Cummings, a coaching legend for Ritzville’s swim teams

The coming weeks will be devoted to one of this city’s sport’s heroes, coaching legend Benner T. Cummings. Benner was a man who forged an indelible mark in Ritzville history by creating swim champions out of small town sons of farmers and merchants. In only 10 weeks every summer for 14 years, Benner trained a handful of young men to compete against and defeat swimmers who trained year around.

At age 85, Benner still possesses the spark that ignited our community 60 years ago. We, who had the privilege to learn and train under this coaching legend, are forever grateful. Thank you, Coach, for your most significant contribution to the fiber of each of us. — M. M. Athey & The Ritzville Swim Club­

Part one: The Summers of 1951 and 1952

By Miles Athey, Special to The Journal

As a young boy of nine in the summer of 1951 I was treated to my first swim competition. On July 29, the local Jr. Chamber of Commerce hosted the second official swim tournament in Ritzville. Youngsters from six to 15 years old were invited to participate. The lifeguard for that summer was Jerry Ashton who served as the official starter for the meet. All swimmer times and placings for the meet were recorded by Jack Schaefer, the chairman of the event. Virgil Meyer was the head judge.

Among the older group of boys, ages 11 to 15, who placed in this tournament were Gary Liming, Dale Werner, Grayson Hand, Vern Kiehn, Cleo Stehr, Dan Schwisow, John Gaskill, Tom Edwards and Glen Tompkins. In the younger group, ages 6 to 10, Dick Hand, Jim Hirning, Billy Ohland and Miles Athey. The girls included Vivian Allert, Nancy Jackson, Sharon Nauditt and Sara Lou Wise.

Both Schwisow and Allert garnered three firsts.

The underlying importance of this particular swim competition would be seen the following year when a very special Scotsman joined the Ritzville community. He was a 25-year-old graduate student at Washington State College majoring in Speech & Hearing Science and Captain of the WSC swim team. Benner T. Cummings was hired by the city in 1952 as our swim pool manager and lifeguard. This was the beginning of a very special time in Ritzville sports history.

Benner was outgoing and personable. His smile was engaging and his attitude was always positive and uplifting. When Benner asked you to do something you were happy to do it, without hesitation. These qualities were, in large measure, the foundation for his incredibly successful coaching career.

After sizing up the handful of local swimmers cited previously, Benner asked if they would be interested in forming a competitive swim team. He warned them that it would be one of the hardest things they would ever do. Training would be demanding but he promised them that they would be in the best physical condition of their lives. And, as a bonus, they may even win a few ribbons and trophies. He did not lie.

Whether Benner studied psychology in college matters not. He was the consummate psychologist wrapped in a highly disciplined and skilled athletic coaching body. He could schmooze anyone into performing to their highest level of athletic achievement and consistently break their personal bests in every successive swim competition. As one of his younger and less gifted charges, I can personally attest to the effectiveness of Coach Cummings’ pep talks. On a couple of occasions, prior to a race, when I felt already mentally defeated, Benner would put his arm across my quivering shoulder and psyche me up.

“Son, I can read it in their eyes. They’re scared to death of you. Give them some more of that confident swagger, look them in the eyes, smile, step up onto the blocks, then kick their butts. Go out easy, stay one body length behind the leader, then, on the last lap, kick ‘er into overdrive. Don’t leave anything in the tank. You’re in better shape than any of them so step up and take the gold.”

A few times I took first. Most times I took second or third. But after every race, Benner made me feel as if I’d won. And, with every competition, I achieved another personal best. With every race came a faster time. As my father once said about Benner’s positive reinforcement, “he puts the fire in your bellies.”

Most folks around here are likely unaware that Benner was not only a great swim coach but an equally great running coach. After nearly 40 years of high school coaching in southern California, Benner had trained hundreds of track and cross country stars.

Dean Karnazes is just one example. Karnazes is known as the ultra-marathon man because in 2006, at age 44, he ran 50 marathons in 50 different states in 50 consecutive days. In a magazine interview after this amazing fete, Karnazes said, “in 1976, as a high school freshman in San Clemente, I joined the cross country team under Benner Cummings. Cummings’ running theory and motto was, ‘it is about finding your inner peace, and so is a life well-lived! Run with your heart!’”

That philosophy held true in swimming too. Benner pleaded with his swimmers to “swim with your heart. The will to win comes from your heart.”

That first Ritzville swim team formed under Benner T. Cummings in 1952 was comprised of Dan Schwisow, Grayson Hand, Vern Kiehn, Dale Werner, Arnold Moeller, Gordon Gering, Ross Pfann and a teammate of Benner’s at WSC, Bill Demastus.

Their first swim meet was the Big Bend District Boy Scout Swim Meet on July 27, 1952, against only one other team, Boy Scout Troop 71 of Lind. Representing Lind were Larry Ellis, Jerry Compton, James Weeks, Gilbert Kanzler and Charles Jungblom. Ritzville dominated the “unlimited class races” of the older swimmers, while Lind dominated the “limited class races” for the younger swimmers.

Two weeks later, Schwisow, Hand, Kiehn and Moeller combined with Lind’s Ellis and Compton to take second place in the Inland Empire Boy Scouts annual swim meet at Comstock Pool in Spokane. The team captured five firsts, three seconds and set four new meet records.

The last swim meet of 1952 for the Ritzville Swim Team was also at Comstock Pool on August 20 and 21. It was the Inland Empire AAU Swimming Championships. The Ritzville Lions Club sponsored the swim team for competition against thirteen others teams from the states of Washington and Idaho.

I was privileged, as one of the junior swimmers, to travel with the team although I did not compete. It was very exciting to watch the youthful and inexperienced swim team of Benner T. Cummings put all of the Pacific Northwest on notice for future summers by capturing enough points to take fourth place.

One of the meet’s highlights was the performance of 13-year-old Vern Kiehn in the 50-yard freestyle. Vern had a false start and failed to hear the gun stopping the race. The officials allowed him a 15 minute rest, then restarted the race. In his second completion of the 50-yard distance he broke the meet record and placed first.

Another highlight for the Ritzville Swim Team was the diving performance of 15-year-old Dan Schwisow who, in his first competitive diving experience, placed fourth out of 16 divers including several from the college ranks.

In his first year in Ritzville, in only nine weeks, Benner T. Cummings had launched a swim team to be reckoned with for many years to come. I was excited about the opportunity I was going to have to be a member of a really good swim team coached by a really good mentor.