05/06/2026
For more than three decades, Ray Benjamin helped shape the identity of New Hartford athletics — not just through victories, but through values.
Benjamin arrived in New Hartford in 1939 after teaching in Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake and Whitesboro, eventually becoming Director of Physical Education and serving the district for 31 years until his retirement in 1970. Along the way, his teams accumulated more than 600 victories across basketball, football, baseball, and track, including undefeated regular seasons, sectional championships, and some of the finest basketball teams the area had ever seen.
Ray Benjamin believed athletics were meant to build character as much as athletes. In the 1966 New Hartford yearbook, the athletic philosophy he helped shape emphasized developing the “physical, mental and moral attributes” of students while teaching lessons that would “enhance their enjoyment of living and engender success in their vocation.”
That philosophy showed up in everything he did.
“I always looked for a boy with determination,” Benjamin once said. “One with a willingness to pay the price to achieve his full athletic potential.”
And his role as a coach?
“To help build a set of values that will help him in life.”
“To teach him that nothing comes easy.
“To have him challenged to the fullest.”
Ray Benjamin understood what school athletics were truly supposed to be about.
As Basketball Coach:
Benjamin rates his 1945 club and his 1955 championship team as two of the finest he ever coached.
The 1945 team consisted of Frank Wenner, Art Mettleman, Don Dorrance, Bill Synal, Jack Fraser and Tom Hartman. The 1955 team had Phil Bisselle, Richard Wenner, Butch Randall, Bill Fitzgerald, and Morris.
New Hartford has always been respected as a team that could score, but Benjamin believes his defense played a big part in his club’s successes.
“I’ve never said this before, but our defense in basketball and our ball handling made the big difference between winning and losing.
“When I first started at New Hartford I used the zone defense — something I picked up at Whitesboro when I worked with Chiz Frye. I took that defense and as flaws came up, I corrected them with man-to-man adjustments. Thus the defense was a combination of the zone plus the man-to-man as the situation occurred.”
Teacher. Coach. Mentor. Builder.
The foundation of New Hartford athletics carries his fingerprints to this day.
A special thank you to his grandson, Andre Seoldo — himself a standout Spartan athlete in the early 1990s — for graciously sharing many of the photographs, articles, and memories that will help us further explore Ray Benjamin’s lasting impact on New Hartford athletics in the months ahead.
