcited about them, and we're pretty excited
about the rest of the team thatI think we have six on offense starters
and six on defense coming back forthis year's campaign. Year five for you,
coach, is this sort of whereyou wanted the program to be when
you took over going into now fiveseasons ago. Yeah. I came in

(01:53):
with a three year plan and thefive year plan. A year three,
you know, yest when we gottahit with COVID, so we couldn't really
do the off season that we hadplanned for, So that was a rough
year for us going We got toplay five games that season, so the
year four was actually those freshmen thatwhen I when I took this job here,

(02:13):
those freshmen were seniors last year.That was my full group, and
we were able to go from ateam that only won one game in three
years to win seven last year andmaking the playoffs for the first time in
twelve years. How did you?How did you do that? Coach?
How did you come back to youralma mater one and twenty four? You

(02:34):
guys go seven and three? Youmentioned you make the playoffs for the first
time since two thousand and nine?How did you do it? What was
what was the philosophy to get tothis point and to continue to get this
program going to the playoffs every singleyear? So my first year year won
coming into a program that hadn't wona game in a while, if even

(02:54):
before that the three years prior,I knew coming from this neighbor, coming
from this community, growing up aroundhere, and I tell the kids,
you know, the same streets thatyou guys have walked, You know,
I walk and I've walked the samethings that you guys are seen with their
two eyes. I've seen the samething that you guys are hearing with your
two years. I've already heard.So I know we come from a tough

(03:14):
community and I went I went offto be college ball, and I took
that tough mentality with me to college. So I talked to our kids our
brand of football that first year iswe're gonna be a tough We're gonna be
tough individuals. We're gonna be atough out we have. We may not
be as athletic as a teams arefacing at the at the time, we
may not be as big, maynot be as fast, but we're gonna

(03:34):
be tough. We're gonna be atough program. So that was our brand
of football for the first two threeyears. And then after being able to
implement our weight program, which wecall, you know, the mark Rippletoe
Starting Strength and we get a chanceto look it up, that starting strength
stuff has really increased our strength inthe weight room. So our weight room
offseason stuff was we had the strongestkids we've ever had. So now we

(03:58):
were able to add to our brandthe football for not just being tough individuals.
Now we're gonna be tough and we'regoing to be strong. So I
told our kids, we're gonna bethe strongest dudes on the field when we
step out there, no matter whatwe faced, and to us that was
the greatest equalizer. It was tobe just as strong, if not stronger
than the guy in front of us, all the way across the board.
I want to go back to somethingyou said. You grew up there,

(04:20):
you went to high school there.You know what these kids are going through.
And I think that's important because ifanother coach took over, maybe they're
not from the area, maybe theydon't understand maybe a home situation, what's
going on in life every single dayoff the football field. Did that give
you instant credibility with the kids havingwalked in their shoes like you did.

(04:42):
Now to come back and be thehead coach and somebody that's lived in breathed
what they did, did that getinstant credibility with you with those kids.
Absolutely, And not only just credibility, but the fact that you know,
I didn't want to then to usethis neighborhood or the hardships that come with
this neighbors neighborhood as a crutch becauseI grew up in the neighborhood. Like
I told them before, you,I'm from the same neighborhood as they are.

(05:04):
They cannot use things that happen outsidetheir control as a crutch to not
being able to come show up,you know, and play football, you
know, for our program. BecauseI was able to do it. I
came from this neighborhood. I wasthe first time that, you know,
to graduate from college. I wasable to go on and play college football.
You know, I'll be it.It was an EIA football, but

(05:24):
I made it the best I couldpossibly be. And I told my kids,
I said, I tell our kidsnow even to this day. I
mean, you guys can do it. Just come from the neighborhood. I
came from this neighborhood. You know. When I have parents come up to
me and maybe you know, dodifferent questions or different just so we have
different conversations about things, I tellus the first time that's I'm from the

(05:45):
neighborhood. Guys. I grew upright down the street. I went to
this elementary right right here. Iwent to this middle school right they still
when I came to this high school, I said, so I understand.
You cannot tell me that I don'tunderstand because I grew up in the exact
same situation that you guys aren't.I want to go back to your your
playing days in high school. Youplayed multiple sports in high school at Kennedy
High School, and then you mentionedit you went on and played at Bethel

(06:06):
College, played linebacker there talk aboutthat going to college, getting away from
San Antonio, just leaving the house, going and playing college football up in
Kansas. How much does that matureyou and is that kind of where you
started to formulate maybe I want toget into coaching and helping kids after my
playing days are over. Well,I mean I was one of those kids

