Got the best out of his many athletes
TREVOR EDWIN BENT Athletics coach
TREVOR BENT had a simple philosophy. As a coach of many champions, Mr Bent believed the key to winning was hard work.
There were simply no shortcuts for Mr Bent. He spent countless hours working with his athletes on technique and fitness and was using methods many years before they became common.
An athletics coach who tutored more than 20 national senior champions in a range of disciplines, Mr Bent died last month, aged 86.
His most notable victory as a coach was with Tania Murray in the high jump at the 1990 Commonwealth Games in Auckland.
Murray said the gold medal could never have been won without the input of Mr Bent.
She remembers nailing a jump in the warmup in Auckland. She looked over at Mr Bent and saw a ‘‘beaming smile’’.
‘‘That set me up for an amazing day,’’ she said.
She first met Mr Bent at a meet when she was living in Ranfurly and was involved with the Alexandra Athletics Club.
Mr Bent saw her raw potential and offered to mentor her. She moved to Dunedin when she was 15 and he became her coach.
‘‘He was a great coach. He always knew what was needed and when . . . he had phenomenal knowledge and he could get his athletes to perform to the best of their ability.’’
She was coached by Mr Bent for the whole of her career and kept in touch with him after she retired.
He was not a ranter and raver. Mr Bent was a steady, controlled coach, who never missed a session.
He helped create a real team culture among the athletes in his squad and kept in touch with many of them after they had retired from the sport.
Mr Bent coached Otago athletes to 25 national records from 1975 to 2004; 21 national senior champions in events from 800m to hammer; 17 national junior champions; 13 youth champions and 19 national school champions.
He coached every national senior women’s high jump champion from 1983 to 1992 and then again from 1997 to 2001. He also coached the national senior women’s triple jump champion from 1994 to 2000.
One of his most proudest moments, though, was when his son, Gary, won the junior men’s title at the national championships in Dunedin.
He was not only a proud coach that day but also a proud father.
New Zealand Parafed coach Raylene Bates was trained by Mr Bent and later learned many of her coaching techniques from him.
She said he was a wonderful coach who was clear and concise in what he said and did and who spent countless hours helping his athletes.
‘‘He was a coach who always kept diaries, so he knew exactly how many throws, laps, everyone had done. He was doing stuff in the ’80s which was way ahead of its time,’’ Ms Bates said.
Different weight training techniques and plyometric training was something Mr Bent was using well before it became a regular tool for coaches.
‘‘He was a quiet achiever. But he worked hard and believed his athletes should work hard too. He just thought the harder you worked then the luckier you got. And you could create your own luck.’’
He was an amazing motivator and nothing he did was halfhearted, she said.
He was like a second father to her when she became a coach and he was always someone she could talk to different athletes about.
But it was not all training and competing. There was plenty of time for play and Mr Bent liked nothing better than strumming a guitar and having a good singalong.
He had a great mind for figures and detail and was the obvious man to publish a history of the Taieri Athletics Club on its 50th anniversary.
He built equipment and acquired weights and mats from other clubs in Mosgiel to help his athletes train.
His enthusiasm was infectious and he firmly believed that youngsters should do all events to get fit and not to specialise too much.
Mr Bent was born in November 3, 1930 in Oamaru. He was the oldest of four children born to Edwin and Caroline Bent. He enjoyed his childhood in Oamaru and went to Waitaki Boys’ High School where he played rugby and athletics. He was a sprinter and jumper when young.
Upon leaving school he started working in a bank and travelled around the southern region. When he was in Winton one day he met Eunice Diack, who was working as a barmaid. The two hit it off and were married in Winton shortly after.
The couple then decided to move to Mosgiel and bought into the springs manufacturer Brown and Cope Ltd.
Mr Bent would stay with the company for the rest of his life and buy out his partner.
He arrived in Mosgiel in 1960 and went down to the Taieri Athletics Club. He never left. He just got involved and competed as well as coached.
He was the treasurer of the Otago Coaches Association from 1972 to 1976 and was an Athletics Otago selector from 1970 to 1990. He and Eunice managed Otago teams at many national championships. He was also a member of the national jumps coaches group.
Rugby was another love and he was one of the instigators of the Taieri junior sevens tournament in the early 1960s. He was told by an Otago Rugby Football Union official the tournament would be a oneoff. More than 50 years later it is a fixture on the rugby calendar in Otago.
Mr Bent continued to coach athletics into his 80s and was still an active committee member for the club. He retired from his work at Brown and Cope Ltd in 1997.
Family was a big part of his life and he never tired of telling friends about his family’s deeds. He was an avid sideline spectator at many different sports.
He is survived by his three children Peter, Pam and Gary. His wife died in late 1999.