THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, February 28, 1996 TAG: 9602280500
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY VICKI L. FRIEDMAN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Long : 107 lines
Four years ago, Esther Benjamin couldn't tell this story without crying. Today, her voice still quivers slightly when she recalls painful details of what it was like to be a Proposition 48 student-athlete waiting for the chance to play basketball.
But mainly the ODU senior is thankful for the story's happy ending - the degree in recreation management she will receive on May 4. She knows the folks back home in Valdosta, Ga., will want to take a peek at it.
``Everybody is so proud of me back home,'' Benjamin says. ``That's what keeps me going now. I've come a long way.''
Five years ago, a college degree seemed a reach at best, a pipe dream at worst.
On paper, she had all the makings of a Division I athlete. A good student at Valdosta High School, she was the kind of basketball player who collected a garbage bag full of letters from college coaches.
The 6-foot-4 forward earned Player-of-the-Year honors in her region her senior year and won two golds and one silver medal in AAU ball. Florida was calling. Georgia wanted her. Georgia Tech saw potential. Old Dominion, too.
But Benjamin had a phobia concerning standardized tests and a lack of awareness about them. ``I wasn't tuned in,'' she says frankly. ``I wasn't prepared for it. At the last minute, they had this career center in school, and they were trying to get me to go into the center and prepare for it.''
It was too late. The SAT was like another language to her, and her scores were too low for Division I standards. So she took the ACT. She missed qualifying by one point. Sitting and staring at those scores, it was obvious to her: I'm not going to college.
``It made me feel like I was dumb,'' she says disgustedly. ``Like I couldn't do anything. I still think about it sometimes.''
Florida and Georgia Tech wanted to send her to junior college. Both coaches even had the schools picked out. But Benjamin preferred ODU, where she had participated in a camp, and coach Wendy Larry still was high on Benjamin.
Proposition 48 sets minimum standards for freshmen accepting NCAA Division I athletic scholarships. Yes, Benjamin could still attend ODU. But she would lose a year of eligibility. She could not practice with the team her freshman year. Nightly study hall was mandatory. Tuition was paid for; housing and books were not. She would have to get a job, maybe two, to make a go of it.
``At that point in time, basically it was an act of God to try to get a student-athlete in who hadn't qualified,'' said Larry, who credits the administration for backing the decision. ``We really believed in Esther Benjamin. Her personality was very low key, yet she had a driven desire to be successful.''
Benjamin recalled her own mother's regrets for not accepting a scholarship to Alabama. Wanting no regrets of her own, she left for Norfolk.
The first few months were dreadful.
``I cried for three months,'' she says. ``Any time anyone would ask me if I was all right, I would just cry. I thought I was going to die of misery and pain. I called my mom so many times and told my mom to come get me. She didn't have any way to come get me. If my mom had a way to get me, I wouldn't be here today.''
Benjamin worked two jobs - one at Dunkin Donuts, another at the school cafeteria. She conditioned with the team before and after the season but only attended a handful of games.
During recreational hours she played with the guys in pickup games. Benjamin had a couple of buddies on the Lady Monarchs - Celeste Hill and Shonda Deberry, whom she played against in high school. But she was lonely. She remembers her collect calls being rejected by a group of friends who had told her to call anytime. So, always a devout Christian, Benjamin relied on her faith.
``I prayed so much,'' she says. ``If I ever needed the Lord, I needed him then. I could call my grandma. She would talk to me. She felt so bad because every time I would call her, I would just cry.''
Benjamin was close to packing her bags. But as the baby of the family, she felt some pressure. Another brother dropped out of college and her three other siblings didn't finish high school. Her pals in her Valdosta neighborhood were birthing babies, not going to college. Stick it out, she told herself.
``For some reason I got through,'' she says proudly. ``That `Footprints' poem,'' she says referring to the inspirational verse about a man whose faith carries him through troubled times. ``I have this calendar book with that on it, and I used to read it all the time.''
After spending the year attaining athletic eligibility, Benjamin earned all-rookie honors in the Colonial Athletic Association as a sophomore and was named to the East team at the 1994 Olympic Sports Festival. As a junior, she was a starter and part of the CAA's All-Defensive team.
This year she's coming off the bench for the No. 7 Lady Monarchs, averaging 17.6 minutes and 5.2 rebounds, second on the team.
All that is nice, but gravy. More importantly, she's graduating. Eventually she plans to return to Valdosta and open her own recreation center, one that would stress traditional activities. Kids today, she says, are too busy playing video games and watching TV.
``Get them outside and help them appreciate playing together,'' is her philosophy. ``If you can work with kids at a young age, that's the time to catch them. Once they get past age 10, you can't tell them anything.''
A rec center wasn't even in her dreams a few years ago. Now, she says, it's a matter of time.
``I'm not a straight-A student,'' she surmises. ``But, hey, I'm at a Division I school and I'm making it. I don't care what anybody says about `She wasn't this or she wasn't that.' From where I come from, I've accomplished a lot.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
BILL TIERNAN/The Virginian-Pilot
Esther Benjamin, an ODU senior who will receive her degree in May,
says of her first year, ``I thought I was going to die of misery and
pain.''
by CNB