Crim: Centralia’s Bennett maintains focus on what’s next for Orphans after milestone victory

QUINCY — Lee Bennett took a moment to pose for a photograph with a group of Centralia High School students acknowledging his 700th career coaching victory last Wednesday night after the Orphans demolished Charleston in the semifinals of the Class 3A Effingham boys basketball regional.

The celebration was short.

“There’s a lot of people who have been supportive of me over the years who were really excited, and that makes me feel good,” Bennett said. “People started texting me when it got close, a lot of them friends and loved ones.

“For me, it’s always about the next practice, the next game. That’s how I’m wired. I hate to sound Belichick-ey — ‘On to Cleveland’ — but as soon as 700 happened, I’m like, ‘Let’s get ready for 701. We’re playing for a regional championship with a one-day prep.’”

Centralia notched win No. 701 Friday night by dispensing with Herrin 61-43. The Orphans, now 28-4 and ranked ninth in the final Associated Press Class 3A poll of the regular season, play East St. Louis on Wednesday night in the Marion Sectional. The winner will face either Troy Triad or Mount Vernon in Friday night’s championship game.

Bennett didn’t expect his team to be in this position when the season began. He lost three guards and the sixth man from a squad that went 32-3 a year ago and reached the super-sectional, where it fell one point short against Mount Zion.

Moreover, the Orphans’ top seven players this season consist of one senior, one junior, two sophomores and three freshmen.

“We were really bad in the summer,” Bennett said. “I had made up my mind that this was not going to be our strongest year, that it was going to be tough sledding and ain’t nobody going to feel sorry for us. People were going to get the chance to even the score, so to speak. I had myself mentally and emotionally ready for that.”

Only it hasn’t materialized that way.

Centralia won the Roxana tournament to open the season, and then after three narrow losses in a five-game December stretch, the Orphans knocked off two Class 4A teams ranked in the top 10 — No. 2 Chicago Marist and No. 9 Evanston — back-to-back on the final day of its Christmas tournament.

The Orphans have won 22 of their last 23 games.

“We’re not big, we’re not slow, but we’re not quick by any means,” Bennett said. “We don’t have that guy who goes for 25 points a night. We have six guys who can and have gotten 20 points a night. Across the board we shoot it decent.

“We try to value each possession on both ends. We’re about the team doing the best it can, not me or mine. We’ve buttered a lot of bread with guys like that.”

Senior forward Dustyn Collins is the tallest starter at 6-foot-5. Bennett said junior forward-guard Devin Meier, a returning starter, is the team’s best defender and “the smartest player who makes us a lot better.”

Sophomores Jaxson Hancock and Michael Organ have grown into their roles. And then there’s the three freshmen guards — Archie Goewey, Kenny Bratton and Kruz Jackson — who play significant roles.

Bratton led the team in scoring in the win against Herrin. The 6-foot-2 Goewey, the son of Bennett’s long-time assistant Brad Goewey, is among the team’s top scorers and was voted most valuable player of the Centralia Holiday Tournament and the Salem Invitational.

“Archie has been around for a minute,” Bennett said. “He was hanging out at practice when he was 2 years old and wanted to jump into drills when he was 6.

“I was not excited about throwing a freshman out there, but we thought he could play and belonged playing varsity basketball. Archie has exceeded expectations.”

Bennett played for his father, Dave, at Pittsfield High School, and the two could be mirror images of each other on and off the court. Dave Bennett won 527 games and a state championship in 25 years at Pittsfield, and both father and son are in the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame.

Lee Bennett got into coaching and teaching after graduating from Western Illinois University for a simple reason.

“I didn’t know what else I could do,” he said. “You wouldn’t want me welding or laying asphalt on your driveway. I don’t have any of those skills.

“Once I turned 10, I trained at Voshall (Pittsfield’s home gym). I got to see a very strong basketball program every day, so at the time, it was the only place where I felt like I knew what I was doing or had a jump on others.”

After short stints at Avon, Carlinville and West Pike, he won 20 or more games five times in six seasons at Dakota and had three straight 27-win seasons at Alton before moving to Centralia in 2007.

The Orphans were coming off three straight losing seasons and Bennett was their fifth coach in seven years.

“It was a situation set up for success,” he said. “There’s a lot of support in the community. I put pressure on myself, but I have never felt pressure that I would be fired if I didn’t win games. Now, it could happen; it did happen before I got there.

“I’m confident in my ability to teach basketball.”

Bennett has guided Centralia, the winningest high school program in the country with 2,409 victories, to 20 or more wins 14 times. Only the legendary Arthur Trout coached more seasons (37) and won more games (810) at Centralia than Bennett, who has 421 victories there in 18 seasons.

Bennett helped the Orphans reach the Class 3A state title game in 2011, where they lost in overtime to Rock Island.

The school won championships in 1918, 1922 and 1942 and finished in the top four three other times under Trout, but that marked its first title game appearance since 1963.

Centralia also reached the super-sectional in 2017, losing to Springfield Lanphier.

“What makes the game of basketball really challenging is while you’re getting stuff done, another team somewhere is working for hours trying to get you to fail,” Bennett said.

His coaching philosophy is simple: Be efficient, pay attention to every detail, develop skills, learn how to play and be accountable.

“Knowledge was, is and always will be power,” Bennett said. “We dig fairly deep into details. We take those 2 hours or 2 hours and 15 minutes in the gym during practice and try to get as much out of it as possible to put ourselves in a position to be successful.

“Every team is in a race against time to see how good it can be. Once this season is over, this team will never play together again. That ship will have sailed. The day after it’s over starts the clock on the next year. Then there will be only a certain number of days for the next group of boys to be the best they can be.”

The 54-year-old Bennett plans to retire from teaching in two years. He has yet to decide whether he will continue coaching beyond that.

While it would be difficult to walk away from his long-time assistant coach and this freshman group before they graduate, he’s not concerned with chasing records or padding an already impressive resume. That has never been what has driven him.

“Basketball is by far the longest season with the crummiest weather,” he said. “There’s no sunshine to lift you up. You go four months not eating or sleeping the way you should eat or sleep. A few acres, a couple of dogs and a big lawnmower doesn’t sound bad.

“Maybe if I’m retired and coaching it makes it easier. I have no plan, no answer. It’ll be whatever feels right.”

For now, there’s film to watch, a game plan to draw up and another basketball game to try to win.

That’s just how he’s wired.