Sports Update

By Ben Brake

Super Coach Bennett

I was not entirely impressed with the K-State game this past weekend. One thing did catch my eye though. Coach Bennett is
a super coach. I am not talking about his abilities on X’s and O’s, I am talking about his connection with the players. During
the game you will see him get on to players when they mess up. You will see him get in their face and correct the problem at
hand. This may not sound like a great coach, but there is more. After the game when everybody was out in the center of the
field for the ceremonies Coach Bennett went around searching for his players to tell them good job. He was trying to get
Dyshod Carter’s attention over all the noise and when he did he gave him a high five and told him great game. Carter
returned the expression with a big smile, a hug and a thanks coach. You could tell Dyshod felt like a million bucks at that
time.

I have seen coaches tell their players "good game" before, I have seen them give them high five’s before, but I don’t think I
have ever seen a coach go around searching through a hundred players on the field to tell each of his individual starters "Great
game!"

I was very pleased that Coach Bennett was a K-State coach at that time. I think that takes a lot of class for a coach to do
that. I think we are very fortunate to have a coach that cares about the player’s feelings and will go out of his way to make
sure that they know that he appreciates their efforts.

When you talk to the players you can see they care about their coaches. They seem to have a terrific bond between each
other as well. None of them seem to want to take credit for themselves. They would rather give it to an entire unit or the
entire team. That, in my opinion, comes from a terrific coaching staff to instill unity with in the team.

I think I wanted to give Coach Bennett a hug, as well, because I didn’t see the "Prevent Defense" once during the game. The
defense didn’t start off conservative and it showed. I was very pleased with how they came out and were aggressive and
stayed that way. Just one series of play were they a little weak, but I was still very pleased with their efforts.

I hope that Coach Bennett decides to stick around Manhattan for several years to come.

Thanks Coach Bennett, glad you’re here!