The Benjamin Franklin Middle School boys basketball eighth grade A team has had great success in the past, and their success has continued into this year. This is due in part to head coach Steve Osburn, who has coached the team for 34 years. In his 34 years of coaching, the team has won 15 conference tournament championships. This season, the team won the conference championship, and finished the season with an almost perfect record of 18-1.
Eighth grade player Jack Smiley had huge success on the team this season. Smiley set three individual scoring records, including: most points in a season (450 points), most points in a game (34 points), and highest point per game average (23.7 points per game). Additionally, Smiley is the only player to ever lead the eighth grade A team in every statistical record tracked. Smiley contributed the team’s success this season to the competitive nature of the athletes.
“Most of us are multi-sport athletes, we are all competitive and never gave up,” said Smiley. “We believed we could win every game, and except for the first game of the season, we did.”
Smiley also contributed both his individual success and the team’s success to Coach Osburn.
“Coach is honest and expects the most out of his players,” said Smiley. “He is competitive and loves to win!”
Coach Osburn expressed his pride with the success that the team has specifically had this year. The team, with the help of Smiley, has been able to uphold Osburn’s coaching legacy.
“The team this year played very well, with each player contributing in their own way. They worked extremely hard in all aspects of the game. They were good defenders, passers, and teammates. They did not get frustrated easily. They had games in which they had leads and managed to hold off the opponents from coming back. Most importantly, they never stopped believing,” said Osburn.
Osburn has not worked alone to help bring success to the team and its players. He also mentioned how grateful he is for the rest of the coaching staff at Benjamin Franklin.
“I have also been fortunate to have Greg Kenworthy for the last 20+ years as the ‘B’ team coach,” said Osburn. “I think the continuity in the coaching staff is something that most schools do not have. I have been very fortunate to have many great players come through here. By great players, I mean players that work to become the best they can be, which is all we can ask of them.”
Finally, Osburn expressed what is truly important about the program. The program exists to help the boys grow as basketball players and athletes, but also as people.
“The reward is not always winning, even though we have done that; the reward is doing the best that we can,” Osburn said. “It’s important not only to be a good player, but a good person.”