BELFAST – Scott Benzie, who has nearly two decades of basketball coaching experience at the high school and college levels, has been named the new boys varsity basketball coach at Belfast Area High School.

Benzie, whose nomination was approved Thursday night by the SAD 34 board of directors, replaces Belfast athletic administrator Terry Kenniston, who stepped down from the basketball post after three seasons.

“The opportunity was there,” said Benzie. “I’ve been working at Belfast for a year, and Terry was getting done and asked me if I was interested. I thought about it, and it seemed to be a good fit.”

Benzie, a 51-year-old Lincolnville resident, was a baseball and football standout at Orono High School who went on to play baseball at the University of Maine.

After graduating from Maine in 1978 Benzie began his basketball coaching career with two years as the girls varsity coach at Machias and 10 years in the same post at Rockland.

He then returned to the University of Maine in 1991 to attend graduate school and joined the staff of Black Bears’ men’s basketball coach Rudy Keeling.

Benzie was a volunteer assistant for two seasons before being promoted to a full-time role as recruiting coordinator and assisting in scouting and game preparation.

He remained in that post until after the 1996 season, when Keeling left Maine to become the head coach at Northeastern.

Since then Benzie’s coaching resume has included a stints as men’s basketball coach at Unity College and varsity baseball coach at Camden Hills of Rockport, and he’s also been active as a baseball umpire and soccer official and for the last seven years as a basketball official.

“I knew Scott from back in my days of coaching basketball,” said Belfast principal Butch Arthers, who was the boys varsity coach at Marshwood of South Berwick from the 1984-85 season through the 1989-90 campaign. “He was always highly regarded as a basketball coach.”

Belfast finished last winter with a 10-8 regular-season record in the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference Class B ranks and earned a berth in the Eastern Maine Class B playoffs, where the Lions fell in the preliminary round to Mattanawcook Academy of Lincoln.

Benzie hopes to use the success recent Belfast teams have had in other sports as a catalyst for success on the basketball court.

“Belfast has a strong football tradition, and the wrestling team is doing great,” said Benzie. “Athletics here are in pretty good shape, and if an athlete has had success in other sports, then he knows about the work it takes to get there.”

Benzie plans to draw upon both his college and high school coaching experiences in his return to the bench, beginning with a summer program that will include some games but stress individual skill development.

“I’ve always looked at games as test time,” said Benzie, who met with his players for the first time Friday. “What we need right now is some class time.”

Benzie is likely to utilize a motion offense at Belfast, but will learn more about the skills of the players in the program before formulating definitive game plans.

“I’ve run everything from a half-court zone to full-court pressure for 32 minutes,” said Benzie. “In college you can recruit to your style, but it’s different in high school. In high school you’ve just got to try to put kids in the best position to be successful.”

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