Weight Loss Clinic in Benton, DE

The microphone dangled from his right hand, a notebook perched in his left, the prose taking a minute to hit De’jon Benton’s tongue.

He was a thinker, not a rusher. And a sanctuary of creatives waited for him this August night, an artist development workshop the brainchild of Leila Steinberg, the founder of emotional-literacy foundation Aim4TheHeart and the first manager to one Tupac Shakur.

Participants, as required by Steinberg, must bring an artistic response to a particular topic for every workshop. And for two weeks, when he first showed up, Benton didn’t speak, Steinberg remembered. Not one word. No contribution. No discussion.

“Always hard with ballplayers,” Steinberg said, “because we have an impression that they’re not thinkers.”

But he came back. Always. So she figured there was something.

It hurts Regina Sherman to say, as a mother. But many simply never saw her son’s potential. Benton grew up with a stutter, taking speech classes through his time at Pittsburg High in the Bay Area, birthing a highly intentional and oft-deliberate approach to speaking. He had learning differences, his Pittsburg football coaches came to find, that sometimes necessitated explaining his assignments repeatedly. Sherman, herself, never anticipated Benton going to college for financial reasons, a largely single mother making ends meet on a nurse’s assistant’s salary.

But Benton was recruited by USC out of Pittsburg, and he has stuck out four tumultuous years as a Trojan to become a key piece of USC’s defensive line. He found himself, too, through lyricism and spoken-word, an outlet that’s grown since he first started putting pen to paper in high school.

When the 6-foot-1, 270-pound redshirt senior finally shared at the workshop, Benton gave an off-the-cuff, “Shakespearean” spoken-word performance, as Aim4TheHeart outreach director Louis King said, that blew the group away.

“I was like, ‘Oh, (expletive)’ … this kid’s mind is really special,” Steinberg said.

His second time sharing was written. And on the way from USC’s practice field, in the back of an Uber, Benton scratched a series of words out in his notebook, coming to stand in front of the group that night in black shorts adorned with a small USC logo. Pensive as ever.

Then launching into a story in spoken-word, voice deep and unwavering, of his journey, of heartbreak and blood spillage and a young man trying to make sense of chaos in the world around him.

***

I ask myself, he began, what would help me reach this potential?

In the eighth grade, Sherman got a call from one of Benton’s teachers, saying he was acting up in class. That was nothing new – the school rang her quite literally every single day about her son, Sherman emphasized – but the circumstances were. Somehow, he was goofing around, stood up on a chair, sat down and broke it.

Wait, how does he sit down and break a chair? Sherman questioned. “I don’t know,” she was told, “but he broke a chair.”

He was quiet, Sherman said, when he started at Antioch Middle School. One day, Benton called his mother at lunch. He didn’t usually call his mother at lunch.

“What’s wrong, son?” she asked, prying repeatedly beyond Benton’s one-word responses.

“I just don’t have any friends,” Sherman remembered her son saying, eventually. “I just feel alone, so I wanted to call you.”

It snapped her heart in two. She stayed with him on the phone for 30 minutes, until lunch was over.

“And then a few months later, he’s like, breaking chairs,” Sherman said. “So I guess he made friends.”

They lived in a part of Antioch, then, where there was absolutely no way Benton’s mother would let him walk home by himself. When Benton’s middle-school graduation rolled around, she got a call: He couldn’t get his cap and gown, because the school still hadn’t been paid back for the chair he broke.

She made $14 an hour. Barely had enough to pay rent. But Sherman made it work. Always did.

Things didn’t get easier in high school, when Pittsburg defensive line coach Isamu Falevai – also a school counselor – noticed, simply, that Benton was struggling. He grew into a unique on-field talent, a blend of speed and size Pittsburg had rarely seen; but academic issues persisted from middle school, Sherman telling Benton to get his grades up or she’d call his coaches to not let him play.

If you aren’t vested in these kids, Falevai said, you would think they’re lazy. Benton was not. You’d think they were just trying to skate by. Benton was not. He had extraordinary depth, as then-defensive coordinator Charlie Ramirez said. He just needed time. And eventually, his coaches worked with him and his teachers to set up an independent learning plan, seeing rapid growth in his grades in his junior and senior years.

