JIM BENEDICT COACH YEAR OF INDUCTION: 2018 By the time he was in the sixth grade, he knew he wanted to be a teacher. The desire to add the coaching aspect to his life came along a little later. And many people connected to Steinert High School are happy that Jim "Eggs" Benedict was able to do both. "Jim Benedict was for 17 seasons an extremely loyal, dedicated, disciplined and knowledgeable baseball coach who prepared the players at the JV level for the Steinert varsity," said longtime coach Rich Giallella. "Jim deserves a lot of the credit for the success of the Steinert baseball program during his tenure. He was able to develop players but at the same time win with those players to get them to understand that winning and development worked hand-in-hand. For any program to achieve its goals it must have coaches with the skill set and attitude of Jim Benedict." "Since the sixth grade I wanted to be a teacher," Benedict said. "The coaching developed while in high school and kind of went together with the teaching goal. "My first job, at Steinert, came just as the freshmen coaching job was opening up and during my interview with Mr. Pete Schroeder he asked me if I would be interested. "So I was just very fortunate that I was in the right place at the right time. "I was the freshman coach for two years with Ken Rauba and we went to the state finals that first year, 1980. Richie got the job after Nottingham (High) opened and I chose to stay at Steinert and moved up to the JV level where I stayed for 17 years." There are countless favorite memories and moments from his time at SHS. "The three state championships of course stand out as the most memorable: 1992, 1996, 1998," Benedict said. "Numerous county championships, especially when the finals were in the Thunder Stadium." However, it's the growth of the student-athletes that truly touched his heart. "My biggest memories and fondest are of players that didn't go to varsity as sophomores and worked hard to get better and made significant contributions to our program. These are too numerous to mention. "Another thing that I am very proud of is the number of former players that have gone on to coach in some capacity. "Our philosophy at SHS was to 'teach' the game and in addition to all the wins and titles we were very successful at this." RETURN TO THE HALL OF FAME MEMBERS PAGE