If you’re one of Jordan Benford’s former coaches, be on the lookout. He has something he’d like to say to you.
Benford, who played three sports at Phil Campbell High School before graduating in 2011, says he has a greater sense of appreciation for coaches and everything they do, now that he’s a full-fledged member of their ranks.
“I do. I don’t care what level it is,” said Benford, who was hired last month to take over the varsity softball program at his alma mater and also serves as the Bobcat football team’s strength and conditioning coach, among other duties. “I don’t care if it’s tee-ball, Little League, high school, college or pro; any coach has my utmost respect. There’s a lot of time that goes into it, a lot of dedication. You have to be passionate about it, or you’re not gonna be any good at it.
“All those men and women who coached me over the years, I tell them thanks all the time when I see them. I see now the hours they had to put in and how much it took to make me who I am today. It took a lot from them.”
As Benford is no doubt learning, coaches wear a lot of different hats; they serve as mentors, friends, parental figures, confidants, encouragers, accountability partners—and, in the case of former Phil Campbell baseball coach Michael Beck, chauffeurs.
“We would be up there at five o’clock in the morning hitting in the cages,” recalled Benford, who was still attending East Franklin Junior High School when he played for Beck’s varsity baseball team as a ninth-grader. “Everybody would leave to go home and get showers, and Coach Beck would drive me all the way to East Franklin and drop me off at school. He did a lot for me.”
As a high school athlete, Benford’s two favorite sports were football [he played quarterback for the Bobcat varsity as a sophomore in 2008 and again as a senior in 2010] and basketball [his career was highlighted by a pair of memorable game-winning shots, one against Tharptown in the county finals in 2009 and another to beat rival Red Bay in a big area game in 2011]. But his best sport—the one that earned him a full ride to Alabama A&M University after a year at Northwest-Shoals Community College—was baseball.
Benford overcame two serious injuries in high school (a torn ACL as a freshman and a torn rotator cuff as a sophomore), and his rehab experiences motivated him to major in Exercise Science at A&M with an eye toward attending Physical Therapy school. Riding back from a game at Mississippi Valley State in the midst of his junior season, Benford had something of an epiphany. He still had a strong desire to help young athletes, but suddenly he saw himself fulfilling that mission in a different capacity.
“One night on the bus, coming back from Mississippi from one of our region games, I just felt a change of heart,” Benford said. “I felt like [teaching and coaching] was what God was wanting me to do. I wanted to help young people. I finished my internship, and the very next day I enrolled in the master’s program in education.”
After completing his undergrad degree in Exercise Science in 2015, Benford earned his Master’s in General Science and Education from A&M two years later. He landed his first job last year at Phil Campbell, where he served as head junior high football coach, head jayvee softball coach and an assistant varsity softball coach.
Almost immediately, he knew he’d made the right decision.
“It was everything that I thought it would be,” Benford said. “I’ve always been around it, and it wasn’t anything different—except that it was a different point of view. As a coach, you’re seeing it from a different angle, having to worry about everything. As a player, you don’t really have to do that. You just show up and get your work in. But as a coach you’re worried about player development, you’re definitely worried about the academic side of it, and really trying to be a positive influence more than anything.
“That’s why I’m doing this. Yeah, I’m a head coach, and you’re trying to win ball games, but I’m also trying to be a positive influence. Helping these young people grow up to be good men and women, just trying to help them strive for and achieve the dreams they’ve set for themselves—that’s my goal.”
Kevin Barnwell, the Bobcats’ first-year head football coach, has raved about the job Benford is doing as the team’s strength and conditioning coach. [Suffice it to say his degree in Exercise Science has come in handy.] Benford says his experience as a college athlete opened his eyes to the impact weight training and conditioning can have on a program.
“Well, I’ll tell you, when I was in high school that’s something that a lot of programs lacked,” Benford said. “For me, personally, when I got to college and saw the importance of weight training, strength and conditioning, and the nutritional side of it, too, that helped me become the athlete I became in college.”
When he walked across the stage at his high school graduation in 2011, Benford weighed 155 pounds. By the time he graduated from Alabama A&M in 2015, he checked in at 185 pounds.
“It wasn’t thirty pounds of fat, either,” he said. “I went up almost a hundred pounds and even two hundred pounds in some lifts. [Strength and conditioning] really is the core base, the foundation of your program. If you don’t have one, it’s hard to be successful.
“With the kids we have, it really is a necessity. It’s a priority. This year, especially, we’re putting one hundred percent effort into it.”
In addition to his strength and conditioning duties, Benford is also coaching linebackers and quarterbacks on Barnwell’s varsity staff, and he’s preparing for his second season as head football coach at the junior high level. Next spring, he’ll get his first taste of what it’s like to be a varsity head coach when he takes the field with a Lady Bobcat softball program coming off back-to-back appearances in the North Regional Tournament.
