Oakland Catholic names Benton new girls coach
Since graduating from the University of Vermont as the school’s all-time leading scorer in 1997, Eddie Benton has spent most of the past 25 years coaching at the collegiate level, enjoying plenty of success at several different stops while working his way up the ranks.
Now, after spending last season as an assistant coach at Mississippi State under Nikki McCray-Penson, the Perry grad and City League legend is coming home.
Benton was hired last week as the new girls basketball coach at Oakland Catholic, taking over for Brianne O’Rourke. He inherits a program that is typically among the WPIAL’s elite, although it has been 16 years since the Eagles last raised a WPIAL championship banner — the last of a dynastic run that included six WPIAL titles in an eight-year stretch.
As someone who knows firsthand what it takes to reach the top of the mountain — Benton was a junior on Perry’s 1991 PIAA Class 3A championship-winning team — he isn’t mincing words about what he hopes to accomplish at his new home.
“Right now, I’m 100% committed to winning a state championship at Oakland Catholic,” Benton said. “Winning some WPIALs and winning some state championships at Oakland Catholic. That’s my goal.”
So after spending more than two decades coaching both men and women at the collegiate level as both a head coach and an assistant, why did Benton decide to come back home and coach high school girls? Why now? For Benton, the answer is simple.
“Last year, coaching at the highest level, it was great. But I didn’t see my own children for almost four months,” Benton said. “The years that they are now, the age they are now, it’s crucial. My son [Eddie Benton III] will be a rising sophomore at Bishop Canevin. He plays football. And my daughter [Ny’Asia Benton] is a rising senior. So I decided to put my college coaching career on pause until both my kids are in college, then I can do whatever I want.
“But right now, I think these years are very important, and I needed to be around.”
His daughter, Ny’Asia, is one of the top track and field stars in the area at Obama. Getting the chance to spend more time with his children
WPIAL basketball
was the most important thing to Benton after going months-without seeing them while coaching at Mississippi State — and the opportunity that presented itself at Oakland Catholic was too good to pass up.
“I’m excited,” Benton said. “I told myself there were only a select few high school jobs I would take. I wasn’t taking any high school job. Being as though I wanted to be home, with my own children, it was the perfect job for me to take.”
Benton scored 2,474 points at Vermont and won the 1996 Frances Pomeroy Naismith Award as the nation’s top point guard under six feet. He played professionally in the Continental Basketball Association as well as in Israel and Venezuela before embarking on his coaching career.
He started out as an assistant men’s coach at La Roche from 1999-2001, then served as an assistant men’s coach at Robert Morris from 2001-04. Benton then earned his first head coaching gig as the women’s coach at La Roche from 2004-12.
Benton then moved on to Saint Francis (Pa.), where he served as an assistant women’s coach during the 2012-13 season. From there, he coached at Duquesne as an assistant women’s coach from 2013-16, then spent the 2017-18 season as an assistant women’s coach at Cincinnati. Benton then served as an assistant women’s coach at Brown from 2018-21 before joining Mississippi State’s staff for the 2021-22 season.
All along, Benton has operated the BentForce Basketball training center he co-owns along with his wife, Daynia La-Force, who is an assistant coach for the Atlanta Dream of the WNBA. He will continue to run the training center while coaching at Oakland Catholic.
And as for embracing the challenge of stepping into the gauntlet that is Class 5A girls basketball, Benton wouldn’t have it any other way.
“That’s exciting to me, man,” Benton said. “I just came from the SEC. It doesn’t get any better than that. I’m used to competing at a high level. I think the better teams you play against, it brings the best out in your own team. We’ll definitely be prepared for every game.
“We’re going to play a fun style of basketball, and we’ll definitely be in the mix.”