{"id":31579,"date":"2014-07-03T11:29:46","date_gmt":"2014-07-03T15:29:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/?p=31579"},"modified":"2014-09-12T11:03:42","modified_gmt":"2014-09-12T15:03:42","slug":"scoring-position","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2014\/07\/03\/scoring-position\/","title":{"rendered":"Scoring position"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Grant<\/a>

Grant Benzinger, a basketball star at Archbishop Moeller High School in Cincinnati and son of Cincinnati Red Todd Benzinger, will play basketball for Wright State.<\/p><\/div>\n

His father is Todd Benzinger, former Cincinnati Red and coach of the Dayton Dragons. So Grant Benzinger is all about baseball, right?<\/p>\n

Wrong. He\u2019s all about hoops.<\/p>\n

The younger Benzinger, a basketball star at Archbishop Moeller High School in Cincinnati, will play basketball for Wright State University this season. He moved his things to campus even before commencement at Moeller, is taking summer classes and has helped out at coach Billy Donlon\u2019s basketball camp.<\/p>\n

The freshman has yet to declare a major, but thinks he wants to study business, probably management. And he hopes to play as a shooting guard on the basketball team.<\/p>\n

Benzinger grew up in the Cincinnati suburb of Loveland, and sports were his passion as far back as he can remember.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery day we were playing a different sport in my backyard with my neighbors and my dad, just playing,\u201d he recalled.<\/p>\n

Benzinger\u2019s father, Todd, played baseball in the major leagues from 1987 to 1995, most notably as a first baseman and outfielder for the Reds. He was a member of the team when it swept the favored Oakland A\u2019s in four games to win the 1990 World Series, catching the final out in the ninth inning of Game 4.<\/p>\n

From 2006 to 2008, Benzinger coached the girls\u2019 basketball team at Loveland High School and then managed the Dayton Dragons for the 2009 and 2010 seasons.<\/p>\n

As a result, the younger Benzinger had special access to the Dragons\u2019 locker room.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were a lot of words I had never heard before,\u201d Benzinger said with a smile. \u201cA lot of slang.\u201d<\/p>\n

Benzinger gave up playing organized baseball in the sixth grade and later began accompanying his father when he coached girls basketball.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe wasn\u2019t pushing basketball on me, but I spent so much time in the gym that it became the main sport,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"Grant<\/a>

Freshman guard Grant Benzinger helping out at coach Billy Donlon\u2019s basketball camp.<\/p><\/div>\n

At Moeller High School, Benzinger played basketball all four years. The private, all-male school has gained a national reputation for athletic excellence.<\/p>\n

\u201cMoeller\u2019s big thing is if you\u2019re going to do something, you\u2019re going to put your all into it,\u201d Benzinger said. \u201cThey really instilled that in me.\u201d<\/p>\n

He and his teammates practiced nearly every day, both before and after classes. And they tried to master the mental part of the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery day before practice, we watched film and tried to improve our basketball IQ,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was all about seeing the play before it happens; slowing the game down; just being calm and relaxed all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his senior year, Benzinger helped lead the top-ranked Crusaders to the Ohio Division I regional finals, where they lost a 62-61 stunner to Trotwood-Madison despite being up 15 points with four minutes to play.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey hit some big shots,\u201d said Benzinger, who still feels the sting of that defeat.<\/p>\n

But now, his eye is on the future, which looks bright. And Wright State appears to be a good fit for Benzinger.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I came to Wright State, I clicked with all the people here, especially the team and the coaches,\u201d he said. \u201cI really liked that it was close to home, and the campus had a great feel to it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Grant Benzinger, a basketball star at Archbishop Moeller High School in Cincinnati and son of a former Cincinnati Red, will play basketball for Wright State. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":31582,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[729,715,2119],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-around-campus","category-news","category-university-college"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31579"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31579\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33259,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31579\/revisions\/33259"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}