Sunday Morning Chat: LaSalle Manager Oscar Benitez

Today we sit down with LaSalle Manger Oscar Benitez, who has been the coach at the school since 1999. He’s also coached at Belen, his alma mater. In our interview, The public vs. private debate, Dade County Baseball vs. Broward County Baseball and why he loves the baseball being played in the neighboring county to the north, are just some of the topics in today’s chat… Enjoy!

Anthony: Alright, lets start off by giving readers a journey through your coaching career.

Coach Benitez: Well, I was a bullpen catcher for a little while at Miami-Dade South, and to be honest with you, I wasn’t very good. I figured out early where my future was when my baseball career was over, so I got into coaching right away. I got to coach a couple of years of travel ball and I started to really enjoy it. I coached a few years here at Belen, JV and Varsity, and eventually in 1999, I was offered the head job at LaSalle High School, and I became the head coach there. I’ve been there ever since.

Anthony: Alright, we’re going to dive into some tough subjects here in Miami and really throughout the state. I want start off by talking about the public vs. private debate. This debate goes on in every county throughout Florida. In your opinion, does there need to be a separation of public and private schools?

Coach Benitez: I don’t believe so. The main thing is to get good games. You see in college sports, there’s no such thing as private and public; just get big games. I think the mistake that we’re making, all of us, the public and private schools, is we’re making enemies of each other, and we really are not enemies. We’re all brothers in arms here. It’s difficult to coach high school, especially now-a-days. The kids expect more from us.

I think instead of doing these things that really don’t matter, what we should be doing is really setting us some really big games try to get big crowds. That helps the kids and also exposes them to scouts and college coaches. To just play amongst each other would be a big, big mistake. And again as private school coach, that can only be used against the public school. Those coaches at the public schools are excellent. (Fred) Burnside, (Josy) Torres at Southwest, (Jose) Novas at Ferguson, you name them, they’re great coaches. There’s nothing better to see, coaches against coaches. It doesn’t matter private or public. That is the reason why the Selective Recruiting Tournament is the top tournament in the nation. Because it’s the one opportunity where public and private play each other. And you really get to see who’s the best team in the county.

By staying away from each other, I think it hurts the kids. We need to get back to that and we need to go back and fix that. Public school guys, private school coaches I have great respect for. I think kids sometimes do leave to the private sector. It’s not always about baseball. Sometimes it’s about academics, sometimes it’s just personal. There is other situations. In some cases, kids leave private schools and go back to public schools. And they flourish. I think we should get to a point in which we need to show the kids that we’re the adults and instead of getting into the private and public, it should be Dade County Baseball, Broward County Baseball, South Florida Baseball. Use more of a big umbrella. I think that would be a lot better for the kids in the long run. It’s so much better for all of them.

Anthony: You brought up a couple of good points and certainly since I’ve stopped coaching and what I’m doing now, I see things a little bit differently. Do you think that there is problem maybe that coaches, obviously this is important to everybody, to all of us involved in high school baseball, but do you think maybe it’s too important ego-wise for some of the coaches and that’s the reason some of these conflicts come up.

Coach Benitez: I think it’s more, coaches love their players and when they see one of their players leave it becomes very personal to them. They might not say it, but they have to have a feeling of, “Wow, what did I do wrong?” And the truth is they haven’t done anything wrong. Sometimes a kid just decides to go somewhere else. It happens, sometimes kids go from one public school to another public school and they still play each other. So why the private school, why target us? I really would love to sit down with the public school coaches, I have such great respect for them. We really need to get to the point in which we get over all of this stuff and really come together at the table and figure this out, because that would only benefit the kids. It’s a negative to stay away from each other.

Anthony: Hitting on another point you just brought up, it’s my opinion that now with Florida allowing kids to transfer mid-year and not lose eligibility, that actually helps the public schools. For years kids have been able to transfer from public to private, but not public to public. The new rule puts public schools on equal ground with private schools in terms of recruiting players to come to their program. Do you see it that way also?

Coach Benitez: Yes I do. In the fall, we play a lot of games. Players can see if they start. If he’s at one public school, he might notice that he’s going to be a number four pitcher, number five pitcher, and if he moves over to the next place, he might be a number two pitcher. It’s happening everywhere. I really do think that kids go to the coaches they respect. Also sometimes the program is so good that even a number three — I can only speak for myself — a number three at South Dade could probably be a number one here at LaSalle. Burnside has done such a great job with his pitchers. At Southwest, there’s such great pitching guys out there that those guys could probably dominate for us. So to be honest with you, they have the numbers. I only have 30 guys in the whole program. Those guys have 20 guys on the JV, 20 guys on the Varsity. They have freshman ball now. He’s got 60 guys in the program, and I think when you have those numbers, some kids kind of get lost.

