NORTON SHORES – Trent Benedict’s dad – who is also his coach – teased his son a little bit after the first game of the season, when Trent scored a three-goal hat trick.
“He always shoots well in practice, but that doesn’t always equate to games,” Coach Chris Benedict said.
Trent smiles when he’s reminded of that comment, because he knows what it was all about, and he knows his dad was right.
“I was pretty good at picking the corners in practice, but not so much in games,” Trent said. “Normally I would just shoot it and hope it went in.
“I’ve been doing a lot better at picking up my head now before I shoot. I used to just put it on net as fast as I could, but now I try to pick an open spot. I look up and see the net before I shoot at it.”
[1]Keeping his head up before he shoots has apparently made a world of difference for Benedict.
He was already a big scorer for the Mona Shores hockey team, netting 17 goals as a freshman two years ago and 20 goals last season.
But this season Benedict has been off the charts, closing in on those previous totals after only seven games.
Benedict, a junior forward, turned heads statewide in recent weeks by scoring three goals in each of the Sailor’s first three games.
That’s right – three hat tricks in three games.
He found the net three times in Mona Shores’ 8-0 victory over Reeths-Puffer in the season opener.
He scored three more times in the Sailors’ 9-1 win over Caledonia, then three more times in their 9-1 win over Grand Haven.
Benedict added two goals in Mona Shores’ next game, a 3-0 win over Forest Hills Central, and one in the Sailors’ 6-5 victory overtime victory over Byron Center.
He scored another on Saturday in the Sailors’ 4-3 come-from-behind win over Escanaba, bringing his season total to 13 goals (with 11 assists) in just seven games, with 17 games remaining on the regular season schedule.
[2]That kind a scoring spree is something worth talking about, but Benedict is not really much of a talker, at least when the topic turns to his accomplishments.
“I had some puck luck, I guess,” he said, when asked about the hat tricks.
He’s a little more talkative when you ask him if he enjoys beating and embarrassing opposing goalies.
“That’s my favorite thing,” Trent said with a grin. “I love it. I tell them how bad they are sometimes.”
His dad said Trent’s modesty comes from self-awareness. While his son has been playing hockey since he was very small, he was not one of those naturally-gifted goal scorers who dominated at the youth levels, and he remembers where he came from, the coach said.
“He doesn’t take it for granted,” Coach Benedict said. “Growing up he wasn’t a big scorer. He didn’t dominate all the way up like other kids do. Trent really wasn’t that player. He was more of a grinder-style guy who did what he could to help the team. The work that he’s put in has helped him develop into the offensive threat that he’s become. He knows he had to work hard to get where he’s at.
“It’s been a lot of fun to watch him play and develop from the kid he used to be.”
The coach admits that three hat tricks in three games is a bit much to expect from any player, no matter how hard they’ve worked.
“I knew he would probably have a little more of a productive season this year, and we were going to rely on him and some other guys to pick up the offensive output, but I certainly didn’t expect three hat tricks in three games,” the coach said. “I guess his confidence was just very high after that first game, and it kept building.”
[3]At the start of his freshman season, Benedict was playing in the AAA junior Fox Motors program in Grand Rapids, and could have continued on that path, which is the traditional route for talented young players to get noticed by college programs.
Then Chris Benedict, who had been an assistant coach at Mona Shores, became the head coach, and Trent announced that he was going to stick close to home to play for his school and his dad.
That made Chris Benedict pretty happy. He had been trying to figure out how he was going to coach Mona Shores and watch his son play on an elite travel team, and suddenly that was no longer a concern.
“He came and said ‘Dad I think I’m going to play high school,’ and I said, ‘I’m not going to disagree with you,’ but I wanted to know why,” said Coach Benedict, who played hockey at Mona Shores himself before graduating in 1999. “He said it was just the atmosphere of the high school game, and he talks all the time about how it was the best decision he’s ever made. He’s really doing well right now, and he’s showcasing himself in a way that people are noticing.”
The Benedicts have encountered a lot of success in their time at Mona Shores. After several so-so seasons, the Sailors have quickly developed into one of the better teams around.
They went 18-8 in 2019-20, when Trent was a freshman, and won the O-K Fisher Conference championship. They went 14-3-1 last season, won the O-K Baum Conference championship and advanced all the way to the regional finals in the state tournament, before losing 3-2 to Byron Center.
“We weren’t prepared to play Byon Center last year,” Trent said. “Losing that was not fun at all. We made a couple of mistakes and they just capitalized. It was not a good feeling.”
This year the Sailors are off to a 6-1 start, and Trent thinks his team has the talent and chemistry to have even more success and push for a state title.
Other top scorers for the Sailors so far include Jake Nanna (6 goals, 7 assists), Landon Taylor (5 goals, 4 assists), Zac Liebrandt (4 goals, 4 assists) and Ty Langlois (4 goals, 10 assists).
“We have to put in the work for that to happen, but it’s definitely a possibility,” Trent said about playing for a state title. “It’s definitely a goal.”
[4]