Swimming
Favorite athlete: Michael Phelps
Favorite memory competing in sports: Being District Champs with my team junior year when no one thought it was possible. I’ll never forget being on the winner’s podium and jumping in the pool clothed with my teammates and coaches.
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: Probably one of the countless times I jumped into the pool and then came up with a nosebleed. It was a frequent occurrence, and my team thought it was hilarious.
Music on iPod: Hip-Hop, Country, Alternative, etc.
Future plans: I plan on going to college, hopefully the University of Connecticut, and major in pre-med
Words to live by: “Good vibes only.” – Sara Sawick
One goal before turning 30: Be happy in whatever I’m doing…and not be broke.
One thing people don’t know about me: I love California. I want to live there when I get older.
By Mary Jane Souder
Everett Benson describes himself as an “average swimmer,” and while the Upper Moreland senior might not have found his way into the headlines for his accomplishments in the pool, the senior captain was a valued and important member of the swim team.
“He was always one of those kids that if we needed a fourth person in a relay, he did it,” coach Melanie Rowland said. “If we needed someone to swim the 100 butterfly in a meet, he did it.
“He wasn’t going to take first, but he’d come in and say, ‘What do we need?’ and we would tell him what we needed.”
Benson may not have been a star, but he delivered one of the season’s biggest highlights. It came when he least expected it.
With the season coming down the home stretch, it looked as though Benson would miss out on his final chance to compete in districts in an individual event after posting a 1:05.12 in the 100 butterfly at the Suburban One American Conference Championships. While it was a dramatic improvement from his top time of 1:10, he still missed the district cut by .12.
“I only swam the 100 butterfly a few times,” Benson said. “I used to hate it, but I was decent at it, I guess.
“I had been sick for a while, and after I came back, I swam it and did all right. I swam it again and dropped like four seconds. So they had me swim it again, I dropped another. four. At Suburbans, I was .12 away from the district time.”
Left with no alternative if he hoped to realize his dream of competing in districts, Benson swam in the Last Chance Meet at Upper Dublin. Assistant coach Jess Healy accompanied him to the meet and had a simple message for the senior captain.
“Jess was like, ‘Just go for it. Give it your all. You have nothing to lose,’ so I was like, ‘All right, I’ll go for it,’” Benson said. “I swam really hard, went as fast as I could.”
Benson’s time – 1:00.48 – not only easily made the district cut and gave him a coveted berth but also trimmed close to five seconds off his personal record.
“I looked up at the time, and I was like, ‘Jess, that’s not real, that’s not real,’” Benson said. “She just kept nodding like, ‘Yes it is. Yes it is.’ That was a real great moment.”
Rowland, who was at practice with the rest of her team, was equally stunned when she received Healy’s text.
“I texted Jess back and said, ‘Excuse me, did you type that wrong,’” the Golden Bears’ coach said. “She said, ‘No, I didn’t.’
“I said, ‘What did you do to him?’ She said – we talked, and I told him to take it out as fast as he took it out before and come back faster. Well, he took it out faster and came back just as fast. He blew us away. It was kind of fun because it’s his senior year. He’s gone (to districts) in relays, but we’re been trying to get him in in individual event forever.”
Benson admits he surprised himself.
“I never thought that I would make it in an individual (event) because I’m an average swimmer,” he said. “I’m not the best swimmer on the team, so it was definitely really nice that my senior year I actually made it to districts.
“It was definitely one of the best experiences that I’ve had.”
Making Benson’s accomplishment more remarkable is the fact that he missed close to a third of the season, battling back-to-back illnesses. First it was mononucleosis and then bronchitis.
“I didn’t leave my bed for two weeks and was out for an additional month,” Benson said. “It was very unfortunate – it was in the very beginning of the season, and that’s an important part to miss.”
This year’s setback came on the heels of a junior season that also saw Benson sidelined for a chunk of the season.
“At one of the meets, I passed out,” he said. “When I went to the doctor, they thought I had a heart condition, so I had to get a bunch of heart tests and stuff. I was out for a solid month.”
