In this day of specialization in sports, finding a two-sport athlete is unusual, but a four-sport athlete who excels in every endeavor is especially rare.
But that is Benji O’Neal, an eighth-grader at Brantley County Middle School who plays football, basketball, and tennis and runs track and field.
“Age 7 I started playing football, 11 when I started track, 11 when I started tennis, and 7 when I started basketball,” he said.
At 5’9” and 135-pounds, O’Neal plays quarterback for the football team and led the Herons offense with an average of 200 yards per game last season. In basketball, he led the team in scoring as a point guard. On the tennis court, after playing the game for just two years, he has lost just once so far this year as the Heron’s No. 2 singles player. Then there are his exploits as a sprinter for the BCMS track team. He already runs a 4.75-second 40-yard dash, an 11.9 100-meter, and a 23.5 200-meter. His first big track meet came when he traveled to Waycross to run at Ware County High School.
“I had to go up against top talents but ultimately prevailed in the end,” O’Neal said.
The same was true of his first tennis match at Coffee County High in Douglas – nerve-racking but ultimately victorious. For O’Neal, sports are more than just games. He looks at them from a different perspective.
“I love the analytics of the sports I play and the strategy [and] mindset of the game,” he said.
It’s an intense way to look at sports that are fundamentally different: Football is about ground acquisition, basketball is intense movement, tennis is placement of the ball, and sprinting is about running fast. But they all share two common characteristics: speed and strategy.
Common characteristics also run in the O’Neal family. Benji’s older brother, Spencer, is a sophomore who plays for coach Mark Walker at Brantley County High School.
“Spencer has started for us on the offensive line for the last two years,” Walker said.
As a result, Walker became familiar with Benji and his athletic abilities. But what impressed him most was the young man’s demeanor.
“I met Benji for the first time at a Touch Down Club meeting,” Walker said. “Benji is a quiet, well-mannered, and very smart kid.”
Over the years, O’Neal collected trophies for guiding his team to victories in recreation league football, winning or finishing in the final four in each of the last six seasons from the time he was seven-years-old. When he got into middle school, he started rewriting the BCMS record book. He set the record for the 100-meter in sixth grade, and he currently holds school records for the 40-yard dash and 200-meter. He was also part of the region tennis champions his sixth grade year and helped win region in cross country that year.
His favorite sport out of all of them?
“Football,” he said.
O’Neal hopes to fill some big shoes over the next few years. He aims to step in for the graduating Mikell Collins, the electrifying all-region, record-breaking quarterback for Brantley County High School last year. To attain that goal, he tries to improve himself daily.
“I work hard and practice after hours,” he said.
Walker noticed O’Neal’s athleticism watching him play catch with some kids outside of the field house.
“Obviously his speed is impressive, but watching him play middle school football and the way he handled himself and the offense was impressive as well,” Walker said.
The son of Brian and Brandi O’Neal of Hoboken, Georgia, Benji carries a 4.0 GPA in the classroom. His favorite class is social studies, and he hopes to one day become a forensic sociologist. When he isn’t playing or practicing, he is also the vice president of Health Occupations Students of America, a national career and technical student organization endorsed by the U.S. Department of Education. He hopes to earn a scholarship to a Division I college, no matter what the sport, although he plans to take part in football, basketball, tennis, and track in high school.
O’Neal credits his father for helping him over the years.
“He’s pushed me to be my best at everything I do,” he said.
Favorites:
Snack: Payday Bars
Food: Crab Legs
Hobby: Analytics
Pro Team: Green Bay Packers, Indianapolis Pacers
College Team: Georgia
Pro Player: Aaron Rodgers, Paul George
TV show: “Criminal Minds”
Movie: “Star Wars” trilogy
Movie star: Robert Downey Jr.
School subject: Social Studies
Pets: Munson (Dog)
Place to travel: Ireland
Car: 67 Pontiac Firebird
Who inspires you and why? “Many people inspire me to be my best, and I’m surrounded by the best people I can ask for, and the good Lord placed me, thankfully, in the best community such as Brantley County.”
SE-RS-0417-O’Neal
RS – Benji O’Neal
Brantley Middle School
By Rob Asbell
Photography by Jennifer Carter Johnson
A Man of Many Sports
