Bena passed away Saturday morning at home after a five-year battle with cardiac amyloidosis. He was 79.
Joe Bena with Nick GwiazdowskiJoe Bena started his coaching career at Newburgh Free Academy in 1966, then moved on to serve at Niskayuna High from 1968-2003, then concluding at Duanesburg.
"He was the greatest coach in everything," said long-time coach Joe DeMeo, who guided multiple U.S. world teams and whose sons wrestled for Bena at Niskayuna.
"When he sat down with you, he wouldn't talk technique," according to Frank Popolizio, who, like his brother Pat Popolizio, head coach at North Carolina State, wrestled for Bena. "He was not a master technician, he was a master at getting you to believe in yourself.
"And you were reborn. You were alive."
"He was a special guy ... unique, not only because of what he accomplished, but for how good of a man he was," Nick Gwiazdowski, a two-time state champ for Bena at Duanesburg who later went on to claim an NCAA heavyweight title for N.C. State, told the Daily Gazette. "A very genuine guy."
"Probably his greatest asset was his ability to connect with you, respect you and motivate you, but in a polite ... well, 'polite' isn't the right word, but in a manner that wasn't pushy. He was pushing you, without being pushy."
Gwiazdowski continued his tribute to his high school coach on Facebook: "Joe Bena was a good coach and great man and friend. He knew wrestling but more than anything he knew how to treat people and be a great friend. He truly treated people the way he would want to be treated. Didn't matter if you didn't wrestle, didn't win, got cradled, won championships or was someone he just met. The way he taught you, treated you, coached you, listened to you was all the same."
Coach Bena apparently had an eye for potential talent ... and an ability to make the most of that talent.
Upon his retirement four years ago, Bena shared this story with New York Wrestling News.
"In the early 1970s I had no one over 200 pounds. I went into the hall looking for a big kid. When I found one, I introduced myself and told him he could be our starting varsity heavyweight. He looked at me and said, 'I don't like wrestling.'"
"Three years later, he was a state champ," Bena said. "Then an NCAA champ and an Olympic champ -- and you know the rest."
Bena was talking about the late Jeff Blatnick.
For all his accomplishments, Joe Bena was welcomed into the NYS Wrestling Coaches Hall of Fame, the Section II Hall of Fame for Coaching, the National Coaches Hall of Fame and the Athletic Hall of Fame for Wrestling at Oswego.
Joe Bena is survived by his wife Lois and children Amy, Joe Jr., John and Michael.
Funeral arrangements have not yet been announced.
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