Tom Benson enters his second season on the bench with the Royals. Benson comes to Bethel with a well-rounded hockey background, both as a player and coach. A former standout player at the University of North Dakota, Benson has most recently been the Head Hockey Coach at Spring Lake Park high school for 22 years (1993 to 2015). A Physical Education teacher in the SLP school district, Benson was presented with the 2014-15 John Mariucci Award as the Minnesota State Coach of the year after leading the Panthers to a Minnesota State Hockey Tournament appearance. Coach Benson finished his high school coaching career at SLP with a record of 302-254-11.
Before his coaching career at Spring Lake Park, Benson was an assistant coach at Minnesota State University-Mankato from 1990 to 1993, where he helped guide the Mavericks to the NCAA Division III national championship runner-up during the 1990-91 season.
Benson graduated with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Physical Education from UND. He was a member of the men’s hockey team from 1984-1988. During that time, he was Academic All-Conference all four years, served as team captain during the 1987-88 season and was a defenseman on the 1986-87 NCAA Div. I National Championship team. Prior to attending North Dakota, Benson a native of Victoria, BC, was an all-star defenseman in the British Columbia Junior hockey league for 3 season for the Kelowna & Summerland Buckaroos.
