Next step: David Bennett will still be helping kids in new job

David Bennett doesn’t planning on shedding any tears or getting emotional when he coaches his final football game at River Bluff this season.

There are a few reasons for that. Bennett said it would be selfish of him, plus he’s at peace with his decision to leave the coaching ranks.

In July, the River Bluff coach was named the director of athletics for the Lexington 1 school district. Bennett will handle both duties until the season ends before focusing solely on his job with the school district.

“We had a ninth-grader the other day tell me, ‘Coach I want you stay and coach my ninth grade class through until graduation,’ “ Bennett said. “I told him, ‘Son, if I was selfish, I would do that.’ He said I wish you would reconsider and be selfish.

“We got bunch of phenomenal kids here.”

The season will be a challenge for Bennett. In addition to juggling jobs, this’ll be the most inexperienced River Bluff team in his three seasons. The Gators return just nine players from last year’s 7-4 squad, and must replace Shrine Bowl QB/LB Brandon Tillmon and Devon Johnson, among others.

But Bennett’s as enthused as ever.

At practice on Thursday, he was sporting a goatee he grew over the summer on a vacation and was high-fiving his players, commentating on one of his kicker’s shiny shoes and providing teaching lessons for football and life.

“It’s the relationships,” Bennett said. “When I was a younger coach, I used to think the more we won, the better I was. A lot of coaches are made that way. We are competitive and want to win. At the end of the day, you are going to win or lose ballgames, but what are we doing with kids as people for the rest of their life. You learn that the older you get.”

Bennett calls his former players and coaches like extended family, and Ridge View coach Perry Parks is in that mix. Parks was a walk-on receiver on Bennett’s first team at Coastal Carolina in 2002, and earned a scholarship the following year.

After his playing days were done and he got into coaching, Parks said Bennett was there to help him. He provided tips to help when he went on interviews.

Parks said he implemented some of Bennett’s core values into his program at Lakewood and now at Ridge View. He also has taken Bennett’s cue on fundraising for the program and getting the community more involved.

“Nobody can see a vision and get guys to buy in like coach Bennett. He is amazing at that role and guys believe in him,” Parks said. “He is just a genuine guy and he has always been in my corner. I am always going to be in his corner.”

Tillmon, who is playing football and baseball at Liberty, also had high praise of his former coach.

“What I learned most from coach Bennett is how to be selfless, how to put the needs of the team over our own needs,” he said. “He wanted to win but he cared more about developing us as young men than anything.”

Bennett said one of his earliest coaching influences was his father, who coached him in recreation football and basketball. Bennett also looked up to Alabama’s Bear Bryant, Georgia’s Vince Dooley and Clemson’s Frank Howard when he thought about getting into coaching.

At Presbyterian, he played for and later coached with Cally Gault. He also was a graduate assistant under Danny Ford at Clemson from 1985-86. Bennett remembers how grad assistants would have to sit on the floors in meetings while the other coaches were in chairs.

“Someone spoke up and said how come us graduate assistants don’t get a chair. Coach Ford said, ‘You get a chair when you earn a chair. When you are a grad assistant, you haven’t earned a chair.’ That’s probably how he learned while with coach Bryant at Alabama. But I appreciate the opportunity coach Ford gave us, too.”

Bennett got his first college head coaching job at Catawba in 1995 after five years as an assistant there. He went 63-17 and led the Indians to three consecutive appearances in the Division II playoffs.

Bennett left Catawba to start the program at Coastal Carolina in 2002. When he arrived, CCU didn’t have a stadium and the team practiced all over from high school fields to parking lots.

The Chanticleers went 62-39 under Bennett and won four Big South titles and made two trips to the playoffs. Eight of his players went on to NFL careers, including Redskins cornerback Josh Norman, Panthers fullback Mike Tolbert and former Fairfield Central quarterback Tyler Thigpen.

Coastal fired Bennett nine days after the 2011 season. The move came as a shock to Bennett, who thought he’d finish his career there. But it also helped Bennett gain some perspective and has influenced him for the role he has now.

“When Coastal let us go, we were hurt and were like, ‘What in the world did we do wrong?’” Bennett said. “You realize you aren’t all that and a bag of chips and you can be replaced.

“So you realize while we are here, what can you do to make a difference with the people we work with and are around us? It is all about making that difference.”

That’s what Bennett hopes he’ll continue doing in his new role. He will be in charge of 25,000 students and 600 coaches in the district. One of his biggest priorities is developing programs on work ethic, sportsmanship and character.

“Every day is a journey, so what can you do to help in a child’s life. That is what it is all about,” Bennett said.

This story was originally published August 6, 2016 at 9:04 PM with the headline "Next step: David Bennett will still be helping kids in new job."