(06:29):
that just played every sport. Ididn't have a right. My parents couldn't
take me, so the coaches wouldactually come pick me up in front of
my house. I'd be sitting outthere in my little backpack and a coach
would come pick me at by jumpin the truck and we go pay tournaments
or whatever for every sport. So, you know, doing to college and
coming from this neighborhood, I kindof went in with kind of a ship
on my shoulder, so to speak. As far as trusting people, and

(06:53):
I was told in high school,which I know it. I mean,
I hate to say it, butsometimes it's there's there's negative things that happen
in our community, and you hearnegative from the streets, you hear negative
from the parents, you're negative fromfrom the family, and I try to
make our program positive. So whenI got to college, coming from this

(07:13):
neighborhood, I just didn't trust anybody. And I went to a private men
in a college in the middle,you know, pro candas is nowhere,
and I just didn't trust anybody.And when people were telling me in high
school that we weren't very good,it was a complete opposite. In college,
everybody tells how good we were.I you know, alone, and
boosters are coming up to me therein much time and just you know,
just patting me on the shoulder andtelling me how great of a football player

(07:35):
was. I never got that inhigh school. So I'm trying to do
that to our kids now. I'mtrying to let them know how good they
are, you know, how goodthey can be. And our coaching staff,
we don't. We don't cuss becauseto me, it's a negative thing.
They hear that everywhere else except inour coaching staff. So I said,
that's a negative thing. We're notgoing to do with our kids.
We're not gonna cuss at these kids. We're not gonna cuss around these kids.

(07:57):
And when these kids cuss, youknow, they're on the ground doing
pushups. They know that our expectationsare because it is a negative thing,
and I just want to keep asmuch positive thing as I can within our
program because I was able to experiencethat positivity in college and it made me
so much of a better player.I actually believed I was the best player
on the field because that's what Iwas being told. And that kind of

(08:18):
goes against what we hear a lotof coaching nowadays is to break kids down,
wear them down, get after them, you gotta give, you gotta
ride them all the time in orderto get the best out of them.
And you're proving that you don't.You know, building these kids up is
just as equally as beneficial. Yes, And not only that, but going,
like I said, to a privatemidnight college where you know, we

(08:39):
were required to take religion courses andjust kind of broughten our horizons as a
person as a human being, andthen going out to the Natch's program there
at Concordia and it also being areligious based program, it kind of just
solidified my philosophy, you know,as a coach. You know, a
lot of the material that was coveredin that program was awesome for me because

(09:00):
it just kind of justified and verifiedwhat we were doing as a coaching staff.
So and I one of the booksthat we know you read in my
Master's program where one of the coachestells the kids, you know, our
jovers coaches to love you and what'syour job? And the entire team says
to love each other. I stilluse that to this day. And I
could say that at any point inany part of our program and any part

(09:24):
of our practice, I could sayin the hallways in the classroom, our
kids are going to say say thesame thing our jovers coaches to love you,
guys, what's your job? They'regonna say, love each other.
I love it. I love it. Ben Benavidis is our guest. He's
the head football coach and athletic coordinatorat John F. Kennedy High School in
San Antonio, Texas. This episodeforty five of the Masters and Coaching Podcast,
we're gonna get into Concordia University's Mastersprogram that you went through and touched

(09:46):
and touched upon here. But Iwant to go back to why you got
into coaching. What was it afterfootball that you wanted to go back and
coach your stops along the way Beforeyou got to going back to your alma
as head coach, you went andcoached and taught in middle school level,
and then you came back as acoordinator at your high school, and then
you go to Burbank High School anddefensive coordinator and assistant head coach for five

(10:09):
season, and then you come backfinally as head coach there at Kennedy High
School. But you know, wasthere mentors along the way? Was it?
Were there coaches at different levels thatwhen you got done playing and you
got into teaching and coaching, you'relike, this is what I want to
do. They poured into me,I want to pour into other kids.
So I'm not sure if everybody hasthis, but anybody that played sports like

(10:31):
I still hear the voices in myhead of those coaches that coached me in
Pop Warner, that coached me inmiddle school, that coached me in high
school, even the guys that coachedme in college. And there's certain coaches
that have that influence on me.Even when I was playing college football,
I heard my linebacker coach's voice fromhigh school, just telling me what to
do right, and ever since Iplayed as a kid, I was the