Her son, Sherman said, never gave up on himself.

“It might take him a while to get there,” Sherman said, “but he always, he gets there.”

***

The endurance of a man’s heart, over time, becomes weak, Benton continued in August, pacing across the room. No longer willing to fight. Eyes no longer light.

In Benton’s sophomore year at Pittsburg, JV coaches started telling Falevai that the player was always late to practice. Or hanging out in the locker room. Or just not there. And eventually, Falevai realized there was a deeper reason here.

So the counselor sat him down one day, and told Benton he’d stay until he told him what was going on.

Benton’s father Dwayne, Falevai learned, lived in Stockton with his family, about an hour away. Every so often, he’d call his son for help, needing someone to watch Benton’s young half-sisters. So the kid would find a bus to Stockton, or a ride up there, or something, and his own life would grind to a halt.

They had a great relationship, Sherman said, Dwayne once a football player and rapper himself who’d take baby De’jon to spend entire weekends in a studio. Life for his father grew tough, though, Falevai learning at times he’d tell his son he had no electricity or running water. It left Benton thinking of his siblings, feeling helpless, Falevai said, so the son would drop everything at a moment’s notice.

“My pops,” Benton said after one USC practice in September, “he had the same ambitions as I have now. He’s done exactly what I’ve done.”

“I used to see light in his eyes,” Benton continued, referring to his own line of prose. “And now it’s more so, survival mode. And so that had put it into perspective for me.”

The endurance of man’s heart becomes weak.

During his junior year, Benton started writing. Always had loved reading, always asking his mom to buy him books, vocabulary expanding behind a diminishing stutter. It became an outlet, experimenting with spoken-word, experimenting with beats, an outlet he never quite made public – to even his own mother – until he began with Aim4TheHeart.

An outlet to understand, to express, through avoiding going down the wrong path in Pittsburg because he’d think of the look on his mother’s face, through his father’s journey and his own, through his own grasp on the very meaning of everything.

There are places on this planet that never reached its potential, Benton finished at the workshop, a room rapt. I will reach mine. I won’t be the victim of my own eye.

When the lineman first signed with USC, Falevai was excited. Also worried.

“He’s special,” Falevai tried to explain to USC coaches. “You just gotta be patient.”

And Benton still struggled at times, Falevai said, his first couple years as a Trojan, with timeliness. He played sparingly his first three seasons, and then the coaching staff that recruited him cycled out as Lincoln Riley took over, and conventional wisdom laid that he ought to transfer.

Benton relented. He chose to stick it out. Majoring in Non-Governmental Organizations and Social Change, he wanted a degree from USC, he’d tell Falevai, his mom pushing him to finish his education.

“De’jon, when we got here, I didn’t know if he was going to make it – I mean, I didn’t know if he was going to make the rigors of the program, the demands, the accountability,” Riley said, after the USC-Colorado game in late September.

Last year, Riley said, was up-and-down for Benton. A lot of tough love. But even as USC has brought in a slew of new faces on the line, Benton has earned major snaps against Colorado and Arizona, sixth on the team in tackles for loss and sacks.

“It’s funny, when you kind of get all your life in order, all of a sudden – his grades are good, he’s on time for stuff – he’s playing good ball,” Riley said.

For now, spoken-word, rap, poetry are all an outlet for Benton, Steinberg said. Just an outlet. Wants to leave it there, for him to focus on the now, seeing music or a book or public speaking stark in his future.

“He hasn’t even realized how powerful when he’s in front of a room,” Steinberg said. “He just has an electricity and a beauty about him.”

The world around him, it appears, is catching up to the potential he’s seen in himself. Potential that he wants to bring to a mic.

“It just made me have a different perspective,” Benton said, seeming to solve his own mind in real-time. “Football was also that second life, as you could say. When I played football, I didn’t just see football as football. I see football as life – like a mini-simulation of life itself.”

“Everything leading up to the moment in which I’m supposed to play, and if I’m ballin’ or if I’m (expletive) the bed, it was all because of actions and what led up to that,” Benton continued. “I go back to the days … like, ‘Damn, OK. If I get another breath for tomorrow’s day, I’ll change it.’”