The new rule gives players the opportunity to go somewhere else. They not only go to private schools, they also go to public schools. And like I said, they will start playing each other. To be honest with you, I think one of the problems here is that it started with a couple coaches and it became very personal, and the public school guys got behind the public school guys, private school guys got behind the private school guys, and then it didn’t get fixed.

The only one really fixing this a little bit is Lazaro Llanes. That is really starting to help us out, and those tournament games are incredible. Those games, you see Killian vs. Westminster. Those games are on fire. Those are some awesome games. I think the public and the kids and the coaches need to start thinking about that, thinking about really putting some great games together. You guys are doing it a little bit with these Game of the Weeks. We used to play each other all the time. In the fall, we play against each other and those games are like regular-season games. It’s heated, and they’re out there and their diving and they’re making plays, and I don’t understand how. What I don’t understand is, if it can be like this in the fall, why can’t it be that in the regular-season game?

Anthony: It’s really the kids that are losing out to play against their friends. They don’t understand the politics end of it.

Coach Benitez: I totally agree. I think as coaches we need to humble ourselves and we need to think about the kids first, and then put all our issues to the side, because sometimes it can only hurt the kids.

Anthony: So now we’ve identified one of the problems. In your opinion how do you guys end this? How do you fix this problem? Because at the end of the day you’re all baseball coaches driven by your love of the game.

Coach Benitez: Absolutely. How do you fix it? You start playing each other. The kids themselves get to see coach against coach. Because the truth is, as a private school coach, the easiest way to defend yourself from this is say, “Hey kids, why don’t you come to my school. Your school doesn’t want to play me, I want to play them. But they don’t want to play me. So it’s obvious that they don’t think they can stand up with us.” It’s not true. It’s not fact, but it’s said. And it’s a selling point.

If those kids can see us playing each other, they can make their own decisions a lot better. And I think you’re going to start seeing kids not leave public school system as much if they can see Coral Gables vs. Gulliver, LaSalle vs. Southwest. I really would like to see us playing each other more often. Columbus does it every once in a while. Usually they play Westminster or they’ll play Gulliver and those kind of things. Those bleachers are packed. And everybody wants to see the name game guys. Also, you have the recruiting end of these games being scheduled. Scouts like to come out and see big games. In the public school system, those guys are great coaches, and they’ve got great players. They could beat the private school programs. It’s just a matter of exposure and just taking a chance on us.

Anthony: You’ve coached summer ball. How much of the current system is created because of what goes on in the offseason? Maybe not even the high school head coaches, but the travel ball coaches fighting for players in travel situations and telling players maybe are better then they are.

Coach Benitez: That’s absolutely true. If they give the kids false information — and most of the guys are — travel ball guys, they’re lawyers or mechanics or whatever, they’re not real coaches as far as I see. Real coaches, guys that go to clinics and stuff, really do a good job. There are some coaches at the high school level that do the travel ball, but with that said, it’s the college coaches that changed everything. When the college coaches got to the point that they didn’t start going to regular season games and they said the only way I will look at your kids is in summer ball at Perfect Game or East Cobb, or maybe a couple of fall games, they changed the rules on us.

So all of a sudden the kids started to have the feeling, they needed to play in the summer to show themselves. Imagine how much pressure. So some of the high school coaches have had adjust to make sure that nobody mistreats the kids and throw the kid 120 pitches in the middle of a summer game and ruin the his arm. That happens all the time. So now the coaches themselves have kind of gotten to be a part of it, too. Emphasize physical conditioning and long toss programs and stuff like that. Travel ball is getting to a point that’s ridiculous. The problem is also is when they come back from summer and they come into the fall and travel ball coach tells them that he could play Division I baseball and then the coach that really has been doing this for years, and knows a Division I baseball player when he sees it, looks at the same player, and says, “kid you’re not a Division I baseball player, you’re a Division II baseball player.” Now we’ve got ourselves a problem. ‘Cause now the kid has to make a decision. Do I stick with this guy that doesn’t believe that I’m a Division I baseball player or do I go somewhere else where someone can give me a pretty picture. Because there are coaches out there that will paint you a pretty picture. The older guys don’t, but I think some of the younger guys do a little bit more of that. Because that one coach, his coach originally, was being truthful because he cares for him and the kid didn’t take it well. And the travel ball coach that doesn’t really know the kid, he doesn’t know what classes he takes, he doesn’t know the parents’ names, he just wants the money giving false information, and all he’s doing is creating a real problem with some of these coaches. Something sooner or later has to be done. I feel terrible for the kids because they have all of these hopes and then all of a sudden they get crushed, all because some guy wanted to make money off of him. I’m hoping that things will eventually work themselves out.

