Benesh Geared For Success Off Court

Somebody go get Ken Benesh. He’s tinkering in the garage again.

When he’s not playing volleyball for Village Christian High, the junior outside hitter is up to his arms in spark plugs, grease and timing belts.

He recently restored a 1980 Porsche 928, a project that took nine months and a lot of patience.

Benesh bought the car for about $5,000. With help from his parents and grandparents, he spent almost as much for parts and refurbishing.

The work finally paid off last week when he drove the car to school for the first time.

The car has no air conditioning--there’s a problem with the compressor--and the first two gears are a little cranky when he downshifts, but Benesh doesn’t seem to mind.

After all, he has already given the Porsche a completely new exterior, painting it a sleek silver, and he has fixed the timing belt, a time-consuming job that required the removal of the front part of the engine.

“I better not crash it,” Benesh said, chuckling. “And the first speeding ticket I get, the car goes to my dad. He lets me have the car only if I don’t get any tickets.”

Before cars, Benesh’s first love was cross-country mountain bikes. He was one of the top riders in the state for his age group a few years ago, but he suffered a groin injury while riding and stayed off bikes for nearly a year.

He turned to volleyball, a sport his older sister, Errin , excelled in at Village Christian. The 6-foot-4 Benesh quickly became hookedand is now a formidable player on one of the top small-school teams in Southern California.

At the Las Vegas tournament last week, Benesh was an all-tournament selection for the Crusaders, who finished third and are ranked No. 3 in Southern Section Division III.

Said Coach Bill Schnobrich: “When we need a side-out and we have our backs up against the wall, Kenny comes through for us.”

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Highland opposite hitter Luis Delgado, an exchange student from Columbia, has adopted American culture without a flaw.

He was recently caught crooning a song by the Backstreet Boys.

“He’s got a pretty good voice,” said Coach Tom Jones.

Delgado has pretty good ability on the court, too.

The 6-2 left-hander has a decent arm swing and a good vertical jump.

“We lucked into getting him,” Jones said. “He’s a real godsend.”

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La Canada is not having the best season in school history, but the Spartans have hope for the future in Greg Gaudino.

His sister, Kelly, is the school record-holder for career kills, but the 6-5 middle blocker is making a name for himself as a rapidly improving sophomore. La Canada is 8-6, 4-3 in the Rio Hondo League.

“He’s quick, he’s tall and it looks like he’s going to keep growing,” said Coach Kevin Boyke. “Quick, big volleyball players are rare. Usually, you have a player who is tall but goofy. He’s tall and quick.”

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On the strength of its five-game victory over Loyola, Royal (13-1) moved up three spots to No. 4 in the Southern Section Division I poll.

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Boys’ Volleyball Top 10

Rankings of teams in the region

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RK LW School (League) Rec. 1 1 Royal (Marmonte) 14-1 2 2 Highland (Golden) 10-0 3 3 Taft (West Valley) 13-0 4 4 Canyon (Foothill) 9-2 5 5 Alemany (Mission) 12-2 6 6 Chaminade (Mission) 13-2 7 7 Quartz Hill (Golden) 8-2 8 8 Westlake (Marmonte) 13-2 9 9 Village Christian (Alpha) 16-0 10 10 Simi Valley (Marmonte) 10-2

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