It’s honestly sad to say goodbye to Luann and Sonja: Welcome to Crappie Lake. The Real Housewives of New York spinoff truly saved me during my summer TV drought. Not only that but watching Luann de Lesseps and Sonja Morgan goof around every week became the absolute cure for the Sunday Scaries.

Unfortunately, Bravo aired the finale episode of Welcome to Crappie Lake this week that brought the ultimate spinoff to an emotional ending. Luann and Sonja had to make it through the Benton Follies to truly mark a successful summer in Benton, Illinois. Here are three of the main takeaways from the latest episode “The Grand Finale.”

The rehearsal from hell

It was the day of the Benton Follies and Luann and Sonja were as ready as they could be, which is to say they were minimally prepared. The ladies went into performance day without finalizing their farewell song to Benton and its residents. “We really need to get on the same track because I feel like we have a broken record,” Luann remarked. The Countess decided to fly in her Broadway connect Richard Jay-Alexander to aid the ladies in finalizing their number. However, the Broadway legend (whom Lu and Sonja kept reminding us worked with Barbra Streisand) ended up playing referee.

Luann and Sonja argued through their finale rehearsal, curlers in hair and all. Lu even stormed off the stage at one point and did a little fourth-wall-breaking. “Either reel her in or I’m out,” she demanded of her co-star. Lu (relatably) calmed down after a sip of Diet Coke and hugged Sonja to get back on track. “I know we have pressure on us but what’s most important is that we’re here together helping others,” Sonja remarked. In true hot-mess fashion, Lu’s hoop earring got caught in Sonja’s earring as they tried to continue rehearsing. These women truly are my icons.

Luann and Sonja’s job well done

Despite the rocky road to showtime, the Benton Follies went as well as it could have. Paula Abdul showed up to support and they ended up successfully selling hundreds of tickets to the show. While the show was entertaining, that’s not to say it was professional. Sonja walked on stage with food in her mouth more than once and Luann had to ask mid-monologue for the stagehand to hold up her cue cards higher. The town of polite Midwestern folks were eating it up.

In the end, the ladies’ finale song was a lovable disaster. Luann had to shoo the mayor off the stage to start the performance and Sonja was reading lyrics from a piece of paper, slightly off-beat. However, the audience loved how personalized the song was to the people in town. “Could it have been better? Sure,” Sonja said at the end. “Was it fine? Absolutely.”

An emotional goodbye

The next day, Luann and Sonja packed up their motel rooms and bid farewell to Benton. They were both sad to be leaving the place. Sonja soothed her sorrows with comedy by singing into a vibrator while packing up the truck. It surely lifted Lu’s spirits.

Luann and Sonja received their own surprise when the people of Benton gathered in the town center with signs to say goodbye to the ladies. Sonja and Lu burst into tears as they had no idea about the gesture. Many of the locals were even crying when thinking about Lu and Sonja’s impact and how much they’d be missed.

“I feel like we really did shine a light on the town a good one,” Sonja said. “It could have been a sh*t show, obviously.” they’re just really good people.” Bravo, give us 10 more seasons of this NOW. It’s the kind of pure chaotic comedy the network needs more of.

TELL US – WHAT DID YOU THINK OF THE ENTIRE SEASON OF LUANN AND SONJA: WELCOME TO CRAPPIE LAKE? ARE YOU SAD TO SAY GOODBYE TO THE GOOFY SPINOFF?

Paula Abdul made a surprise appearance to help Luann de Lesseps and Sonja Morgan sell tickets to their Benton Follies show on Sunday's episode of Luann and Sonja: Welcome to Crappie Lake on Bravo.

'Good to see you,' Luann de Lesseps, 58, said to Paula, 61, upon seeing the famous singer, dancer and American Idol judge. 'It's been a while.'

Luann and Sonja Morgan, both from The Real Housewives of New York City, had agreed to go to Benton, Illinois, a town with a population of 7,000, and spend six weeks working with the Benton City Council to help the small town bounce back after the pandemic.

The townspeople were shocked when Paula walked into the Benton Follies rehearsals. Luann quickly snapped a photo to send out and hopefully sell more tickets.

Paula then helped choreograph the dancers.