Benford said the transition from baseball to softball has been a relatively smooth one.
“Coming into it, I thought there wouldn’t be that much difference, and from an instruction standpoint there really isn’t,” he said. “Swinging, throwing, fielding—all those things are really the same. The ball plane is a little different, but at the point of contact it’s not that much different.
“The scheme of the game and the speed of the game are different, and just dealing with girls in general, you have to take different approaches, things like that.”
Benford got his feet wet this past season, leading Phil Campbell’s jayvee softball team to an impressive 14-2 record. He’s as familiar as anyone with the talented players poised to begin working their way up to the program’s highest level.
“We have some young talent,” said Benford. Our girls…I don’t think we have anybody who stands out as a young phenom, I guess you would say, but we have a lot of girls who really enjoy it. They’re passionate about it. They’ll put in the work. There are days when I go up there and cut the grass, and there will be three girls in the cages hitting. As a coach, you love to see that. It’s nice when you don’t have to beg them.
“We have some young girls who are talented, and they’re willing to work. They have a lot of experience, too. A lot of them play travel ball.”
The Lady Bobcats, who went 23-14 a year ago, will undoubtedly miss the contributions of Snead State-bound shortstop Leeah Jackson and her fellow departed seniors, but several key players will be back in 2019. Catcher Katie Thomas earned All-County honors from the Free Press as a freshman last season after batting .382 with 11 doubles, a .442 OBP and only four strikeouts in 129 plate appearances. Infielder Kenner Scott was a varsity starter as an eighth-grader, batting .299 with eight doubles and 28 runs scored. Emma Ergle, another rising freshman, was the team’s top pitcher in 2018 despite missing several weeks with a broken leg; she finished the season 9-4 with a 2.82 ERA and 52 strikeouts in 57 innings.
Ergle continued to pitch for two weeks after sustaining her injury, earning the respect and admiration of her new head coach.
“That’s the kind of passion some of these girls have,” Benford said. “You’re not gonna find too many athletes who go out and pitch on a broken leg, and really drive through it and be effective.”
Abby Davis had a strong junior season for the Lady Bobcats in 2018, batting .333 with four triples, 31 runs scored and 15 stolen bases. Kallie Allen hit .312 as a sophomore with seven doubles, 25 runs scored and 16 stolen bases. Then there’s rising junior Cypress Quinn, who moved up from Benford’s jayvee team late in the 2018 season and immediately became a difference-maker for the varsity squad.
“She came up and had a big impact offensively for us,” Benford said of Quinn, who went 10-for-12 with two home runs and six doubles during one particularly hot stretch after her promotion. “She made an impact very quickly. We had another young girl, Chesney Hamby, who came all the way up from the junior high team. She got a win against Florence, and she threw a lot of quality innings. She’ll be an eighth-grader this year.”
The Lady Bobcats are making the jump this year to Class 3A, where they’ll compete in a three-team area with Colbert Heights and East Lawrence. Benford believes the pieces are in place for Phil Campbell softball to remain a factor at the regional and perhaps even the state level.
“We’re not gonna have many seniors, probably a couple of seniors max,” he said. “We’re gonna be young—but we’ve been young. I don’t expect the results to be any different. We expect to win games and to be competitive in every game. I would have expected us to make it back to the regional whether we moved up or not. The girls we’ve got coming back are perfectly capable of doing that. It just comes down to whether or not the ball falls our way and whether or not we can catch a few breaks.”
Beyond mere wins and losses, Benford’s primary goal is to help provide aspiring student-athletes with the resources and opportunities to succeed—both now and in the future. He’s thrilled to have the chance to make that kind of impact in his hometown and at his own school.
“It’s good to be back,” Benford said. “One of the biggest influences on me wanting to be an educator was that when I got out of Phil Campbell and got to the college level and saw the kids who made it and were on my team, in my mind I was saying to myself, ‘I know two or three guys back home who are just as talented as these guys.’ But they didn’t get the chance because they didn’t have the resources to make it here and get that free ride to college and those kinds of things.
“I wanted to go back and help the kids where I’m from and give them opportunities. I want to help them, whether that means calling the right people or just giving them good advice on what to take in high school that will transfer over in college—just help prepare them and give them some real-world advice that will help them reach the goals they’ve set.”
Based on his time at PCHS, Benford believes strongly that the hometown fans will remain firmly behind the hometown team—win, lose or draw.
“The one thing I remember about Phil Campbell that still to this day mesmerizes me is the support that Phil Campbell gives,” he said. “You go around to a lot of high schools, and they don’t have near the same level—the community, the fans, the people who come and support you, year in and year out. Even when you lose, the community still supports you and backs you.
“The support you get week in and week out is much appreciated. From a player’s standpoint, you know you’re gonna have a crowd full of people supporting you, and that’s a great thing.”
