Clarion Athletics

Ben Bevevino enters his seventh overall season as the head coach of the Clarion track & field program in 2023-24, and the fifth of his second stint with the program.  He previously served as the program's interim head coach from 2016-18, followed by a year as an assistant at Texas Lutheran.

The 2022-23 season saw the Golden Eagles post their best finish in the outdoor season in more than a decade, taking ninth place in the PSAC on the strength of a number of standout performances. Jenna Uncapher led the way with a record-breaking performance in the Heptathlon, with the senior multi scoring a school-record 4,501 points to place second at the conference meet. She and Shelly Jones - who took fourth place in the outdoor Shot Put - earned USTFCCCA All-Region honors during the outdoor season. During the indoor track & field season, Jones and distance runner Mackenzie Carver earned All-Region honors, with the former doing so in the Shot Put and the latter in the 800m.

The Golden Eagles had a number of standout performances over the course of the 2021-22 season, with Jenna Uncapher landing USTFCCCA All-Region honors in the Heptathlon. The junior multi athlete took fourth at the 2022 PSAC Outdoor Championships with a score of 4,253, which ranks third on the program's all-time performance list. Seven Golden Eagle women cracked the top-five of their respective performances lists during the outdoor season, and there were 13 such performances during the indoor campaign as Clarion athletes continued to flourish under Bevevino's coaching. In addition to their athletic performances, the team also excelled academically. Haley Schaller earned CoSIDA Academic All-America honors and the team was lauded by the USTFCCCA as an All-Academic Team.

Bevevino did not have the opportunity to coach the outdoor track & field squad again until Spring 2021, as the COVID-19 pandemic scuttled the 2020 outdoor season. Once the Golden Eagles did make their way outside, though, Bevevino's influence took hold as the team posted some of the best performances in program history. Jenna Uncapher (Heptathlon / High Jump), Shelly Jones (Outdoor Shot Put), Emma Pesicka (Discus) and Madison Brooks (Hammer Throw) all cracked the top-five outdoor performance list at Clarion over the course of the season. Elsewhere, distance runners Haley Schaller and Abigail Sullivan earned United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) All-Region honors in the 3000m Steeplechase.

In his first year back as the program's head coach, Bevevino saw his charges qualify for eight individual events and three relays at the PSAC Indoor Track & Field Championships. Program records fell over the course of the winter as Hope McQueeney set a program record in the indoor Triple Jump and Alice Fernald broke the mark in the indoor 400m. 

Bevevino spent the 2018-19 season as an assistant coach at Texas Lutheran, where he was honored as the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) 2019 South/Southeast Regional Assistant Coach of the Year.  His athletes authored six national qualifying performances and two earned All-American status, and the Bulldogs boasted six school record performances, four conference champions and nine all-conference performances.  He helped lead the Texas Lutheran men’s team to a conference championship and the women to a second-place finish.

Prior to his time at Texas Lutheran Bevevino spent a little under two years as the interim head coach for the Golden Eagles, from 2016-18.  Bevevino’s athletes recorded 12 school record performances and 38 that fell in the top-five in their respective events.  The team also excelled academically, twice earning USTFCCCA Division II All-Academic Team honors.
 
Before coming to Clarion, Bevevino spent eight years coaching at the high school and college levels.  He spent the 2015-16 season as a graduate assistant coach at California (Pa.), but before that spent five years on staff at Clarion.  He served as a volunteer assistant from 2010-14 and a student assistant in the 2014-15 school year.  He coached Clarion Area’s boys’ team from 2009-15 after spending a one season as an assistant coach, helping them earn six PIAA championship medals and post school records in the 100m, 200m, 400m and Long Jump.
 
Bevevino earned his B.S. in Liberal Studies at Clarion in 2015 and quickly followed that with an M.S. in Exercise Science & Health Promotions from California (Pa.) in August 2016.  He is USATF Level 1 coaching certified and is also a National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM) Certified Performance Enhancement Specialist and a National Association of Speed and Explosion (NASE) Certified Level 1 Speed Coach.