Marc Narducci: Delran baseball coach broadens view

The intensity remains, but the perspective has clearly changed. Delran baseball coach Rich Bender is in his 34th season in a program he started in 1976, setting a high standard few have been able to emulate.

Once again, it's late May and Delran is battling for a major championship. The Bears (19-5), the top seed in Central Jersey Group 2, will host Governor Livingston today in a sectional semifinal.

Bender, 58, won't go as far as subscribing to the theory that he has mellowed, but sees things in a different light.

How can't he when he lay in a hospital during the fall - his family called after he collapsed - with his blood pressure going down to 60 over 30?

Bender's odyssey began in the summer, when, during a routine colonoscopy, it was discovered that he had an irregular heartbeat.

He was given medication, and all seemed fine. But in October, while preparing to participate in a fund-raising walk for Alzheimer's disease, Bender began feeling woozy.

His wife, Suzanne, took him to a hospital, and that's when the real drama began.

Bender said the doctors worked on him for eight hours to get his heartbeat back to normal.

"It was a combination of things, and the medication was slowing my heart," he said after a recent win at Bordentown.

Bender would later undergo a four-hour procedure that he described as surgery to correct his heart problem. The operation worked, but Bender remained in intensive care for seven days.

After being released, Bender returned to work as a history teacher at Delran in less than three weeks.

Since then, the changes have been dramatic in a positive way.

The 5-foot-10 Bender said he had lost more than 60 pounds and now weighed 208. He power-walks daily at 4:45 a.m. His diet has changed, and so has his appreciation of life.

Bender still gets emotional when talking about the situation, but says it's cathartic.

"Oh, yes, there is a much greater appreciation," he said. "Let me put it this way: The relationships mean more to me now."

In his younger days, Bender would go to almost any measure within the rules to win.

"I was very intense," he said. "You learn there is a lot more to coaching than thinking you know baseball."

That is not to suggest that his insatiable desire to win has waned. Bender is still a fierce competitor, but is one who realizes there is more to life than wins and losses on a baseball field.

"I am still intense, practicing three and a half to four hours some days," Bender said.

Assistant coach Tim D'Angelo said that people who see that intensity often get the wrong impression of Bender.

"He is the most misunderstood coach around," D'Angelo said. "People see him as this intense guy, but they don't see the other side of him - when he goes to the mound, tells a joke to try to get the pitcher relaxed."

With Bender, some things haven't changed, such as his preseason regimen, which includes having the players come in for 4:45 a.m. practices, followed by afternoon workouts, for much of the first two weeks.

"He has definitely gotten a little mellow over the four years, but he definitely still puts us through those tough practices," said senior Jim Goodwin, the winning pitcher in Friday's 7-6 playoff victory over Manasquan. "Some of those Saturday practices can really be long."

Goodwin is one of 17 players whose fathers also have been coached by Bender.

Goodwin's father, Jim Sr., who graduated from Delran in 1982, said Bender was now more patient but was still using the same principles that had made him such a consistent winner all these years.

"He still plays fundamental baseball - wants the kids to learn to throw, catch, and hit the ball, and basic fundamentals of the game - and that translates to winning," the elder Goodwin said.

The winning part is something that always has to be mentioned in any story regarding Bender. His career record at Delran is 521-267. The Bears have won nine division titles and five South Jersey championships, and were state champions in 1983 and 1995.

Bender will retire as a teacher in June, but said that he would like to return as head baseball coach and that the administration had told him it would recommend that he come back.

With three grown children and four grandchildren, he has quite a bit planned.

"It's time to see them," Bender said. "There is so much I want to do."

Bender's new appreciation of life is obvious. Success isn't judged just by the win column. During those morning power walks, Bender often reflects on true success and how good he feels, and is able to enjoy the simple things in life that we often take for granted.