Brian began his softball career playing local church league softball as a teenager. He then started playing with Pabst based out of Freeport, IL. They travelled locally in Illinois and Wisconsin and were usually regarded as the team to beat in most tournaments. Pabst played one year in the Thursday night league at Forest Hills Diamonds in Rockford and the end of the season Brian was picked up by Rockford’s RMA to attend the Class A National Tournament.
BB played competitively for Pabst and RMA teams for over 10 seasons, the last five playing at the Class A/B level. In 1985, Kelley’s RMA won the Great Lakes Class “B” National Championship. Brian led the tournament in home runs and was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player. Brian was among the home run leaders in many of the tournaments in which he played and was selected to many National Invitational Tournament All-Star teams. By the end of 1986, Brian Benning was named a Major Player by the USSSA - one of 150 players in the country to receive that designation. Only two players in the State of Illinois had made that list at that time. Brian’s best attribute was the ability to hit with power to all fields and was considered to be a threat from foul line to foul line.
In 1986 Steele’s Silver Bullets, a Major team from Cleveland, Ohio played an exhibition game at Marinelli Field in Rockford against an Illinois All-Star team. After the game, Owner/Coach Dave Neale asked Brian if he was interested in playing Major softball with Steeles. Brian graciously declined this great opportunity to do what he loved best, coach youth.
Brian’s competitive softball career ended in 1986 when he began teaching and coaching at Orangeville High School. He was head football and basketball coach until 1993. He inherited a football program that hadn’t had a winning season for 25 years and led them to a Final 4 appearance in the 1988 IHSA Football Playoffs and a State Championship in 1989. In 1991, as head basketball coach, the team reached the State Finals in Champaign where he became the only coach in IHSA history to coach a State Football Champion and coach a Basketball team to the State Finals.
BB left Orangeville in 1993 to become the head football coach at Harlem High School in Machesney Park, IL. He inherited a program that had the state’s longest losing streak, not having won a game in the previous five seasons. He coached there for 10 seasons, the last six making the IHSA playoffs including the 1997 NIC 9 conference champions, the only time in school history. Brian left Harlem to take the head basketball job at his alma mater, Dakota High School in Dakota, IL. In 10 seasons, he accumulated a 202 – 75 record, including 4 regional titles and 4 sectional appearances. He was also a football assistant on their 2005 and 2007 State Title teams. His career record in basketball was 315 – 121 in his 16 years at Orangeville and Dakota, where he never had a losing season in his basketball coaching career.
Brian’s teaching and coaching career was cut short on Feb 1, 2011 while traveling to school with his youngest son, Brett. Their van was hit head on by a semi-tractor trailer a mile from school in a bad snow storm. Brett sustained injuries that resulted in a hospital stay of three days, but Brian’s injuries were much more severe. He was in a coma 3 weeks and the hospital for 5 months. He had 14 major surgeries and almost 300 trips to physical therapy after his release from Van Matre Rehab Hospital. Miraculously, Brian has resumed playing one of his favorite pastimes, golf.
Brian is married to Kathy and will celebrate 25 years of marriage next year. Brian’s oldest son Kyle (22) is married to Sara. They have 2 children Aubrey (3) and Carter (6 weeks). Brian’s other son Brett (19) is playing college basketball at the University of Southern Indiana on a full scholarship. Brian also has one brother Don (wife Sue) and sister Bonnie (husband Merle).
Welcome BB to the IL USSSA Hall of Fame you are truly a winner in life and on the field!