Centercourt Coach of the Year
Adam Bennett - Salamanca
Over a decade ago, I knew Adam Bennett as the fresh-faced assistant coach at Olean, who always went out of his way to say hello when I made the trip down there. After the Huskies won the state championship in 2016, Bennett took over as head coach at Salamanca High School and seemed very eager with the opportunity. He had spent years soaking in knowledge from brilliant basketball minds around him, namely Hall of Famer & legend Jeff Anastasia, St. Bonaventure head coach Mark Schmidt, and former Olean AD & girls coach, Don Scholla. In his first season as the head coach at Salamanca, the team won 15 games and finished second in league play. However, the following season was a losing campaign for the team, finishing with just nine wins.
Fast-forward a couple seasons, both winning ones for the program, Bennett made the decision to move his team into the toughest league in the Southern Tier… the same one ruled by Olean and the master of head coaches, Anastasia. I had gotten to know him better by then, and remember him telling me about that decision & what a good one it was for his program in order to get better. He believed in the immense potential of an 8th grader who started on his varsity squad named Lucus Brown. I didn’t tell him at the time, but I thought his expectations were a bit too lofty. It’s a whole new world up there, I thought, and reality is going to hit and hit hard. That first season in CCAA I West was Brown's freshman season and a difficult campaign for every team in WNY, as it was the Covid-shortened year that excluded spectators and required masks. The team went just 7–8 that year and finished fifth in league play.
Enter 2022, the season Salamanca Basketball became a household name in the area. Bennett was now in his sixth year as head coach, and his young standout was ready to breakout. That move into the tough league and the lumps they took in their inaugural season there, proved to pay huge dividends when the Warriors won not only a sectional title, but entertained the Sports Arena at Buff State with a thrilling regional victory to earn the first trip to Glens Falls in school history.
Bennett and Salamanca entered 2023 more motivated than ever with the success in 2022 and eyed a return trip to the promised land, despite being moved up an entire classification, no longer a Class C team. They won 20 games and went undefeated in league play to earn the title. The team returned to the Section VI Finals, this time in Class B2. Salamanca was upset in the championship game and left with the bitter taste of defeat in their mouth, losing to a tough Fredonia team they had taken care of twice earlier that year.
Once again competing in Class B2 for the 2024 Season, but now with just one remaining starter that played on the state run two seasons prior, the end goal remained the same coming in - Glens Falls! However, the strong league schedule was no longer enough for Bennett’s program. They wanted to play anybody they could, and signed up for some tough nonleague games.
Coming off of a historical run to the Far West Regional in football, several of the key pieces hadn’t even thought about hoops yet when the season started in December. I was on hand for Salamanca's first game this year against Cheektowaga. Boy did the late football season show against a talented Class A1 team. After getting handled for four quarters and forgetting how to play defense altogether, I left saying that’s the worst Salamanca team I’ve watched in three years. I even expressed that opinion to Bennett the next time I spoke to him. He agreed. However, unlike myself, it didn’t change his opinion of his own group at all. He still had full faith in his team's ability to achieve the goals ahead and said as much.
The next opponent on the schedule was eventual Class A1 Champion, Williamsville South, a team I had just watched the night prior. The Warriors were in big trouble, I thought, and decided against going to the game I had initially planned on making the trip for. Later that evening, I retweeted the Salamanca team account - a 56-38 victory over the Billies.
I was sure to be on hand for their next game, a trip to Niagara County's Class AA Niagara Wheatfield, who was fresh off a win over Lockport. Behind a 32-point performance from Lucus Brown and blistering team defense, they headed home with a 15-point victory. The next time they took the floor was a 31-point win against Class AA Sweet Home.
The Warriors had quickly restored my confidence and were now an easy choice to rank second among small schools behind reigning state champion Randolph - a team they'd face in early February. After earning a hard-fought comeback victory in the game that stole the show at the 2024 Centercourt Classic, Salamanca took the top spot amongst small schools in the area.
After finishing the regular season 15-5 and earning a second straight league championship in the division I thought they were crazy to join, Salamanca was the top seed in Class B2 and an overwhelming favorite to win the bracket. Instead, news came down just before the playoffs that an opt out by Buffalo Arts would force Salamanca to move up into Class B1, a bracket viewed as the most competitive, and one they had done little scout.
To make things more interesting, after the seedings came out, they would have to host Fredonia in a quarterfinal. The Hillbillies remember, were the team that dashed their hopes last season and had caught fire late in the season this year, knocking Salamanca off in their second league meeting.
Playing their best basketball of the season, and seemingly unfazed by a bump in classification on short notice, Salamanca marched through the local competition and won every Section VI playoff game by double figures. That list included Fredonia in the quarterfinal, N-O co-league champions Akron & Newfane, and Falconer in the regional qualifier game - all teams that would finish among the Top 10 WNY Small Schools at season's end.
The final hurdle for a return to Glens Falls in a higher classification was Avon, the team they had beaten in the regional two years earlier, ranked in the top five well ahead of Salamanca in NYS Class B for the second half of the season. Before a raucous crowd full of fans from both teams, Salamanca punched their ticket again.
Bennett will be the first to tell you that he's surrounded himself with great basketball minds and will incorporate anything he sees another team have success with for his own benefit. He speaks with ultimate respect for the abilities of the other coaches in his league, his rivals, and his mentors. He's assembled an outstanding staff of assistant coaches, including the Hall of Famer he was working under when I met him. And while you can see elements from all the greats he’s learned from, Salamanca basketball is a team with its own unique identity, and already one others will try to emulate.
Bennett is one of the rare ones that goes far above, and beyond to create an experience within his program that bonds young men together for life both on & off the court, while teaching the game. His teams play with such a fierce competitiveness, pride, and unity that most programs don’t commit to the consistent hard work to attain.
While every team has players that deal with loss and hardships, I want you to trust me as an audience...what some of the young men at Salamanca have collectively overcome together is remarkable. Also, remarkable is the class that those young men conduct themselves with, along with the chemistry and cohesion they have built together and showed as a team all season.
Salamanca's 2024 accomplishments include six victories over five other sectional champions (South by 18, Olean twice by 15 & 14, Falconer by 10, Randolph, & Avon) wins over eight state-ranked teams across four classifications, and a second straight league championship. They are the undisputed #1 small school in WNY and one of three teams to advance to the NYS Final Four.
They did all of this with one player placing among the Centercourt Top 60, a tremendous staff & community, a relentless team that truly played together & for each other, and a head coach who has always seen the best in his program and his players - even when others did not.
Salamanca's Adam Bennett is a most deserving Centercourt Coach of the Year for the 2024 season.
-centercourt
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