Anthony: Let’s switch gears now and focus a little bit on your program itself. Last year you guys were a .500 team but played well in you district games, ultimately you lost in the regional quarters to St. Brendan. How much did that loss fuel your team from the time of the loss to where you guys are at now?

Coach Benitez: Well if you go back to the actual article you guys wrote on that game, my words were, “I hope this stays in the gut all summer long, all season.” What I’ve done with them, I’ve been reminding them constantly. I have reminded them, “you came up short,” I kept telling them over and over again every workout, every rep, every single summer game, every single fall game I’ve reminded them. You came up short, you came short. I’m sure by this time, they don’t want to hear it from me anymore. That does play out, kids, it’s not about winning, it’s about getting a chance to be in that situation. I think our kids this year want to be in that situation again. And I think they truly believe that they can win in that situation. I hope so. I don’t make predictions because all of those coaches out there are very good and all those teams are very good and they could beat us. We’re more than beatable. We have our days.

Anthony: You guys started the season slow but have played well of late. How do you feel about where your team’s at at this point of the season.

Coach Benitez: If you’re asking right now, I feel great (after Belen win). If you had asked me last night (after Brito loss), I probably would have said, “We’re in trouble.” We gave up 18 runs. Funny how baseball can play with your emotions. (laughing)

Anthony: You’re still looking for consistency?

Coach Benitez: Yes, we’re still trying to get consistent. We just ran into a very, very good Brito team. I think that Brito team is going to surprise everyone this year. They’re so balanced. Their batters from one to nine are lethal. I think they’re going to have a great…I’ll tell you what, Westwood Christian v. Brito championship game for district is gonna be one heck of a game.

Anthony: I wanted to talk about one of the teams in your District for a second. Last year TERRA went 5–17. This year they have already matched their win total from last season. I know coaches are competitive but for someone who has been around for a long time, is there ever a point where you get excited when other coaches and programs that haven’t been there, start to rise and start building their own programs?

Coach Benitez: Well, Coach Hernan (Adames) is one of the best coaches in Dade County. Coach Hernan knows how to get the best out of his kids. He’s got that lefty that came back, and he’s very, very talented. He could probably beat anybody in our district. He could probably beat anyone in the county. He’s very, very good. TERRA is an up-and-coming program, and they are, you could just tell. I’ve seen them play once, and they are very, very good. We have our hands full with them, with Doral and even Ransom the other day. I think you writing in our district preview before the season that the district is up in the air, I think you’re absolutely right; it is up in the air. TERRA is the team that I worry about a lot because of that one lefty that we haven’t seen a lot. He was out last year, I think he had an arm problem. But this year he has been dominating and TERRA is playing well. They’re well coached. They’re doing a lot of great things. Hernan coaches very aggressively and his teams come at you. I’m a little worried to be honest with you. No, actually, a lot worried.

Anthony: On a whole in the county, how important is it that new programs succeed? One of the things that we really focused on, and we’re still focused on, that gets us excited, is when we see teams that haven’t necessarily turned in their stats or called in scores that are starting to do it now. To be able to cover teams, coaches and players that have never received coverage is special to us. The whole county seems to be getting excited. But how important is it for some of these teams that never took baseball seriously that are now building the programs?

Coach Benitez: I can tell you this: I know coaches that don’t even have the Miami Herald anymore because they go to your website. Miami-Dade High School Baseball website is really the number one source for all coaches and players in the county now, and you are right, is is exciting everyone down here. The more that we work with you guys and we turn in those scores and those stats, the more the kids get to see it, and the parents as well. Sooner or later, the college coaches are going to start using your site only. That’s going to be a huge source. It’s going to be a humungous source. They’re going to follow their guys from a day-to-day basis. I think that’s the purpose of it. The whole purpose of it to make sure the kids to get seen and heard from. Not only that, but the kid that might be playing at a smaller public school, he’s doing very, very well, but his team is not doing well he could still get his name out there as well and you can compare him next to guys at Columbus and Gulliver and Florida Christian and you can see some of those numbers. I think it’s a plus-plus. We need to do more. I know that Broward County guys they tell me, they swear by your website. I think that Dade County guys have to get on board.

