Benet Baseball Welcomes New Head Coach

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“The kids love him. He’s got a great attitude, great stories. He’s always thinking on the bright side. And knowing the mission of the school is important for the kids. Because all these kids out here, I view them as my own kids.

Scott Lawler WAS the head baseball coach at Benet Academy… but now, Bob Gelwicks is the “Young, new head coach”.

The newly minted head coach of the Redwings just turned 70… but he’s ready to embrace his new role as skipper

“It’s a real challenge because; we really didn’t have the talent some years but have done really well. And now we’ve got a lot of talent and can we continue it with the talent? It’s all about putting pieces together.”

He’s no stranger to the game – having coached for nearly 50 years… and while his style has chanced, his players would still like for him to call back to an older day in the game.

“I’m a laid back guy but I used to be Billy Martin style because I grew up in the day when getting in the umpires face was… I’ve been kicked out of a number of games and these guys keep pushing me, “when ya going to do it”… and it hasn’t happened yet but in the right moment, we might do it.

The former bench coach was bumped to the head coach with Lawler readjusting his responsibilities with the program and school. Lawler is the Director of Recruitment, Assistant Athletic Director and now the Director of Baseball at Benet Academy

“Doing more administratively here at Benet, be with my family, but also knowing that I’ve had Bob Gelwicks, who’s been my bench coach for many years; George Acosta, Nate Arenson, Joe Single, that a lot of times I was playing the same role in the past but now we’re just calling it what it is.

“We used to kid all the time that I was the only guy who could tell him what he did wrong in a game. So we’ve reversed the roles this year; where he gets to second guess all the things I do now.”

And the new coach at Benet is one of 3 head coaching changes, with Carl Hunkler giving way to Jim Chiappetta at North and James Thornton taking over for Robin Renner at Neuqua Valley.

It might be new faces but I can see that those programs will be really good. Like Chiappetta at North, who I knew as a kid – it’s fun seeing some guys like that get their first head job. And Mike Stock, who was a few years old than me at Naperville Central… But you know, he’s not new, he’s been there for a while but its fun to see that and the new passion. It goes in waves but all of those programs will continue to be strong.

And the hope is that Benet will be too… under the 70 year old, young, new head coach. Naperville Sports Weekly’s Kevin Jackman reports.

Check out the progress of the Benet Baseball team in our Boys Sports Highlights!