Baseball Coaching Staff
Head Coach Paul Benim
Paul Benim enters his sixteenth season as a head coach at Penn State Behrend.
During the past three seasons the blue and white have posted 82 wins while battling the rugged AMCC for a 36-18 conference mark.
In 2006, the Behrend Lions posted the third most wins in school history with 28 and advanced to the ECAC Southern Region Tournament for the fourth time in five years.
In 2005, the blue and white played in the AMCC championship game for the third time in four years, finished with 27 wins, and gained another berth into the ECAC Southern Region Playoffs.
Benim has established the Behrend Lions as one of the best programs in the Mid-Atlantic Region earning regional and national attention. In the thirteen years prior to taking over, the program had won only 24% of its contests. During Benim's tenure the program has earned victories in 60% of its games with nearly every school record being broken. The program has made the conference tournament seven times, won the title in 2003, and finished as the runner's-up four times. Benim, the all-time leader in baseball coaching victories at Behrend, is 288-187-2 during twelve seasons and posts a career head coach mark of 370-224-2.
The 2003 season was one of the best seasons in the history of Behrend baseball. The team won three championships and posted a 33-10 record. For his team's performance Benim was named the AMCC's Coach of the Year for the third time.
The 2002 season marked Behrend’s best season in over forty years of baseball. The Behrend Lions set a school-record with a 35-8 record. In addition, the squad won the AMCC regular-season title, the ECAC Championship, and broke nearly every school record imaginable.
Prior to becoming head baseball coach Benim served Penn State Behrend as the head softball coach for three seasons. He guided the team to 82 wins and three straight postseason appearances and a national ranking. In 1993, Benim led the team to an impressive 29-6 record while capturing the ECAC Championship. In the fall of 1998, this team was recognized as one of the ten best ever at the College.
Benim also served as an assistant baseball coach at Iroquois High School and aided the Braves in winning the ECL title in 1992. He began his career as an assistant women’s basketball coach at Behrend when the team won the school’s first-ever ECAC Championship.
In addition, to running the highly successful Behrend baseball clinics series and summer camps, Benim has worked camps at Bucknell, Clemson, Slippery Rock, and for Ripken Baseball. He also serves on the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional committee and the ECAC Southern Region baseball committee.
Benim earned his bachelor’s degree from Penn State Behrend in business and behavioral sciences and his master’s degree in counseling from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania.
E-mail Head Coach Paul Benim: prb3@psu.edu
Assistant Coach Brian Hirschberg
Brian Hirschberg begins his
second season
as an assistant coach for the Behrend Lions after playing for coach Gene
Depew at Bucknell University.
While at Bucknell Hirschberg was a catcher and played the outfield. As a senior he hit .305 with four home runs and 17 RBIs. In 2003 as a junior he led the team to the Patriot League Title and the NCAA Tournament while leading the Bison with six home runs and 27 RBIs.
Hirschberg was previously an assistant coach at Glen Rock High School where he was an All-State catcher. Hirschberg will coach first base and work with the hitters and position players.
He earned a degree in economics from Bucknell. Hirschberg was a regular member of the Dean's List and was named to the Patriot League Academic Honor Roll for three straight seasons. He is pursuing a Penn State Behrend MBA.
Assistant
Coach Butch Kemling
Butch Kemling
enters his sixth season as a
member of the baseball staff.
In three straight seasons he has guided the Behrend Lions productive offense to produce an average above .300, earn more than 400 hits and knock in more than 200 runs.
In 2006 the blue and white's offense had another solid year collecting 414 hits and posting a .304 average in 46 games.
In 2005, he helped the Behrend Lions hit .323 and knock 427 total hits while scoring 263 runs in 44 games. In 2003, under his leadership the Behrend Lions led NCAA Division III in triples with 40.
Previously he had served as an assistant to Ace Radovich at Edinboro University for six seasons and served as the interim head coach for the Scots in the fall of 2001.
Kemling was the head baseball coach at Northwestern High School for six seasons and then coached the Girard Yellow Jackets during the 1995 season. He also coached the county teams in the city-county all-star games for four consecutive seasons.
Kemling will utilize his knowledge and experiences to guide the team's hitters and work with the outfielders.