(10:54):
captain of the team and I waskind of a coach on the field.
And it got to the point incollege my junior senior year, I was
playing linebacker, or literally the coachwould just make a check mark symbol from
the sideline and I would say,check with me, check with me,
you know, hit hard. We'dbreak out into the defensive a set that
we're going to be in, andI'd make the call as the offense is
coming out to the field. SoI was already kind of coaching, you

(11:18):
know, even as a player.And then after I graduated from college,
my defensive corner asked me I'd bewinning the coaching linebackers with him on the
staff. So I coached had Bethto college for three years being a linebacker
coach, and I was the Southrecruiter for the South Texas excuse me for
the Southern reason, including Texas,and I was bringing in about eleven recruits

(11:39):
a year to Bethel to play forus SO and it was I guess,
just me being sincere me eleven theprogram that I was in and honestly me
bringing more minorities, you know,to a college where it was predominantly you
know, Anglo, So it justkind of mixing the culture of that school
because you know, people say,you know, what's wrong with the country

(12:01):
today, you know, and thingsbuild a lot of things wrong with the
country today, but if you're goinginto a locker room, you know things
are right. Just a diversity andstuff. So me always, I guess
I was always kind of a coach, even as a player, but then
just the level of the game andthey just trying to do right, you
know, by the kids. Ihave a kid that I recruited out of
high school from here from San Antoniothat ended up playing for me at Best

(12:24):
Of College in Kansas. And ifyou've brought to look up some of the
articles that they've written on him,he kind of credits me for about changing
his life as a person by bringinghim up there and just kind of staying
on him. He's doing very wellfor himself now, but it was literally
the fi literally the flip of acoin that got him to stay in Kansas
and do what he's doing now.So it's about helping others, you know.

(12:48):
I tell my parents now that havefreshman coming into our program, I
tell the freshman, if you guyswork hard for the next eight years,
you know, hopefully you won't haveto work hard for the rest of your
life because you're gonna be doing somethingthat you love. That goes back to
the motel. I know that youhave hard work pays off and that's just
hard work on the field and theclassroom and in life. And it's something
that as you're talking about, youpreach as well to your kids every single

(13:11):
day. Right, Yeah, sogoing along with our job, ass coach
to love you with your job andthe kids saying, you know, to
love each other. Any coaching onour any coaching or stop. If he
if he yells hard to work,the entire team will say pays off.
And I've got that. I gotactually the student body to say that.
Pet rallies, so I've got therein a microphone before pet Us and I'll

(13:31):
say hard work and the whole entirestudent body will say it pays off.
Because you're right, it's not justan athletics. It's gonna be anything you
do, you know, And wecome like I said earlier, we come
from a community of tough individuals,hard working people. My parents were both
hard working people here in this neighborhood. And I know they worked hard,
but you know, eventually you continueto work hard, you know what's going

(13:52):
to pay off. You got mefired up, coach. I want to
come play for you. Come on, let's go. I'm in my forties
now, but I want to comeback and play high schoo football for you.
It's relationships. Yeah, talk alittle bit about what made you and
to ultimately go and get your master'sdegree in the first place. And then
Concordia University your vine that the Mastersin Coaching Athletics Administration program, But first

(14:16):
off, what made you decide tofurther education and go for your masters.
So the first thing when I waslooking for a program, I was obviously
looking for an online program because beinga football coach, I just being a
high school coach is very demanding timewise, So you're going to try to
find a program that's going to beable to fit you as a coach.
So when the program first started atConcording, I'm not sure exactly how they're

(14:39):
doing it now, but we hada Fall one and a Fall two.
So if you were a football coach, you're going to attend Fall two because
you were in the mix during fallone football season, and if you were
a basketball coach, where you weregoing to be in the fall one courses
and then you're gonna be coaching basketballfall too. So that right there sold
me on this program because I feltmy career was going to be able to

(15:01):
progress, you know, being ahaving a master degree in sports administration.
Not only that, but I kindof wanted to do it for my My
dad had passed away along time ago, but I wanted to kind of do
it for my mom as well,just to let her and know hate you
know what, not only done mymasterlor's mom, I also have my master's
degree, and so that was partof the reason I'm trying to get the

(15:22):
master degree. My mom a littlepassing away right before I got my degree,
so she didn't get to see it, but she knew when I was
there, and it was one ofthose things where, you know, when
I got it, I kind offelt it, you know, kind of
kind of did it for her thatis fantastic. So it was one of
those things where, you know,I wanted to prove to my parents or
my mom, but I could doit. I wanted to get a program