Benson was deemed healthy with dehydration believed to be the reason he passed out, and he returned to the pool.
“It seems like every season he always comes in seriously under the weather, but he still comes to practice,” Rowland said. “He still does what we ask him to do.
“I give him a lot of credit because most kids would have used that as an excuse. He kept coming to practice.”
When it came time to choose a captain, Benson, one of a handful of returning seniors, was a natural choice.
“I was excited to be the leader of the team and get everyone going,” he said. “It’s always hard being friends while at the same time having them be on task and telling them what they need to hear.”
Talk to Rowland, and it’s clear that Benson has come a long way since he was a freshman who wasn’t interested in cutting his long hair.
“He was this mop top of a kid,” the Golden Bears’ coach said. “I said, ‘You know, Everett, you have to get your hair cut.’ He said, ‘I’ll never cut my hair.’ I said, ‘Yes, you will.’ He said, ‘I’ll wear a bathing cap.’ I said, ‘No, you’re going to get your hair cut, and you’re going to get your hair cut short.’
“He came in a couple of days before Suburbans and his hair was short. This man who said he’d never cut his hair and change got his hair cut short, never went back to long hair again and grew up.”
Benson laughs when he recalls that experience.
“For some reason, that (long hair) was my pride and joy when I was younger,” he said. “I don’t know why. It was pretty terrible.
“I knew freshman year going in I would have to cut it. That was their thing – and dying and bleaching it. I wasn’t very up to the idea, but as the year went on and people kept nagging me to do it – it was coming up to Suburbans and we were tapering. They were like, ‘All right, you have to get it cut.’ I was very nervous because that’s the first time my hair was short since elementary school.
“Everyone really liked it, and I was like, ‘All right, I can dig it.’ It hasn’t been long since then.”
And what wasn’t “his thing’ when he was a freshman has become his thing as a senior leader.
“This year he was going out and making sure the guys had their hair dyed,” Rowland said. “He kind of had to read their personalities.
“He didn’t push them when they didn’t need to be pushed. He was patient and understanding with a lot of the guys. He might not have liked the way they handled things, but he supported them and he backed them and made sure they went in the right direction. He worked with the new freshmen and tried to keep them going in the right direction. He was just an all-around good example. He was there for everybody.”
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Benson, who also had a stint with soccer and karate as a youngster, began swimming at a young age. He stepped away from the sport after his father passed away when he was five years old. As a freshman, he was approached by Rowland about joining the team.
“Melanie was my coach when I was younger, and she was also a sub at the school, so she encouraged me to get back into it because she was the coach,” Benson said. “A couple of my friends were going to do swimming and they persuaded me as well.”
Although he hadn’t swum competitively since he was 10, Benson joined the team.
“I loved swimming,” he said. “I loved being in the water. I definitely enjoyed it.”
Benson will not swim at the collegiate level with his sights set on attending the University of Connecticut or the University of Pittsburgh where he will be a pre-med major with the goal of one day getting into cosmetic surgery.
“I just like the idea of helping people fix their insecurities and make them feel better about themselves,” he said. “I was always interested in the science/math fields.
“When I was younger, I wanted to be an inventor.”
An honors student Benson is a member of the National Honor Society, and in addition to working two jobs, he is a Special Olympics coach at the YMCA gymnastics program.
While his goals have changed and Benson has matured, the one constant in his life has been his mother, Sherri Benson-Gordon.
“My mom is the most important thing to me,” he said. “She raised me as a single mom after my dad passed away, and she’s done such a great job. She’s so supportive of everything, always encouraging me to do the best I can and be the best I can be. She’s really an incredible woman.
“My sister Nikki – she’s definitely supportive as well. She does gymnastics, so I’m always going to her stuff, and it’s nice she always comes to mine. We have a great relationship as well.”
“I will miss him a lot,” Rowland said. “This little boy who wouldn’t cut his hair became the example for everybody.”
