In the beginning a basketball life
Ben Gonzalez, a coach of the Florida Atlantic basketball team, became the director of operations in 2018. Previously Ben earned his bachelor’s, and master’s, degree at the University of Florida. While he was there Ben became the student manager and graduate assistant for the Florida Gators men’s basketball team. During his tenure at UF the Gators went 69-37, appeared in two March Madness tournaments, and even made it to the Elite Eight. This is Ben’s story, a basketball life.
God’s hand has been on Ben’s life through the process of getting to where he is today. It is apparent in the fact that he was blessed by God to not have a very tumultuous road. When asked about how he got the position Ben simply replied, “I wouldn’t say there have been many big obstacles, I’ve just been very blessed to have a lot of cool people come into my life at the right time.”
Before FAU… a basketball life
Before Ben made his way to Florida Atlantic University he started out as a manager for basketball with the Florida Gators. Obviously, this position is hard to get into since a lot of people would love to work in sports at Florida. By God’s grace he was picked for the position which began his journey to becoming an NCAA coach.
Ben is not only concerned with his career. Ben also takes his faith very seriously and gives credit to God for how he got to where he is today. When asked about what correlates his job to faith Ben simply stated, “I think the biggest thing is just serving people, not only do I serve our coaching staff every day, but I get to serve our players as well, you know Jesus called us to serve others. That’s one of the things he told his disciples if you want to be the greatest you need to serve others.”
What the job entails a basketball life
A lot of his job is making sure athletes and coaches are taken care of and are in the best position possible to succeed on the court. Ben said, “My goal is to take care of all the logistics so our staff and players can focus on coaching and playing basketball”.
Ben came to Christ at a very young age. He grew up in church and was raised by Christian parents. At around age 5 Ben approached his mother and said he wanted to come to Christ. Ben later in life, around seventh grade decided he wanted to pursue God more and had that desire during a youth service at his church. There he rededicated his life to Christ and began reading his Bible every day. From there Ben has followed Christ closely and as we all do, he’s had his ups and downs, but is every day being renewed and transformed by God’s grace.
Sports fan for life a basketball life
Ben has been an avid Sports follower his whole life. Ben talked about this saying, “Instead of watching cartoons in the morning, I would watch ESPN before going to school.” Football, basketball, baseball, and hockey, you name it he always really enjoyed it. When he was a senior in high school, he knew he wanted to work in sports. “In college I volunteered with our University Athletic Association’s marketing department”. He learned a lot and got to know a lot of cool people.
In light of that he became a manager at Florida, like he said he got blessed with good timing. When he first started pursuing a manager position Coach Billy Donovan left for the Oklahoma City Thunder, and the camps he was going to work in hopes of getting the position got canceled. Then he thought to himself I lost all my connections and have no way of getting the position he wanted. Then Coach White got hired.
How it all began… a basketball life
After the hiring, he was able to get in touch with the new director of operations, Kyle Church. Long story short Kyle told him hey if you want to come swing by, (Ben was living at home in Tampa at the time this was summer). Kyle said come and we can meet and talk in my office. “And I was like alright cool!” So, he came up on a Monday and he went into his office, sat down met with him, and now ironically, they are both here at FAU sharing an office five years later.
During his time coaching for UF and FAU Ben has had some crazy games in the past. Two of those times came to mind: Ben reminisces, “There are two games that come to mind here. One is the game that got us to the Elite Eight while at Florida back in 2017. We were playing against Wisconsin in Madison Square Garden. It was a back and forth game that we controlled for most of the second half. Wisconsin hit a crazy buzzer beater to send the game to OT.
His favorite game a basketball life
We started OT off pretty poorly and had to come back. Canyon Barry comes up with a huge chase down block to keep the game close. Then we are down by two with four seconds left and the length of the court to go. Chris Chiozza gets the inbound pass and shoots a floater from three-point range and the shot went in. It was an amazing crazy moment! Huge shot in a huge game in the Mecca of basketball.”
“Another really cool moment came when we beat UCF this past year in the second game of the season here at FAU. We started that game down 22-4 and come all the way back and won on a buzzer beater by one point. It was a crazy game and a total rush and change of emotions from oh man this could be a really long season to complete euphoria. The resilience and belief our players had to come back in a game like that was really impressive and showed their great character. I was so proud of them for how they fought back in that game and never gave up.”
Family man
When it comes to people that helped him in his life there’s more than just one for Ben. While some of us have a mentor or role model in life often it’s several people that God uses to bring glory to him. Ben told me some people that influence him in his life, “Obviously my parents played a big role, my grandpa on my mom’s side we called him Opa, I learned a lot about work ethic from him. One of my youth pastors, was a big influence his name was David Cox just because of the way that he loved people. One of my coaches who was my track coach: Coach Bishop he was the most positive coach I’ve ever had in my life.”
Most Christians also have favorite scripture verses that speak to us Ben’s is: Psalm 73:26 My flesh and heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. It’s saying that we are all going to fail at some point. Whether it’s sports, or a job, or just life in general. In the end though God will never fail, and He is greater than anything we think say or do. The reason why this verse is so powerful for Ben is because, “Even though my heart or my flesh may fail and God is the strength of my heart and portion forever, I just found that verse to be very encouraging.”
Going abroad
Another significant event for Ben was when he went on a life changing mission’s trip with a group called Managers on a Mission. Ben went to Liberia, Africa with three different managers with schools from across the country.
So much went into the trip Ben said, “Overcoming a lot of fear, in different aspects; leading bible studies, leading devotions, and then leading different drills in different sports that I didn’t know much about.” He also had fears stemming from the Ebola outbreak in Liberia from two years prior to his trip.
He thought about the possibilities of him getting sick over there and overcame all of that by trusting God to take care of him. That’s an experience he’ll never forget, he learned so much about getting out of your comfort zone, serving and loving others, as well about the culture while he was there.
International sports camp
Another awesome thing Ben did in Liberia was run a three-week sports camp while on the trip. He loved hearing the stories of the different kids. He also loved learning the history of Liberia and all the wars in the 2000s, he also loved sharing Christ with the kids.
Near the end of the interview I asked Ben where he wants to be in the future, here’s what he said, “I would love to be an assistant coach at the Division I level in the next 5-10 years. What I don’t want to be is an assistant coach and hate my job, that’s somewhere I don’t want to be. I want to be an assistant head coach in a good situation surrounded by and working for good people.”
What’s most ironic about Ben is his immediate family doesn’t have a passion for sports, but he loves it! Ben currently coaches the FAU men’s basketball team and they are coming off FAU’s first winning season in eight years. They’ll look to improve this year and try to go farther in the Conference USA Tournament and build a winning team that will try to make an appearance in the NCAA Tournament.
All in all, Ben’s story is one of humility and a picture of God’s grace and how He can move in our lives to make things happen. I hope you enjoyed his story and look forward to more ahead.
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