(15:43):
that was going to best fit myneeds as a coach, and obviously I'm
eventually wanted to become a complete likean executive or a senior executive athletic director.
I am the corditor on campus,but I want to kind of I
feel like I can turn programs aroundwith the students and help my coaching staff.
I figure if i'd become an athleticdirector and move up a level now

(16:03):
I don't, I can help morepeople as a whole, and this program
kind of helped me get there.You talk about helping people, are you
arrest the referenced that a couple oftimes? Do you do you find it?
I don't know, gratifying more tohelp these kids and further them and
push them onto college and into theirlife on or off the field. I
mean, winning on the field isgreat, and that success in the wins

(16:25):
and losses and going to the playoffs, going to the Texas State playoffs with
the first time since two thousand andnine is awesome. But for you,
is it more gratifying to help thesekids kind of navigate through high school life
into adulthood. Yeah, because there'sthere's a little bit more affluent programs in
our city we're one of the lowersocio economical status schools are economically disadvantage percentage

(16:49):
here at this high school is Ican felt like I can coach at any
program in the city, but Ifeel that those kids and those programs don't
need a guy like me. Ifeel our kids need a guy like me.
And people ask me all the time, coach, are you gonna be
successful this year? Said, I'lllet you know in five years. I'll
let you know in five years whenthat senior is graduated from college, or

(17:11):
he's out of the military, orhe's instill in the middle and he's successful.
So that's how I don't know wewere successful was a program if that
kid is successful five years from now. So it's one of those things where
it's not right now. It's nota right now. I think it's a
hey, let's help this kid becomea better human being in a better person.
I had a kid that I coached, you know, in that two
thousand and nine playoff team that endedup doing a you know, time and

(17:34):
a war zone. And back then, my defensive model was, you know,
rough necks moved back because we're gonnajump on you gotta have a roughneck
but you gotta let it slide.Also that let all the bad things slide.
So I would say, rough necksmove back all the time to my
defense, another word, let itgo. That's that last play is over
with, whether it's good or that. Well, on the next play,
roll the next periment. So Isaid that all the time, rough next

(17:56):
moved back, rough next move.I get just said it. That kid
ended up graduating, ended up joiningthe military, ended up in a war
zone for eighteen months, actually nineteenmonths, and he told me that model,
that term rough met smoothed back thathe told himself every morning got him
through the war. And that's thefirst thing he did was when he came

(18:17):
to visit me. And after comingback from doing the story, he too,
you don't understand I heard your voiceevery single morning and then gotten through
that war zone. That is unbelievable. That is awesome to hear coach changing
lives on the field, off thefield, doing remarkable stuff. And just
love sharing your story to everybody outthere here on the podcast those watching as

(18:38):
well. Ben benavidis is our guest. He's the football coach athletic coordinator at
Johnny Kennedy High School in San Antonio, Texas. I want to talk a
little football with you, coach asyou get ready for this season. How
are things? I mentioned you guyslooking pretty good going too this season.
But for you as a program fiveyears in, what's the goal moving forward?

(18:59):
Is it to make the playoffs everyyear on the field? Is it?
Is it? What is it thatyou have modeled out for the next
five years for your football team?So this program has never been in the
playoffs two years in a row asit was the last three playoffs or nineteen
seventy one, nineteen ninety one,two thousand and nine and last year two
thousand and one. Those are theonly time this program has everyth in the
playoffs. Our goal this year isnot only just make it to the belt,

(19:22):
but we want to go a coupleof rounds deep. We have the
kids to do it. It's nota big program, but like I told
you guys earlier, you know we'rea tough program. Our brand of football
stuff and now we're strong and ourthird phase to our brand is being fast.
So now we started progressing to alot of the not only our kids
are so we have about eleven fivehundred pound plus squaters in our program.

