It's the end of an era at D-C

The Class 4A baseball playoffs begin next week, which means the end of a fine career is drawing near for Dundee-Crown coach Fred Bencriscutto.

Due to his impending retirement from District 300 at the age of 54 after 33 years of teaching and 18 years leading the D-C varsity, "Coach Ben," as his players know him, intends to hang up the jersey at season's end.

Bencriscutto's list of on-field accomplishments is impressive: a career record of 307-285-6 through Wednesday, six Fox Valley Conference titles, four regional titles, two sectional crowns and berths in the Class AA state finals in 2001 and 2007.

Six of his players were drafted by professional baseball organizations and more than 50 have gone on to play baseball in college.

At the public high school level, coaches play the players geography deals them. In some years Bencriscutto and ninth-year associate head coach Hank Faulkner have had some talented rosters they've been able to steer to titles.

In other years they've had to squeeze every drop of talent from some average teams, you know, coach 'em up.

"When they have those talented teams Fred does a good job with them, but sometimes that's easy," said Cary-Grove coach Don Sutherland, a 21-year varsity coach who has sat in the dugout opposite Bencriscutto, his good friend, since both were sophomore coaches at their respective Fox Valley Conference schools in the 1980s.

"What I've admired about Fred is that when his talent hasn't been good he coaches exactly the same. He tries to make them improve and do the little things in the game, the delayed steals, the things that can give an average team a little advantage or a little momentum.

"That's what I admire most about him, not just how he's coached his good teams, which he has done very well, but what he's done when he had below-average talent."

Take, for example, Bencriscutto's first FVC championship team in 1993. That club won a title despite a roster that consisted of just 13 players, including two sophomore starters.

But with all his success on the diamond, Bencriscutto will be remembered more for the manner in which his teams carried themselves than whether those teams carried the day.

We're talking about a coach who would prefer to lose a game than have his players win but be considered poor sportsmen .

"Fred reinforced from the word go not just how to play the game but how to comport ourselves," said Faulkner, Bencriscutto's choice to succeed him as D-C coach. "More important than the baseball aspect to him was how people see us. Do we play hard, are we sportsmen, would teams want to play us again? He believes there is a right way to win and you should do it the right way, win or lose."

That's why you don't see the Chargers argue calls with umpires. Bencriscutto won't stand for it. If one of his pitchers rolls eyes at an umpire's call, their coach barks to that pitcher something like, "Hey, just get the ball back and pitch. Don't worry about the calls."

The Chargers don't throw bats, they don't fling helmets in disgust and they don't disrespect their opponents, displays that happen far to frequently in this era of glamorized taunting. If any Charger does step out of line like that, he can expect to sit the pine.

A teacher first and foremost, Bencriscutto has always imparted lessons about the proper etiquette of sport, how to compete like gentlemen. It's a subtlety not prioritized at every high school and other coaches admire and emulate Bencriscutto's respectful approach.

"It's not just their program that's going to miss Fred," ninth-year Crystal Lake Central coach Jeff Aldridge said. "The game is going to miss him, this entire community, this entire state. He's had that kind of impact. It's more than just baseball. He's bigger than that. It'll be a big loss for our conference and beyond."

The Chargers were eliminated in a state quarterfinal last June, but they were awarded the tournament's sportsmanship trophy by the IHSA. The award was anything but an afterthought for the D-C coach.

"Some people might minimize that and say it's not a trophy for a place finish, but to me that was the culmination of everything Hank and I have striven for over the years," Bencriscutto said. "The fact that at that level someone would recognize that in our players is really the measure of the program the way I see it.

"Our kids play hard, they play the right way, they're sportsmanlike. They understand that the opponent is to be respected and the game is to be respected."

Host Dundee-Crown will open the Class 4A regional next week as the No. 2 seed. The Chargers face rival Jacobs in the opener on Thursday. With a win they would advance to the regional title game on Saturday against either No. 1 Cary-Grove or No. 4 Crystal Lake South.

But even if D-C makes an unexpected run all the way to the state finals, we're talking three weeks tops before the spring routine of an 18-year baseball coach abruptly ends.

"I'll miss the competition and the camaraderie," Bencriscutto said. "I'm gonna miss the (heck) out of Hank, I know that. We wouldn't have accomplished anything we accomplished there without him having been with me.

"I'll miss just knowing that you're going somewhere and you've got a game, the challenges of that and working with all the kids you really enjoy being around.

"I'll miss the relationships I've developed over the years with the coaches in our conference and the nonconference schedule that you play. It's a part of your life you can't replace. There will be a big void, I'm sure, because that's a real stimulus for guys like us, competitors. It just becomes part of your life."

Once the last out is made it will be time to look forward. Still a relatively young man, Bencriscutto isn't sure what the future holds for him, though he said he definitely plans on having a second career. He's just not exactly sure yet what that career will as of yet.

Coach Ben also said he hasn't ruled out coaching again somewhere down the line if the right situation were to present itself.

But for now he plans to make like Seinfeld and do a whole lot of nothing, assuming wife Claudia is OK with that plan.

"She has to continue to work, so I can stay home and become the guy who cleans up, cuts the grass, does some potting of some plants," Bencriscutto said. "That's going to be me for a while I think."

If he develops plants half as well as he developed young men for the past 18 years, expect Fred Bencriscutto to be named horticulturist of the year by this time next spring.