Benezra Is a Basketball Guru With No Visible Means of Support

Who is Dave Benezra and what does he want?

Those who have lost players to Benezra wonder.

“I never have figured out what Dave’s agenda is,� Coach Jim McClune of Playa del Rey St. Bernard said. “He’s not really an educator. He’s not into teaching. I don’t believe he has a degree. I don’t know what he does for a living, other than coach these kids (in a summer league).�

The grip that summer league coaches have over their players is a reality high school coaches have come to accept.

“It breaks down to loyalty to the schools and (summer) coaches,� Morningside’s Carl Franklin said.

Summer usually wins.

Because of blackout periods for recruiting during the high school season, the action has moved to the summer, when recruiters can lure talent without restriction on an all-star circuit that includes high-visibility tournaments such the Las Vegas Invitational.

Benezra founded his Rockfish summer team in 1984. Scott Williams of the Chicago Bulls was a Rockfish. So were Sean Rooks of Arizona and now the Dallas Mavericks, and Duane Cooper of USC and now the Lakers.

Thirty-eight Rockfish players have received Division I scholarships.

Benezra grew up in West Los Angeles, attended University High and various local colleges but never got his degree. He was an assistant coach under McClune at St. Bernard in the 1970s.

Benezra said he was forced to leave college in 1982 to take over the family’s dry-cleaning business when his father became ill. The family lost the business in 1985, and Benezra has been hustling to make a living since.

He does some free-lance work for basketball trade publications and has worked part-time for an advertising agency. He has also filed hospital records.

Currently unemployed, Benezra dismisses those who would question his motives with his kids.

“I didn’t even ask the families to reimburse me for the long-distance calls,� he said.

Benezra said the parents must pay for expenses for all recruiting trips. Benezra is so broke, he said, that his Rockfish assistant, Mark Mayemura, lent him the money to make one trip.

Changing NCAA rules have made the prep school alternative an attractive route to college. Beginning in 1995, a sliding scale takes effect that will, for example, require a student with a 2.0 grade-point average to score 900 on his Scholastic Aptitude Test for college admittance, compared to the 700 now required. A 2.5 GPA will require an SAT score of 850, and so on.

Given the financial beating public schools are taking in Los Angeles, Benezra believes he’s doing the players a service.

But high school coaches talk about loyalty.

Franklin, who has never met Benezra, said Keenan Jourdon never told him he was leaving Morningside for a New Hampshire prep school.

“I think it was discourteous for him not to say goodby, in his case,� Franklin said. “Just the formality, ‘Hey, I’m not going to be with you.’ I don’t know if the coach told him not to say it, but it didn’t happen.�

Jourdon said he was sorry the way things ended.

“Sometimes you have to take a chance on something that might be better for you in the end,� Jourdon said. “I have nothing bad to say about Morningside and Coach Franklin. I love Coach Franklin. I thank him for letting me play varsity. But everybody thought this was a good thing for me to do.�

McClune and Barry Harper never got along well when Harper, now at a Virginia prep school, was at St. Bernard.

“Barry was not a real team player in our program,� McClune said. “He was not a good student. He was not a motivated kid.�

Still, McClune felt jilted by Harper’s hasty departure.

Harper said he was afraid to tell McClune for fear that if he was not accepted at Blue Ridge, McClune might have held a grudge against him that season.

“I guess he had no idea it was going to happen,� Harper said. “But he didn’t show me the effort of trying to get me help, or try to get my academics better. A lot of coaches get caught up with how successful they’re going to be on the court. I was going to be his main player that following year (1991-92). I can understand his frustration. I think he should understand that, academically, I was just not surviving at all. I’m surviving now.�

Benezra said he holds no malice toward McClune--that, in fact, he once talked Harper out of quitting the team.

Benezra said there are rumors he is receiving a commission for each player he places in a prep school.

Harper and Jourdon say they were not coerced by Benezra.

“It wasn’t Benezra trying to take me away from Bernard’s,� Harper said. “It was really my choice. Dave was just an informant. He told me what my options were.�

Jourdon said he was wary of so-called flesh peddlers.

“I think about that a lot,� he said. “But I trust Dave. He’s taught me a lot. He’s never asked me for anything. Just to play ball for him. Just to play hard.�

Dave Uyeshima, the Hamilton High coach, wonders what’s next.

“Right now I’m seeing junior high kids being recruited by high schools,� he said. “Probably it eventually gets down to the elementary schools.�

Barry Harper and Keenan Jourdon would argue that Benezra and basketball have helped them take steps toward the promised land.

“Why should we be deprived of a better education?� Jourdon asked. “Even if takes basketball talent to get a better education, let’s do it. That little round ball brought me a long way. I owe a lot to that little round ball.