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CoSIDA Goodwill & Wellness Committee
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Communicators Outside the Lines Feature Series
This is the next profile in a series entitled
Communicators Outside the Lines: Better Yourself, Better Your Community produced by the CoSIDA Goodwill & Wellness Committee. Read past profiles at
CoSIDA.com/CommunicatorsOTL.
WE NEED YOUR IDEAS!
If you have any ideas for this series, which will revolve around CoSIDA member volunteerism and health and wellness, please contact Goodwill and Wellness Committee chair
Megan Jameson, St. Edward's University Associate AD for Marketing and Communications, at
mhardin@stedwards.edu.
Featuring Rob Bentley
Ferris State, Assistant Athletic Director, Communications
by Alan Babbitt – Hope College, Sports Information Director
CoSIDA Goodwill and Wellness Committee Member
Without hesitation,
Rob Bentley scans the competitive scene and describes the exciting play-by-play to listeners of Ferris State University basketball, football and volleyball games.
Ferris State’s Assistant Athletic Director for Communications is a trusted voice for a loyal group of Bulldogs fans along with friend and radio partner, Sandy Gholston.
One year ago, just before the COVID-19 pandemic mercilessly delivered so much damage and upheaval to our lives, Bentley faced a different challenge — a daunting one, too.
He lost his ability to see.
Weeks after getting inadvertently struck in his left eye during a pickup basketball game on campus in Big Rapids, Michigan, his retina detached and blinded him temporarily.
“I’m the commissioner of our noonball association, and I took an elbow to the eye and had a little scratch for a couple of weeks before this happened. The doctor seems to think that probably finally made it detach,” Bentley said, recalling his frightening experience. “I was actually on a basketball road trip; we played at Purdue Northwest and Wisconsin Parkside in mid-February. I had a little bit of a spot in my eye. I just thought it was because my contacts needed replacing or something like that.
“The second game of that trip, at Parkside, it just kept getting worse. I saw a black field of vision in my left eye. I ended up doing the game and driving home. Then, a day or two later, it was almost completely black. Half of my field of vision was gone.”
Suddenly, a beloved Bulldog needed help.
Gallery: (3-3-2021) Rob Bentley | Communicators OTL
“I went to work Monday, and it just kept getting worse. Then, Tuesday morning, I couldn’t see at all,” Bentley said. “I ended up getting into a doctor here in town and right away, they sent me to a specialist in Grand Rapids. I had surgery on a Wednesday that was right before the last two games in the regular season.”
Outpatient surgery allowed Bentley to return to his loving home with his wife, Jenny, and their daughters, Addison and Ava. He needed their support convalescing. Recovery was not easy.
Physically, he had to lie down in the same position for about a week. “I was face down for what ended up being four or five days,” Bentley said. “We rented this machine when you’re looking basically at the ground. You had to be in that machine for 90 percent of the day. I could get up, once an hour, for a couple of minutes to walk around, use the bathroom. Then you had to be face down.
“After that, I was home for about a week-and-a-half, they let me get back to at least moving around.”
Emotionally, Bentley dealt with missing promoting his Bulldogs like he has for working at Ferris State. He started there in 2000 and has been Director of Athletic Communications since 2008.
It was seemingly about to be the best time of year in basketball. Tournament time was approaching. Both of Ferris State men’s and women’s basketball teams were in first place in their Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference North Divisions.
Unexpectedly, Bentley faced a role reversal. He did not have a front-row seat. He had to get help to tell him what was happening.
“Sitting in that machine, I had a mirror where it kind of reflected off the TV so I could watch the webcast,” Bentley recalls. “I was pretty much out of it at that point. I was still bandaged up. I missed the last weekend, then we hosted the first round of the GLIAC Tournament. I was planning on being back for the GLIAC semifinals, but both teams ended up getting upset. Both teams made the NCAA Tournament. I was with the men’s team on the bus. We got 60 miles from Indianapolis when they canceled the tournament (because of the COVID-19 pandemic). That was my last game for a while.”
“I relied on my assistant, Harrison Watt. A great staff at Ferris and volunteers covered those last couple of weeks for me when I couldn’t be there and missed out. We got through it. My wife was a big help. I couldn’t see much.”
Bentley had no choice but to rest and recover.
“I guess a little bit of downtime wasn’t so bad right away,” Bentley said. “It was hard to adjust to, but being an SID for 20 years and working all year, it was definitely a change of pace. You learn to appreciate stuff more.”
Support from fellow members of the CoSIDA community buoyed Bentley’s spirits.
“All the calls, all the texts, I got from not only people here in town, people who listen to our broadcast, but from other SIDs from around the conference,” Bentley said. “We have a rivalry with Grand Valley (State University), but Tim Nott and his staff there reached out to me and asked if they could do anything to help. I had other SIDs from around the conference do that, too. People reaching out were appreciated.”
Fully recovered now, Bentley finally returned to the air regularly in November with his weekly Ferris State Athletics radio show. Bulldog basketball games followed in December.
“I got lucky,” Bentley said, looking back. “It was the start to a crazy year.”
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