The superintendent of Portland Public Schools made her recommendations for the future of the high schools in the city on Monday.
And the plan calls for significant changes at Benson, a trades and tech magnet school throughout its 93 years on Northeast 12th and Hoyt. It also calls for the school to lose its athletic teams.
For the tapestry that is Oregon high school track it means stripping away an essential component. The diversity, and excellence, of the program led by Leon McKenzie has long filled a void in the state. Benson, for the past 20 years, has been Oregon’s sprinting powerhouse thanks to the hard work and expertise of McKenzie, John Mays, Ronnye Harrison, and others.
The Benson girls won the state’s large school championship from 1999 to 2004 with a bubble of talent the state has never witnessed before. Deborah Jones, Brandi-Probasco Canda, Sara Callier and Kayla Smith all moved on to Division I college scholarships. It’s sad that those opportunities won’t exist any more, and that the brand created by McKenzie will be extinguished by his retirement.
It has always been a challenge at Benson. Sure, there are athletes in the hallways. But the school doesn’t even have a 400-meter track on the premises. McKenzie made the most of a bad facility.
In recent years, Benson was affected more than some others by the No Child Left Behind policy, which created a lottery system for students trying to get into the school. It became harder for the athletes that wanted to transfer in, for McKenzie’s coaching and mentoring, to be sure of getting into the school.
Here is a look at Benson’s legacy for moving the stick around the track: The Benson boys hold three of the top 10 Class 6A times in the 4×100, and four of the top six times in the 4×400 (including the record 3:16.82). On the girls side, three of the top six 4×100 relays (including the record 46.53) and three of the top six 4×400 relays (including the record 3:49.97) are held by Benson.
The end of sports at Benson certainly isn’t all about track. This is also a school with a rich basketball tradition (A.C. Green and Richard Washington) and the last high school in Portland to win a state football title (1988).
When I spoke with McKenzie recently, he sounded as if he was resigned to the fact that some sort of change was coming. It has to be a sad day for him. He built, and sustained, one of the best track programs in the Northwest. His teams won 11 state championships. McKenzie has talked about retiring for several years. Maybe this is the spring he leaves, or perhaps his athletes talk him to staying another year.
Either way, it will be up to someone else to either fight to keep it alive, or keep the flame that it may one day return. Benson has endured significant changes before (it was once all-male). It stands to reason that this new proposal, even if it passes, won’t mark the end of Benson Tech sports forever.
The Oregonian’s Jerry Ulmer filed this story on the reaction at Benson, including that of McKenzie and basketball coach Troy Berry.
Under the plan, Marshall High School would lose its sports teams, too.
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