Benny Pierce could coach, but could he teach driving?
By Dick Sparrer
Thirty-one winning teams in 33 seasons? Pretty good. Sixteen league champions? OK.
Four Central Coast Section crowns? Not bad.
The statistics may speak for themselves. But how good of a coach was Benny Pierce really? Well, just take a look at my DMV printout and it speaks for itself.
You see, Benny was literally a driving force in my life. Because back in the summer of '65, he was my behind-the-wheel driving instructor.
Oh yeah, I know everyone has a great Benny Pierce story. They reflect upon his outstanding abilities as an outstanding athlete at Los Gatos High School in the 1950s, his remarkable instincts as a football coach at Saratoga High School in a career that spanned three decades, and, according to his friends, his unbelievable competitive fire on the golf course.
But my only story is about a guy with good enough reflexes to hit the brakes when I didn't to save us from disaster on a relatively new stretch of Highway 17.
You see, Benny's accomplishments as a coach are the stuff legends are made of. He is arguably the finest high school football coach to ever prowl the sidelines in the Santa Clara Valley. He certainly was the best of his era.
During his tenure, he turned out winning teams, he developed future college stars and, what's more, he helped to mold the character of young men who would go on to become leaders in the community.
Drivers? Well, that's another story. Sure, he taught me enough in driver's ed to get my license (in my second try on the DMV test), but I was tagged for three moving violations in my first four years behind the wheel. Benny's fault or mine? You be the judge.
Of course, in the years to follow, my driving record improved. It's been many years since I was cited for a moving violation, and I suppose much of the credit for that should go to the coaching--rather, driver's education--I received from Benny Pierce.
The interesting thing is that this man who had such a storied career as an area football coach almost had it extinguished just a few short years after it had begun ... by my mother.
To fully understand the circumstances, you have to know my mom. She would start to worry 45 minutes before the hour any of her children were due home, and she would hit frantic by five minutes after the hour.
Well, it seems that our one-hour driving session would be expanded on this summer day, and Benny would take his life into his own hands on a two-hour round trip to Santa Cruz. Naturally, I forgot to tell Mom we'd be out for two hours instead of one.
So when we didn't return at the time she expected us, she began to worry. And when Mom would worry, she wouldn't worry alone.
She had the administrative staff at Los Gatos High on full alert, and just about had them convinced to call out the entire Los Gatos police force when we pulled up safe and sound in the high school parking lot.
"Where have you been!" she screamed as she ran toward the car. I was humiliated, but Benny was as cool as he must have been facing a hostile defensive rush.
"Everything's fine, Mrs. Sparrer," he said, and his calming influence seemed to work a miracle on my mom that day.
I knew then that if he could calm down my wild mother like he did, sending his offense up against an eight-man front wouldn't faze him one bit.
Benny Pierce was destined for greatness ... and I have the driving record to prove it.
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Los Gatos, California Since 1881
