Ben Sirman's choice coming out of Laurel High in 1958 was between Swarthmore (Pa.) College and the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, two prestigious destinations for any high school graduate. Proximity to home and a better opportunity to play more sports led him to Swarthmore, which Sirman attended on a McCabe Scholarship.

Had he graduated from Air Force, he could have been sent anywhere, including the Vietnam War. But Sirman's education degree from Swarthmore brought him back to Sussex County, where, as a teacher, guidance counselor, athletic director, administrator and coach, his influence was instant, long-lasting and eventually stretched throughout the First State.

He'll be recognized for those contributions at the Delaware Sportswriters & Broadcasters Association's 60th annual banquet Jan. 25 at the Cavaliers Country Club. Sirman, 69 and a resident of both Seaford and Fenwick Island, will receive the Herm Reitzes service award.

Sirman is best known for his 33 years at Seaford High from 1969 to 2002, many of them spent as athletic director and as a coach in numerous sports at various levels. He is also a long-time Henlopen Conference officer and spent 20 years on the state boys basketball tournament committee, including 15 as chairman.

"In seventh grade at Laurel I was in awe of him and I still am, all these years later and as close as we've been," said former Seaford High colleague Ron Dickerson, six years Sirman's junior. "It's unbelievable what he does for other people."

Sirman Starred at Laurel

High's football, baseball and basketball teams -- sports he also played at Swarthmore. His first job out of college was as a teacher and coach at Bridgeville High (now Woodbridge), though he first got involved with sports as a basketball referee.

Aiming to provide a recreational opportunity for Bridgeville kids, Sirman started a summer basketball league -- in his backyard.

"Back in those days, that school was locked up and you couldn't get in those gyms in the summer," he said. "I got the kids together and I officiated. I didn't have drill sessions or teaching sessions.

"It was like 'Field of Dreams' -- you build it and they will come. We played on grass but it got so beat down we had to hose it down. You know what it did? It brought kids together. Anybody could play."

With Delaware shaking off the final vestiges of its once-segregated school system in the mid-1960s, black kids joined with white kids for those games. Sirman felt the games helped improve race relations.

In 1968, Sirman was named state basketball coach after a 19-1 season. He also guided Bridgeville to 23 straight football wins in the mid 1960s. But with small-town schools consolidating -- Bridgeville and Greenwood became Woodbridge -- Sirman opted to move to Seaford in 1969.

He then was Seaford's football coach for four years before becoming athletic director, and hired Dickerson to replace him. Sirman quickly found athletic leadership to be his forte. "I enjoyed that experience and I was very successful at it," Sirman said of being a head coach of high school teams. "It was a career change and I was only 30 years old. "Things evolved and [as an AD] I was able to see the whole forest without being blinded by the trees. It was a very good fit -- that was my true calling -- and I was very happy at Seaford."

Sirman Commands Respect

But Sirman never stopped coaching either, often at the grassroots level. He assisted Dickerson in football and baseball, and Seaford won state titles in each. Sirman also coached middle school, freshmen and junior varsity football teams; middle school and freshmen basketball teams; and, through Seaford's community recreational programs, youth football, basketball and baseball squads. "That's Ben Sirman," Dickerson said.

Dickerson, who is now offensive coordinator for the Sussex Tech football team, added that he uses the same Wing-T terminology with the Ravens that Sirman formulated in the 1960s at Bridgeville and took to Seaford. "He loved working with the young kids," said Dyke Belcher, 45, who was coached by Sirman at Seaford High and later coached with him. "He has an unbelievable patience teaching, and the kids just flock to him and respond to him so well and respect him so much.

"Everybody in the state respects Ben Sirman," Belcher added. "There are very few people that I respect as much as Ben and I can't say I respect anyone more." Sirman and his wife Ellen, who met when both were teaching in Bridgeville, have a son Trey, who starred on Seaford teams and is now a school administrator himself. Trey and his wife, Sharon, live in Prince Frederick, Md., with their five daughters, ages 2 to 8.

Retirement keeps Sirman busy, too. He still helps keep the Henlopen Conference running, is a member of the Delaware Sports Hall of Fame board of directors and, as an officer with the Nanticoke Senior Center in Seaford, is busy with fundraising projects.

"I kind of liked being out of the big lights," Sirman said of his move from being a head coach to an athletic administrator and an assistant coach at various levels. As his DSBA recognition shows, Sirman managed to make a profound impact there, too.