Longtime assistant coach Vern Benson takes over Gateway boys basketball program

By: Michael Love
Sunday, October 5, 2025 | 11:01 AM

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Vern Benson led a brief film session and a weight room workout before guiding the Gateway boys basketball team in an on-court training session Sept. 30 at the Furrie Sports Complex.

He got in the middle of the action, instructing the Gators players on many aspects of the game he hopes will serve them well at the start of the 2025-26 season which is less than two months away.

A week earlier, and after a hiring process conducted by the athletic administration, the Gateway School Board officially hired Benson, a Gateway boys assistant coach for the better part of the past decade, to take over the program as head coach after Alvis Rogers stepped down from the position in August following seven seasons.

Benson said knowing the program and the players he is coaching made for a smooth transition.

“I was with Alvis for all seven of his seasons here, and this is my ninth year in the district,” said Benson, a Valley graduate who has served as a boys head coach at both his alma mater and at East Allegheny.

“I am so familiar with the kids, and with the past head coaching experience, it was an easy transition. I don’t think we’ve skipped a beat. We put a lot of work in over the summer with workouts and league games, and that isn’t stopping this fall.”

Benson said he didn’t know that Rogers was thinking about stepping down. When it happened, Benson decided to throw his name in the hat.

“I always wanted to get back into head coaching, but I didn’t want to do it this way,” he said.

“But when I saw that Rogers wasn’t coming back, I told him that I would apply for the job. Alvis and I had a great working relationship. I want to continue all of the things we have worked to establish here.”

Gateway players have been busy in the gym and are getting game experience through play in a Pittsburgh Basketball Club fall league every Monday at Gateway Middle School and also in a league on Saturdays at Woodland Hills.

“We’re playing a lot,” Benson said.

Benson said he is pleased to be able to continue to work with an experienced and accomplished staff of assistants in Chaz McCrommon, Kirk Bruce and Edward Meli. He also said the players have been good about continuing to put in the work with a slightly different voice at the top.

“Instead of hearing my voice as an assistant, they are hearing it as a head coach,” Benson said.

“Our numbers are up, and we have a nice mix of veteran leadership with some younger guys who are working really hard. I am happy with where we are right now in the program.”

Gateway went 90-69 the past seven years. After missing the WPIAL playoffs in Rogers’ first year, the Gators qualified for the postseason six straight times through last season.

They went 13-9 overall, tied Latrobe for second in Section 1-5A, were given the No. 12 seed for the WPIAL playoffs, and battled Moon tough in a first-round matchup before falling, 49-42.

“I think the guys are ready to make a run,” said Benson, who welcomes back senior all-section guard/forward Mykel Bruce-McCrommon as well as fellow senior starters Jax Vovaris and Chris Settles.

“It’s been good since we already knew coach Benson so well,” Vovaris said.

“We already knew what he liked and what he wanted from all of us. It’s good to have him instead of some new coach come in where it would take some time to learn a new system and stuff like that and where the coach wouldn’t know the players and their tendencies. One day he came in and said he was now the head coach, and it was business as usual. We’re really excited to continue to work throughout the fall and prepare for the season.”

Benson got his head coaching start at Valley in 2001.

The Vikings went 0-24 in his first season and endured a 44-game losing streak.

But he led the program to six WPIAL playoff appearances and two trips to the PIAA tournament in the eight seasons that followed.

Benson left Valley in 2010 and became an assistant on Mitch Adams’ staff at Gateway. He helped the 2010-11 Gators team, with the likes of Tyler Scott, Barnett Harris, Devon Cottrell and DJ Boyce, to the first of back-to-back WPIAL Quad-A championships.

“That year, we were just a very talented team,” Benson said.

“I went to watch (Gateway) the year before when they lost in the WPIAL championship game against Mt. Lebanon. That was a talented team. When I had the opportunity to come here the next year, it was great to see how the players had grown and taken that next step. I always have said that could’ve easily have been a state-title team. It was exciting. I had a good time that year watching those guys play.”

Benson moved on to East Allegheny and spent four seasons at the helm of the Wildcats.

“Ed Meli was my assistant over at East Allegheny when they broke a 17-year playoff drought,” Benson said.

“It was really exciting for the school. They hadn’t had that much excitement in basketball in a long time.”

Michael Love is a TribLive reporter covering sports in the Alle-Kiski Valley and the eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh. A Clearfield native and a graduate of Westminster (Pa.), he joined the Trib in 2002 after spending five years at the Clearfield Progress. He can be reached at mlove@triblive.com.

Tags: Gateway