Benedict moves up to A-Team

By FAITH MOLDAN Bigfork Eagle

With a knack for scoring, quickness and good ball-handling skills, Bigfork High School junior Roland Benedict has stepped up to fill the starting guard position for the Vikings this season.

Benedict, who stands six-feet tall, gained some varsity experience last year while playing at both the junior varsity and varsity levels. As the main guard for the JV team last year, Benedict said the change to varsity was not as big a change as he thought it would be, but that he did notice some difference in terms of the pace of the game.

“Wow. This is varsity,” Benedict said he thought early this season.

Bigfork boys’ basketball coach Jim Epperly said he’s noticed a change in Benedict’s mental and physical game this season.

“He’s physically getting bigger and stronger. He’s maturing and making better decisions,” Epperly said.

An overall and natural athlete, Benedict enjoys playing basketball, soccer, skiing and skateboarding. Benedict said he was encouraged to play baseball too, because he has a good swing at the plate, but that baseball was too boring for him to play and only went as far as t-ball. Instead, Benedict has concentrated on basketball and soccer in recent years.

“Before I could walk,” Benedict said when asked when he started playing basketball. “We had a Little Tikes basketball hoop, and my dad would hold me and I’d shoot from his arms.”

Benedict’s improved his game over the years with help from basketball camps and real life experience. While spending summers with his mom Toni in Los Angeles, Benedict said he’d spend hours at local parks shooting around and playing basketball with a wide variety of people picking up different skills along the way.

He credits his dad, Dirk, with helping him with his game.

“I got the fundamental side from my dad. I wouldn’t be as good of a player without him,” Benedict said.

Benedict said he has seen marked improvement from the camps he attended as well. He said he used to shoot a jump shot from his chest, but has changed that as well as other aspects of his game. Benedict’s teammate and friend Levi Dockstader attended a Laker camp in LA with Benedict last year. The camp conducts a mock draft of the players and Benedict has moved up in the draft each year. Last year Benedict was the first pick and Dockstader followed close after, showing Benedict that there’s not much difference between LA, Montana or anywhere on the east coast when it comes to basketball.

“It’s different,” Benedict said of this year’s boys’ varsity basketball team. “We’ve got guys that have never played at this level. It’s a new thing.”

This year’s Viking team consists of two seniors — John White and Kainoa Lake — who saw limited varsity time last season, a number of juniors and sophomores and one freshman.

“I haven’t played with a lot of them,” Benedict said. “It’s like our first season together.”

The team has struggled to make it into the win column this season and currently reamains winless. Benedict says the team is still hopeful and the players are keeping their heads up.

“It’s hard to keep yourself motivated,” he said about the tough season. “We need to close out quarters and finish strong. If we pick up a couple of wins before divisionals, nobody’s going to want to play against us.”

Benedict said that although he frequently leads the Vikes in scoring, he’d rather have 10 assists to win a game.

“They try and get you off your game,” Benedict said about other teams in the conference. “If they’re going to do that I’ll just kick it out to someone else and let them shoot and score.”

He added that although he has the ability to drain jumpers and three-point shots, he prides himself on penetrating and going to the basket to score. As of Jan. 16, Benedict was third in the Northwest A conference in 2-point field goal percentage, fourth in free-throw percentage and fifth in both combined field goal percentage and total points. In 10 games he’s gone 15-for-21 from the free-throw line and is averaging 13.6 points per game.

“He’s our go to guy. He sets the tone,” Epperly said. “His role has changed a lot. He’s doing a good job of handling that. Last year he was a back up guard.”

Benedict said he hopes to play both basketball and soccer in college, adding that soccer is a close second to basketball.

“I’m strictly going to concentrate on basketball this summer,” he said. “You still need to try and get better, because there are guys that are faster and stronger than you out there.”

He was encouraged at his chances to play college basketball when playing with college players like the Grizzlies’ Matt Dloughy.

“They told me, ‘You can play college basketball.’,” Benedict said. He added that completing an alley oop to Dloughy after blocking another player and bringing the ball down the floor is one of his favorite basketball memories.

Epperly sees potential in Benedict, as well.

“He’s capable of that (playing college basketball). He needs to keep working at it and work on his weaknesses,” Epperly said.

Whether Benedict plays college ball or not, he plans on staying in the sports field by majoring in sports medicine or athletic training. He smiled as he mentioned that many of the top schools for those fields are also have top basketball teams.

“It’s kind of exciting,” he said.