Aaron Benditson enters his thirteenth season in 2019 as the Head Coach for the Santa Monica College Women's Soccer Program.

Benditson put together an impressive playing career as a soccer student-athlete at Cal State Northridge from 1999 through 2002, a span in which he was a two-time scholar athlete, team captain, Big West Honorable Mention selection and member of the Big West All-Academic Team.
 
He started his collegiate coaching career after graduating in May 2002 with Bachelor's Degree in Sociology. Benditson served as a volunteer assistant coach for Cal State Northridge and then in 2005 he took over the Women's Soccer Head Coach position at Santa Monica College where he spent the following eight years. Furthermore, in 2005, he was named the Western State Conference and Southern Region Coach of the Year.

In May 2012, Benditson earned a Master's Degree in Coaching and Sports Administration from Concordia University in Irvine.

From 2013-15 Benditson took a brief hiatus from coaching at SMC and worked as the top assistant coach for the men’s soccer program at Cal Poly Pomona University. The CPP Men's Soccer Program experienced a four-win improvement in the first season of the Yossi Raz coaching staff that featured Benditson, going 7-7-4 overall through the 2013 campaign. With Benditson's guidance of the CPP back line, the 2013 team set the program's single season record for goals against average at 0.85.

While at Pomona in 2014-15, Benditson was instrumental both on and off the field in aiding the program’s best ever regular season record recording a 17-1-2 mark as well as the California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) tournament Championship. Additionally, under Benditson’s academic mentorship, the CPP Men’s Soccer program had a collective team GPA of 3.12, its highest ever in program history.

Currently, as Head Women's Soccer Coach at Santa Monica College, he has posted an overall record of 143-74-53 to record the most coaching wins in program history. Under Benditson's leadership, he has guided the team to 10 Southern Regional playoff appearances in twelve seasons and most recently, back to back Western State Conference League Championships in 2018 and 2019 for the first time in its program’s history.

Get to know more about Coach Benditson:

What type of student-athlete do you recruit for your program?   “Honest, hard-working individuals whom are looking to improve their personal life through academic and athletic development.”  

What is your proudest coaching accomplishment at SMC?  “Establishing the most well-rounded team I ever coached in 2012. They embodied everything I envisioned in what "my" ideal team should represent. We were academically sound, had great internal player leadership and were extremely competitive and successful on the field. We also were able to connect to the local community and partake in some outreach events to promote the program as well.”

What is your proudest coaching moment either here at SMC or at another school your led as a coach?   “It’s hard to say about one certain "moment in coaching" that is my proudest. However, I find pride in my job when I know that I am doing everything in my power to help these young adults reach and aspire to achieve goals and aspirations that they might not have foreseen as possible before partaking in the program.”

What would you like prospective student-athletes to know about either you or your program?  “Good things happen to individuals who are hard-working and are good human-beings.”