Anthony: And they are. They’ve been nothing but supportive in everything we try to accomplish, and I appreciate your kind words. Moving on, complete this sentence: I like coaching high school baseball in Miami because…

Coach Benitez: It’s my town. I grew up here and the kids that are here, many of them have the same background as I do. It allows me to give back to what I loved as a young kid. I think all coaches are kids at heart, to be honest with you. I think doing it in my own home town really means a lot to me. I think most coaches coach because they want to do things that they wish their coaches could have done for them. And I think that you’re seeing a lot of that as well. I love Miami and I can’t imagine leaving here. Theses are my kids. Even the ones that are not in my program. These are my people. I love Miami. Miami is a great place to be in, a great place.

Anthony: Who are some of your closest friends among other Miami coaches, and why?

Coach Benitez: Oh, are you kidding? Emil Castellanos is someone I truly love. Jose Torres at Southwest, I have great love for him. Javier Rodridguez at Gulliver is a very good friend of mine as well. Jerry Albert here at Belen is a great person. And not only that, but some of the coaches that I don’t even know all that well, I have great respect for them. Coach Burnside, I mean can you say anything else about that man? That man is a legend, and just to be on the same field with him is an honor. Rich Hofman has come back to Dade County with SLAM. He’s going to see Dade County has changed a little since the last time he’s been down here (chuckling). Most of them, Joe Weber, that’s another great friend of mine, he’s a great person. There’s a few coaches that I wish would behave themselves a little bit, but most coaches I really do care about and respect. That’s how I feel.

Anthony: Another one of our goals with the High School Baseball Network is to expose Palm Beach, Broward and Miami to each other. We thought that South Florida has the best baseball in the country, yet programs and coaches were blind to some of the ball being played in the next county over from them. Why do you think that integration of baseball between the three counties has never really materialized?

Coach Benitez: Same reason why the public schools and private schools don’t. They just kind of stick to their friends, they play their little districts, and they stay where it’s comfortable. Us ourselves, we went to New Jersey this year to play Don Bosco Prep. We had players do a carnival to raise some money for it and we got it. Now, we’re going all the way to New Jersey to play Don Bosco, and they’re maybe top five in the nation every year. We need to start getting out of our comfort zones. Because here’s the thing: If you get out of your comfort zones, you open up yourself to learn about other ways to play the game. Some coaches are catching on to that. Duff himself (Tom Duffin), Duff plays a lot of Broward teams, and he’ll play Palm Beach teams as well. Some of these coaches have really caught on to that, and I didn’t do that enough this year to be honest with you. Our district, we went to two games with each team that also have my friends, and Westminster and Gulliver, and then the Selective Recruiting tournament. I would like to see a tournament in which instead of displaying the Miami teams with each other, start really sending us out to play. We did some of that in the fall with you guys and I learned so much from some coaches out there. Broward County’s got some great coaches, especially that Terry Portice guy.

Anthony: I was going to ask you actually about him. You coaches are always looking to learn from other coaches. Or take something from each coach that you go up against no matter who it is. Speaking about Coach Portice, you and I have had discussions about him before. It’s been my perception, the only reason coaches dislike each other is a lack of understanding, maybe not knowing each other. There becomes a made-up perception. So can you tell the people that are going to reading this, what did you learn from that experience with Coach Portice?

Coach Benitez: Not only Coach Portice, but it’s a different kind of baseball. Broward County Baseball is a different kind of baseball. You get to see a different brand of baseball. It helps you for the next level. You go to a regional, and you start playing these teams. Coach Portice, I mean, I got to that game in the fall, and his coaching staff were all dressed up in their uniforms. They look like a million dollars. But not only that, it was as well a coached team as I’ve seen once the game began. Mike Moss at Chaminade to me is a great coach as well. They do some things that you don’t see done by the coaches here. Portice, he bunts them over, or he hits-and-runs. He’s always on the move, he’s putting pressure on your team constantly. They play the game so fundamentally correct. I think Miami ball can get a little bit flashy, and you can get away with it sometimes. The reason I did the fall ball in Broward County was to get out of that comfort zone. To make sure that my kids were exposed to different kind of baseball than they were used to. I think it worked. One of the things I can tell you off the bat is when you watch a Dade County team when they do infield-outfield, there’s a lot of flash.

