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Skyview’s Benson retires as basketball coach

By Paul Valencia, Columbian High School Sports Reporter
Published: February 26, 2011, 12:00am

Bob Benson opted to stay positive when he let his players know Wednesday that he would not be returning as the boys basketball coach at Skyview High School.

“I enjoyed this group of kids,” Benson said Friday afternoon after the school announced his retirement from coaching. “I’m not skating out when things are tough. This group is going to be a lot better next year.”

Nine varsity players are expected to return next season, but they will have a new coach.

After more than 30 years in the huddle — 18 as a head varsity coach and the last nine at Skyview — Benson has called it a career.

“When the time is right …,” he said.

“It’s definitely been an honor,” Benson said. “It’s been a lifestyle, a passion of mine.”

Benson said there are other opportunities outside of basketball coaching that he is looking into, but he declined to elaborate.

This week was about letting his players know.

“I think they were surprised, but I went in with an upbeat attitude about it,” Benson said. “I assured them that (athletic director Jim Condon) would find the best possible coach as soon as he possibly could. It went well, I think.”

Condon said the search for a successor is in its early stages.

Under Benson, the Storm won league titles in 2004 and in 2010. The 2004 team had its season end with a double-overtime loss to eventual state champion Kentwood in the bi-district tournament.

Benson began as an assistant coach in eastern Washington before moving to Vancouver. He was a middle school coach before moving permanently to high school coaching in the fall of 1978.

After a long stint as an assistant basketball coach, he was the head coach at Hudson’s Bay for nine seasons. The 1995 Eagles won 20 games and finished seventh at the 4A state tournament. He was an assistant at Skyview for four years early in that program’s history before taking over as the head coach for the 2002-03 season.

“A lot of my best friends today were guys who played for me,” Benson said. “I really enjoyed the fact that so many of the guys who played for me came back and coached with me. They thought enough of the program we ran that they wanted to come back and be a part of it.”

Mick Hoffman, who is now the athletic director for Vancouver Public Schools, was one of those former players who later coached with Benson. Hockinson football coach Rick Steele is another former athlete who played for Benson.

“All of those situations are rewarding,” Benson said.

Skyview makes a change in volleyball — Carri Smith, who was an assistant coach with Skyview, has taken over the head coaching duties from Cheyanne Knight for the volleyball team, Condon said.

Smith knows she is taking over a quality program. The Storm have reached the Class 4A state tournament in each of the past four seasons. Skyview finished third in 2008.

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Columbian High School Sports Reporter