AHCP | Chillicothe Girls Coach DeSean Benson | 1.31.2025

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, coach is Shane you hear me? All right? Yes, sir, Hey,
it's great to get talked to you and been following
you throughout the year, and I know Vanessa's been able
to talk to you a little bit and get you
on the show. And yeah, for those that don't know,
just let's start there. Tell us a little bit about
your your your team and and and what you're trying
to build there with the Lady Caps.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
We're we're a fairly young team. We round off this
year with five seniors, you know, Alexa Clark, Savannah Knapp,
Mallory McCloy, Miranda McCloy, and Addie Mandel. We also start
to too freshmen uh Keima McCallister and Sydney Wade. We

(00:44):
also have a sophomore, Natalie Dudley, who round off our
ros Cy roster. As far as like official varsity, we
also have some JV players that play out with us
Aubrey Daughters and Levea Hudson. We're a fairly young team
and you know, coming into the season, I have very
high expectations, especially from my basketball background, with being able

(01:07):
to take some teams to some some greedy situations and
win some games. But you know what I'm trying to
build here as a culture that you know, every girl
wants to be a part of this program and be
a part of what we're doing, and you know, have
a competitive mindset. I think that's one of the things
that you know, chilicopter and skills basketball hasn't been competitive

(01:28):
since the as Browners and the Chantel Smith and the
Smith sisters and all of them, the Sean v. Smith
and you know, I want to be able to bring
that kind of that culture back to where you know,
it's competitive.

Speaker 1 (01:40):
And respected well, no question. And you know, I as
I follow through the year, I know you had to
win against Jackson there in league play, and that's your
opponent coming up tomorrow. Last time, you guys played a
low scoring affair able to defensively pull one out there.
Talk to us a little bit about that matchup and
and kind of trying to win us bought in the

(02:00):
standings as you take some of those baby steps.

Speaker 2 (02:04):
Just you know, I prepare. I don't think like anybody
else prepares the way I prepare. I watch a lot
of them daily and I study them and I try
to study, you know the things that they do really
well and the things that they they kind of slack at.
You know, some of the things that you know I
was able to do the first game was you know,
I paid the part some of the things that you

(02:26):
know they see as opportunities and try to really get
our gross to focus and defensively on how to stop that.
And then I mean in that game, it was just
shots weren't falling. I mean, when you try to when
you try to figure it out, shots weren't falling, and
you just got to rely on defense. And that's what
we did. I mean, we lot on our defense, We
lit on getting stops. So but there was one point

(02:46):
in the fourth court. I watched that film today. We
could not get the ball pass half court. It was
different types of fouls or with different types of loose
ball situations or jump ball situations. We just didn't get
the ball pass half court. And you know, with that
being said, they had a lot of opportunities to score.
It was kind of like a hockey matchup. It was
just stuck on one side of the floor for a
little bit, but we pulled it out. Jackson's a really

(03:09):
good team. They're fairly young team as well. Coach really
well by coach Carpenter, he does really good job with
those girls to good things prepared. We've both been struggling
as first time head coaches and you know, rebuilding the programs.

Speaker 3 (03:22):
Coach is accurate that many of your JB athletes have
not played since maybe Biddy.

Speaker 2 (03:31):
Yes, we have a lot of first year players on
the team, and I did a lot of active recruiting
and throughout the school, walking through the school hallways and
just talking to girls, you know, just being approachable, being someone,
you know, not forcing them to play, but just kind
of just putting it in their ears, like, Ha'm the
coach would love to see you come out this year.
Anyone who looked athletic or seemed interested, I just kind

(03:53):
of gravitate to him because you've got to start somewhere.
I'm one of those people that don't turn anybody away.
Give everybody opportunity to learn. If they're gonna show up
every day and put the work into it, why not.

Speaker 3 (04:04):
If you had to pinpoint the biggest factor growth factor
that you've seen for your team, what would it be.

Speaker 2 (04:14):
We're we're learning to love the game and have confidence
in themselves. To see the freshmen really adapt to my
competitive nature and look at every opportunity as a feasible opportunity.
I think that's one of the greatest teams except the
future is really right with you know. They've accepted a

(04:35):
lot of challenges. I mean, I'm not I'm not an
easy coach to play for it because I expect so
much because of my standard and my understanding and my teaching.
But I expect them to try to implement me on
the floor as much as they can while also being
you know, being themselves and having fun.

Speaker 3 (04:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (04:51):
Case, that's really well said, you know, and I know
as you're building through the FAC's got some really nice teams,
some talent the top for for pe people that don't
know kind of give us a little feel for your
for your your conference, I know, and coaching against some
of these girls when they were younger, the Hillsborough group
would be really talented. Now the McClain group would be

(05:12):
really talented. It presents quite a challenge, it does, you
know you.

Speaker 2 (05:18):
Prepare for I mean, you can't forget Washington Courthouse. They
got some some big girls over there. Miami. Trace is
probably I think the best point guard female point guard
I've seen in a while. I can't remember her name
right top of my head. But she is so skilled.
She's a gat big game manager. She gets her players involved,
and of course Tyler Davis for Hillsborough, she's an amazing athlete.

(05:41):
She does a lot of things for her team. They're
fairly young too, like Bledstoe. When we played them, you know,
the very first time, she didn't really have a great game,
but that game she callmed away to, you know, make
some shots fall. But Tyley does a really good job
and they got Kira boys back, who they didn't have
the first game we played them, and we played them
really close. That was a big adjustment as well. I

(06:03):
mean the conference is pretty nice. I mean as far
as Greenfield, I mean, they they're a pretty solid group
who's played together forever. So those girls, you know, I
talked to a coach the other day, coach about pay Valley.
He said, those girls on't auto loops. They've been together
for a while. So when you have teams like that
who's been together since diddy ball, the chemistry is out
of this world, you know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (06:25):
So I respect that well, Coach. I really I really
just enjoyed talking to you. I appreciate you calling in
Uh yeah. Like I said, I follow follow the Chilicothe
group and uh uh, I know, I know it's moving
in a positive direction as the people I've talked to
in the times i've been able to watch and and
you're good luck tomorrow. I think that's when you guys
can really get and build some minum off of going

(06:47):
in the postseason.

Speaker 2 (06:48):
Yes, sir, thank you. I appreciate you guys having me
and just look forward to being on here more and
can't wait to talk more about maybe a district championship
here soon, in the state championship here soon. That's I
would love to be a come on and talk about those.

Speaker 1 (07:01):
Absolutely give us a call each and every week and
so we can follow the Lady Caps.

Speaker 2 (07:05):
All right. I appreciate it you guys, Thanks for your time.