Anthony: Go on…

Coach Benitez: Then you see a Broward County team like Fort Lauderdale, and its all fundamental baseball, and I think our kids, I think anyone that would see it would say, “Wow, that’s kind of boring, they’re not very flashy, we could beat these guys.” And then all of a sudden in a game, every groundball is caught, every fly ball is caught. They hit the ball, they bunt the ball, they move the runners over, and that kind of baseball, it was something that our baseball team wasn’t used to. It was absolutely wonderful. I really cherished every minute we were able to play those teams up north. Those coaches are great coaches. It’s a shame that some people don’t know more of them. I’m sure some of our Dade County guys might know some of them but not all of them. There’s some really talented coaches and players up north.

Anthony: And that really goes both ways. I’ve been telling everybody that will listen that I fell in love with baseball down in Miami and maybe for different reasons than you are appreciating the Broward. But the fans in the stands, the atmosphere, the people dancing in the stands, it’s a different brand a baseball than what I grew up with in Broward for 30 years and was never exposed to. Now I’m starting to almost get upset with some of the coaches that never exposed me to that baseball over those 30 years. So it kind of goes both ways.

Coach Benitez: Yes it does. It does. I’ll tell you, Miami baseball, there’s so much passion and fire for the game, and these kids all know each other. Most of our kids know each other from when they were small, and now they are in high school they are on different teams. There’s a lot of passion for it. The parents have passion for it. I love it, and I wish that we were more fundamentally correct, and that’s how the Broward teams really helped me out a lot to see. Actually we love this game, and its in our blood. We play year round. If we could play 365 days, I don’t know a coach in Dade County that wouldn’t do it. At the end of the day, baseball is baseball, no matter where it is played.

Anthony: Alright, my last question is going back to recruiting. You’ve been a coach that has stayed away from the recruiting wars and you always played with the hand you were dealt at LaSalle. Why?

Coach Benitez: [laughing] (pause)…Honor.

You can’t tell kids that you are a man of honor and that you care for them and then all of a sudden their senior year you bring a guy to play a kid’s position when he’s been with you and he’s been loyal to you since ninth grade. That does not play out for me well. It’s rewarding when a kid comes in ninth grade or tenth grade and you still mold him to your [program]. I’ll tell you what my pet-peeve is, to bring in seniors. I think it’s not only morally incorrect, but you’re setting a bad example to kids because you’re pretty much telling them, “You’re good, and you’re loyal, and you’ve paid your dues, and you worked out for three years here, but you know what, you’re just not getting it done so I’m going to bring in a senior. He’s going to play in your position; you’re going to be on the bench even though you’ve been waiting four years to play here. To me that’s wrong.

But hey, you just can’t do it. You can’t be a man of honor and teach kids to be honorable and to be good citizens and then behave that way with kids. And by the way, they never forget it. And you can really do a lot of harm to kids that way, I believe it. The reason coaches do it is to win at all costs. But if you looked at the percentage of the amount of kids that actually reach the major leagues from here, it’s not as much. There are a lot more kids that have become doctors and lawyers than have become major league baseball players. We need to keep that in perspective and not go crazy with win at all costs situations. A lot of times the young coaches do that, too. They come in and they bring in kids and they have that fire and then after a couple of years it kind of starts dwindling and they don’t know what to do because the truth is, when you’re known as a coach that just brings in players, that’s your legacy.

There is so much better feeling when your own kids win. The kids that have been here since ninth grade, it feels great. It feels great and it’s a more honorable way of doing things and I hope coaches listen to that message because in the long run I love to see my baseball players, my alumni, come back and talk about the old days, when I had hair and all that stuff. [laughing] I love it. To be able to sit with my baseball players and they could tell me, “Coach, I love you and thank you for everything you gave me.” For me, I would rather have that then a state ring. Not all coaches feel that way, but I do. That’s the way I feel. THAT is my state ring. I might never win a state championship, but I have a lot of kids that love me, and I love them, and I wouldn’t trade that for the world.

Anthony: Alright. Thanks for sitting down with us and good luck for the rest of the year.

Coach Benitez: Thank you.

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