(19:45):
When I got here head zero.Last three years we had one. We
have eleven plus this year. Thatour five hundred pounds, right, that's
just on the squad rack. That'snot including you know, the other lives.
Yea. And when I first gothere, I try to in in
our speed, but I figured ourstrength was gonna have to come first.
So now that we got our strengthprogram going, now I'm working on the

(20:06):
speed. Just this past spring,in April, I ended up purchasing some
laser timers. I wanted the kidsto feel like they're in the NFL Combine,
you know, racing against layers.These lasers they don't lie, They're
gonna tell you a true time.So I had two kids in April that
were under five flat forty in April. So we continue with our strength program,

(20:26):
and then we added to our speedprogram. We call it through the
Rockets, by the way, sowe're a few in the rockets it right
here before fourth of July. Thatlast week in June, LAD about eighteen
guys sub five flat forties laser time. So now we can tell the kids
not only an tough, not onlyan strong, but hey, you know
what, we got some speed inthis program. As well, So we

(20:47):
just kind of adding to the brandof our football program. So, yes,
we want to make the playoffs everyyear from here on out. The
team we faced last year of TexasPlayoffs, they had been to the playoffs
sixteen years in a row, andwe had them on the road. We
had them on the ropes. Hadwe had more playoff experience, because I
thought we were a better team,we could have won that game. Now,

(21:07):
coming in this year with the playoffexperience with the same kind of kids,
I think we can do some damage. Coach. I'm out here in
Los Angeles. High school football isbig. You got some powerhouses that can
constantly pumping out kids to college football. But for those who are watching,
you know, maybe they've seen Fridayand night lights and they know how big
high school football is in the stateof Texas. Just explain if you could,

(21:29):
how big high school football is inthe state of Texas. Well,
I don't. I mean, Ijust remember when I was coaching football in
Kansas College football Kansas, and partof our Friday night duties would have go
watch high school football games. Kindof you keep the recruiting thing going in
Kansas, and it just didn't seemnothing nothing against Kansas, but it just

(21:53):
didn't seem like it was a thingto do. Yeah, every Friday night,
well in Texas, every Friday night, you know, things shut down
and it's like that's the only thinggoing on is Friday night football. We
have. I want to say,we probably have one of the smaller stadiums
in the city, and we'll fillit up at eight grand, ten grand

(22:15):
on a Friday night, and we'vegot some We've got some twenty thousand fans,
bigger than college stadiums here in Texas, even in this area of San
Antonio. So it's a it's abig deal here in Texas. California's great
football. I seeing that as well. And I'm not saying anything one's better
than the other, but Texas footballit's it's kind of the only thing at

(22:37):
some point, you know, duringthe football season as well. That is
awesome. That is awesome. Coach. I enjoyed the conversation so much,
getting to know you a little bithere, talking with you, getting your
background, what you're doing in thecommunity, what you're doing for your alma
mater, what you're doing for thekids. Uh is tremendous, and again,
thank you for what you're doing.Thank you for for pouring back in

(23:00):
to your community and your kids.Continued success. I know I'm rooting for
you this year. I'll be followingalong. I'm gonna go on line and
watch you guys see how the teamdoes a room for you to get you
back to the playoffs. Hopefully it'sa big year for the Rockets there.
John F. Kennedy High School.So thank you so much for joining us
on the podcast. I know Ienjoyed it. I know people listening and
watching and enjoyed it and just continuedsuccess. Thank you so much. Appreciate

(23:23):
it. Man, remember pays off. I got it. I got it.
I gotta be on my toes coach, I gotta be on my toes
at all time. Well, therehe goes Ben Benavide's head coach John F.
Kennedy High School in San Antonio,Texas. He was a star linebacker
as a player, went to BethelCollege in Kansas, got into coaching,

(23:45):
and returned home finally to be thehead coach and athletic coordinator at his alma
mater, John F. Kennedy HighSchool there in San Antonio. He is
doing great things in the community,doing fantastic work with his players on and
off the field, getting them readyand prepared for life. My thanks to
Ben Benavidus. My thanks to youfor watching and listening to episode forty five

(24:07):
of the Masters in Coaching podcasts.Don't forget learn more about the Masters in
Coaching and Athletics Administration program at ConcordiaUniversity, Irvine. They've got start dates
starting coming up in the fall,winner spring, and summer sessions. Find
the one that is right for youin your schedule and your time. Just
go to Cui dot eedu slash Coaching. That Cui dot eedu slash Coaching.

(24:30):
You'll find out all the information aboutwhen classes starts, the program, how
long it'll take, and what fitsinto your schedule. Seui dot Eedu slash
Coaching and find out about the onethousand dollars new Students scholarship Seui dot Eedu
slash Coaching. All right, thanksto head coach Ben Benavidus. Neanks to
you again for watching and listening.That's episode forty five of the Masters in

(24:53):
Coaching podcast In the books, Untilnext time, Tim Kate saying, so
long everybody, How