EDDIE BENTON IS THE SECOND-YEAR HEAD COACH OF THE OAKLAND CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOL BASKETBALL TEAM. (PHOTO BY MARLON MARTIN)
Just two years ago, seats in the bleachers were readily available during basketball games at Donahue Pavilion, the home court inside Oakland Catholic High School, an all-girls school in Oakland. In the 2021-22 season, the team won 16 games, but lost 10, which included a second-round loss in the WPIAL playoffs, and a loss to McKeesport in the state playoffs.
Today, it’s standing-room-only at the gym. It was senior day, Saturday, Feb. 10, 2024. And the main attraction, the Oakland Catholic basketball team, crushed North Catholic, 44-28, to improve to 22-0 and have its first undefeated regular season in 24 years.
What’s changed?
DR. KAREN HALL IS OAKLAND CATHOLIC’S ATHLETICS DIRECTOR. (PHOTO BY MARLON MARTIN)
Enter new Athletics Director Dr. Karen Hall, and new Head Coach, Eddie Benton. Both are African Americans with high-octane basketball resumes. Together, they’ve changed the culture of the entire program (and the warm-up music).
As Dr. Hall, the assistant executive director of Ozanam Inc., looked on as hundreds of people celebrated on the court with their daughters, nieces and friends who play on Oakland Catholic’s team, Dr. Hall told the New Pittsburgh Courier this excitement is exactly what she envisioned when she became A.D. in February 2022.
“This is it right here,” she said. “Winning, but not just winning…winning championships.”
In June 2022, Dr. Hall’s first major hire was announced, bringing on a person who used to play for her in the Connie Hawkins Men’s Summer Basketball League. Benton, you may recall, won a state title as a star player on Perry Traditional Academy’s 1991 team. He then went on to become the all-time leading scorer at the University of Vermont. His No. 10 jersey is retired there, too.
Benton since has amassed an impressive collegiate coaching career. He was the head coach of the LaRoche University women’s basketball team for eight years. He was the assistant coach for women’s programs at St. Francis (Pa.), Duquesne, Cincinnati, Brown and Mississippi State.
After roughly 25 years of coaching at the collegiate level, Benton wanted to return home to be closer to his children in Pittsburgh.
“One of the things that I didn’t really have a chance to do was be a dad,” Benton said during his introductory press conference in 2022. “I didn’t get a chance to see my own kids for three and a half, going on four months. That’s the main reason why I came back to coach high school basketball; I wanted to still coach the game but I had to be in my kids’ life.”
Benton is uber-proud of his children; Ny’Asia Benton, who was a star track and field athlete at Pittsburgh Obama Academy and is now at Robert Morris, and Eddie Benton III, a multi-sport athlete at Bishop Canevin High School.
EDDIE BENTON, A FORMER PERRY TRADITIONAL ACADEMY AND UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT BASKETBALL STAR, HAS COME HOME TO COACH OAKLAND CATHOLIC. (PHOTOS BY MARLON MARTIN)
In Benton’s first season as Oakland Catholic head coach (2022-23), the team lost just three games in the regular season, and made it all the way to the WPIAL 5A Championship game, but lost to South Fayette, 64-49. In the PIAA state playoffs, Oakland Catholic made it to the state semifinals, but lost again to South Fayette, 58-54.
LONDON CREACH IS OAKLAND CATHOLIC’S TOP SCORER.
This season though, there’s been no setbacks. Benton said junior London Creach is the team’s leading scorer, and she’s also the only returning starter from last season’s senior-laden team. Creach, who is African American, has said that she has learned to be more of a leader this year, as many of the freshmen and sophomores on the team look to her for guidance.
Benton said Josie Fontana is the 6-foot-2 junior “who’s our presence inside,” Kaylee DeAngelo is the freshman sharpshooter from deep, “we got our senior point guard, Raygen Hintemeyer, who does a lot of great things and runs our team, and then our engine is (freshman) Mia LeDonne. She’s the engine that gets us going.”
Alayla Bivins and Marionna Logan also are regular contributors for the Eagles. Both Bivins, a junior, and Logan, a senior, are African American.
IT’S KAYLEE DEANGELO FOR 3…
So, what’s next? The WPIAL playoffs, of course. The WPIAL playoffs are different from the Pittsburgh City League — the City League teams hold their championship games this weekend at Duquesne University. The WPIAL championships will be held, Feb. 29-March 2, at the Petersen Events Center in Oakland. With the new culture, the new attitude, and so far, an undefeated season, can Benton lead Oakland Catholic to a WPIAL, and then, a state title this season?
“The biggest thing is, I tell the girls from Day 1, we gotta outwork everyone, we gotta prepare harder, we gotta work harder,” Benton told the Courier. “We’ll never be perfect, but I want our girls to play as close to perfect as we possibly can, and just have that mentality and not be satisfied unless it’s that good.”
ALAYLA BIVINS SIGNS AN AUTOGRAPH FOR A YOUNG FAN…
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