Soccer coach's experiences help his players to succeed

By Kenny Colman
Staff Writer

It has been an exciting journey from the 1968 Olympics to coaching the 1998 Hungary World Cup team and then to the fields of North Lake College. Coach James Benedek is embarking upon a mission to build another nationally recognized team.

Benedek's men's team, a club team, is 5 wins, 4 losses and a tie. They have two more games left. You can see them in action at 7 p.m. Oct. 30 at Richland College and at 3 p.m. Nov. 2 at Brookhaven College.

The women's team, which became a varsity team first because of Title IX funding, has a 5-win, 7-loss, 2-tie record this year. At press time, a final game with Richland College on Oct. 25 was yet to be played.

With an expanding roster of talent under Benedek's close tutelage, NLC may have an all-pro team on the horizon.

The 2002-2003 season has been dedicated to building a solid team, says Coach Benedek. In the game against Navarro, the women's team came back in the last few seconds of the game to score two goals. April Thomas scored the last goal, in a daring switch from goalie to field position. Goalie April Thomas could go All-American, Benedek predicts.

Coach Benedek, 1968

Coach James Benedek kicked a soccer ball non-stop as a child in Budapest, Hungary. He came to America to attend Cornell University after volunteering for the army draft for two years where he learned English in just 3 short months. Coach Benedek later transferred to Ithaca College where he was selected from among the best of the best in the country for the All American team. He was then invited to participate in the Pan American games, where while going to Canada for training, it was discovered that he had not completed the citizenship process.With the help of then Senator George Bush Sr., he attained his citizenship in a matter of hours and was able to meet eligibility . In 1967 he was selected to play for the U.S. Olympic team, and later went on to play in the 1970 world cup championship.

Coach Benedek began his professional career with the national championship Kansas City Spurs, and moved on to the Dallas Tornados where they won the 1971 national championship.
James Benedek started his coaching career at Southern Methodist University, where he stayed for 10 years sharing in victories as a Top Ten team. He acted as assistant coach for the 1990 Italian World Cup team. In a triumphant homecoming, he coached the 1998 Hungarian World Cup team.

"I've had so many successes it's difficult to put them in chronological order sometimes, " he says, with humility intact.

He's watched soccer grow into a popular sport in U.S., where, as he pointed out, our national team is ranked eighth in the world.

"That's a pretty big deal," he said of the ranking. "I think I had a little bit to do with it," he said, his voice rising at the end of the sentence.

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