Forever Young; Jay Bentz, Dell Rapids PBR

by Kolbe Nelson
July 18, 2011 6:32 PM


51-year old Jay Bentz has been managing Dell Rapids PBR for a long time. So long that if you ask him, he has a hard time remembering when he started.

"I think I started managing Blue Ribbon..." Bentz says while thinking, "Not gonna give you the right time... maybe 1993, 1994, that time frame."

And when he takes a look at some of the players on his team, he realizes he's been playing amateur baseball even longer.

"We've got three Davis boys playing," Bentz says, "Michael, Preston and Sheldon and when they started the team in Dells in 1979 I played with their father so we got a lot of that going on."

All age jokes aside, the skipper/catcher has been a part of a very special run at Dell Rapids PBR.

"We've made it to the state tournament I think the last 25, 26 years in a row," Bentz says, "We've been fortunate enough to win nine state tournaments over the years. It started in 1991, and our last one that we had was in 2000 so we've had a long run of tournaments that we've been a part of."

The amazing thing is that Bentz has pulled off all that success in the pursuit of a noble cause, and what he believes is the real purpose of amateur baseball: A good time.

"We always try to play all our players, you know amateur baseball isn't about sittin on the bench so we lose some games during the year when we've got some of our younger guys playing," Bentz says, "But they've gotta learn. And that's been a big key for us. But the deal is we all love to play baseball, and it's fun to play baseball in the summer and everything else kind of takes care of itself."

And with that love of the game, Bentz will hopefully have more success, and fun, down the road.


Follow KDLT Weekend Sports Anchor Kolbe Nelson on Twitter at @KolbeNelson