In youth football and cheerleading, as in many sports, parents, coaches and volunteers often get into the game for their children. And once the kids age out of the program, the parents follow suit.
Buddy Bennett was not one of those people.
No one can accuse the longtime Plant City Dolphins president of sticking with the program just for his family, because he spent much of his 30 years with the organization without any players hailing from his family tree. He did it, as hundreds of people in the Winter Strawberry Capital of the World will say, for all the right reasons.
“It was strictly for the kids,” field director Eric Lawson says. “He would bend over backwards for them. He had no other reason to be there for so many of those years — he did it because he wanted to.”
Mr. Bennett died Feb. 10 after a battle with cancer.
At the viewing and funeral services, the family estimates that nearly 500 people came out to pay their respects to Mr. Bennett: to thank the man for all that he’s done for their families, and for themselves.
They say that Mr. Bennett had three loves: God, family and football. Although the West Virginia native spent much of his time working with the Dolphins, he also made sure to take care of his own family, his wife, Pam, and daughters Ericka Winslow and Kim Drawdy.
“He was always there for us,” Drawdy says. “He just always made sure that we had everything we ever needed. We were never rich, but he made sure we were very well taken care of with what we needed in life.”
Mr. Bennett loved to travel and made family vacations a high priority. Oftentimes, he’d take the family out of town for a few days twice a year, choosing to visit beaches and mountain towns. This is something that he continued up until this past January, when the family enjoyed Martin Luther King weekend in Biloxi, Mississippi.
He also loved his four grandchildren, three of whom are in the Dolphins program, and made sure that they knew how much he loved them every day.
“He always helped pick my kids up from school and take them to practice,” Drawdy says. “He wasn’t just a here-and-there Papa. He was involved in their sports, their school functions, their everyday life.”
Of course, no story about Mr. Bennett would be complete without the Dolphins.
One could say that making that organization into what it is today has been his life’s work, his greatest passion outside of his faith and family. He got involved with the program 30 years ago, while in his twenties. His shot at leading the organization came 10 years later. It was then that David Brewington, the previous president and Mr. Bennett’s good friend, was looking for someone to fill his shoes upon leaving.
“David’s boys were getting out of it, and he wanted someone he knew he could rely on to take care of the Dolphins,” Drawdy says. “My dad thought it would just be a couple years that he would help do it, and he ended up being president for 20 years.”
Those who have worked with him, either as coaches or board members, say that he was unquestionably the best man for the job.
“Buddy was the heart and soul of the organization,” former coach Richard Kuhlmeyer says. “What I remember most about him is he was a very steady leader. He never got too high or too low. Buddy was always consistent in dealing with any problems that would arise.”
Mr. Bennett was known for always being the first one to arrive and the last to leave. On game days, he’d get to the field at sunrise and stay there until after sunset. The next day, he’d be back at it again to make sure that everything was set up for the kids as best as it could be.
He especially loved seeing the Dolphins make the playoffs, and put in plenty of 12-hour days whenever the United Youth Football League National Championship tournament was in town. In fact, Mr. Bennett was wearing his two national championship rings when he was buried.
Most notable about Mr. Bennett, besides his love for working with kids, was that his dedication to the program wasn’t slowed down by his cancer diagnosis. When he learned that he had colon cancer in 2013, he made the choice to stay with the team and ended up missing just one day.
“You wouldn’t know by looking at him that he was going through what he was, that he was fighting that fight,” Lawson says. “He never wanted anything in return.”
Mr. Bennett never once complained about his treatments, or how sick he was feeling. He wanted to make sure that everything was running as normally as it would if he were cancer-free, and it did.
Plant City residents have many good things to remember Mr. Bennett by, and his impact on the community will ever be forgotten.
“From a personal view, I have lost someone I will always have a great deal of respect for,” Kuhlmeyer says. “However, more importantly, Plant City has lost one of its finest. A man who should be recognized as Citizen of the Year. Who else has given more to this community than Buddy Bennett?”
Survivors include his wife of 36 years, Pam Bennett; two daughters: Ericka Bennett Winslow (Ryan) and Kimberly Morgan Drawdy (Jesse); four grandchildren: Colten, Wyatt, and Kyndell Drawdy, Liam Winslow; one brother, Don Bennett; and three sisters: Pauline Pishner, Jean Halstead, and Patty Jean Barnett.
He was preceded in death by his mother, Hazel Bennett; father-in-law, Gene Chapman; and grandmother, Susie Martin.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Plant City Dolphins, P.O. Box 993, Plant City, FL, 33563, in Buddy’s honor. Online condolences may be made at WellsMemorial.com.
FUTURE PLANS
Because the Plant City Dolphins Board of Directors had already elected its officers for the year, Bennett will still be considered the president of the organization until next year. All decisions will come down to a board vote, as they always have, and a new president will be installed in 2016.
“That was his wish, for everything to continue to operate the way it has,” board member Eric Lawson says. “Everyone’s gonna have to step up and chip in to do the day-to-day operations.”
According to Lawson, the team is working on a way to pay tribute to Bennett on the field. One thing that is set in stone is to honor Bennett this year with a bronze plaque on the team fieldhouse. It will have his picture and a list of his accomplishments with the team. The tribute is an agreement between the Dolphins and the City of Plant City.