Surprise appearance: Paula Abdul made a surprise appearance to help Luann de Lesseps and Sonja Morgan sell tickets to their Benton Follies show on Sunday's episode of Luann and Sonja: Welcome to Crappie Lake on Bravo

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'A couple notes, whatever you're doing needs to be precise,' Paula said.

Paula worked with them to get their spacing right.

'It will just help make it look so much more clean,' Paula said.

Luann and Sonja, 59, were worried they hadn't sold enough tickets to the Benton Follies so they said they called in the 'big guns,' Paula Abdul.

The episode titled X-Mas in July opened with Luann and Sonja helping decorate the town for a Christmas in July celebration. Luann and Sonja played around once they found a leaf blower and did sexy windblown poses.

Later, Sonja and Luann worked on transforming their motel room into suites named after them to attract tourists. They gave the Sonja and Luann suites new carpeting, new paint and new furniture.

With one week before they had to put on their Benton Follies, they met with Courtney Cox, Benton's musical director to go over their song.

'This song for Benton is the final act of our variety show and I wanted to make the song short and sweet and catchy,' Luann said in a confessional. 'And then Sonja came in.'

Small town: The townspeople were shocked when Paula walked into the Benton Follies rehearsals

Dance moves: Paula quickly started teaching the dancers choreography

Warm welcome: 'Good to see you,' Luann, 58, said to Paula, 61, upon seeing the famous dancer and American Idol judge. 'It's been a while'

Teamin gup: Sonja and Luann teamed up for the spin-off series on Bravo

Sonja changed the song to more of 'Sing-song' skit. Sonja redid the song to try to include the name of everyone in the town.

'It's going to be a hot mess,' Luann said.

Sonja and Luann also surprised the motel owner Akash Patel with a mural that they had painted behind the motel.

'Thank you so much for everything,' Akash and his wife Hiral Patel, the motel owners, said. 'It's a huge boost for this place. Before we used to charge $60, $70 and now for those two rooms, I've not charged less than $90.'

Luann and Sonja changed into their over the top sexy Santa outfits for the Christmas in July town event. Sonja and Luann danced in their outfits in their room.

'We are going to have so much fun,' Luann said.

When they arrived, there was a horse-drawn carriage waiting for them. They got into it and rode into town for the festival.

'When they pulled up, I thought ''Oh God, they look like hookers'',' said Craig Miles, Benton's Public Works Director.

New mural: Sonja and Luann also surprised the motel owner Akash Patel with a mural that they had painted behind the motel

Christmas theme: Luann and Sonja changed into their over the top sexy Santa outfits for the Christmas in July town event

Good times: When they arrived, there was a horse-drawn carriage waiting for them

Fun speech: Sonja grabbed the microphone from Luann and gave a short, fun speech

Sonja's outfit was short.

'She's bent over a few times and we saw the thong,' said Tammy Martin, a teacher in Benton.

Luann and Sonja played around in the foam machine. The mayor said they got an A+ for all they did.

'We are like homecoming queens, we feel like we're really part of this town now and everyone's so welcoming and nice,' Luann said.

Luann and Sonja handed out gifts to the town's people.

'We've gone fishing,' Luann said. 'We've gone mudding. We created a really fabulous Christmas in July. Now we just have one thing on the list, the Benton Follies. We want to make this town pop. I mean that's what we're here for right?'

Luann and Sonja: Welcome to Crappie Lake will return next week on Bravo.

UPDATE (May 10, 10:00 A.M.): On Tuesday, May 9, it was revealed that the series will premiere this summer. According to a press release, “Luann and Sonja: Welcome to Crappie Lake, which follows socialites Luann de Lesseps and Sonja Morgan as they head to Benton, Illinois in a hysterical fish-out-of-water experience premieres this July."

Watch The Real Housewives of New York City on Peacock and catch up on the Bravo app.

The original story continues below.

Bye, bye, bye, NYC! The Real Housewives of New York City’s Sonja Morgan and Luann de Lesseps are packing their bags and leaving Manhattan behind for their upcoming new series,Luann and Sonja: Welcome to Crappie Lake. The series, set to premiere in 2023 on Bravo, will follow Sonja and Luann as they head to the small town of Benton, Illinois, and we have the scoop on what you can expect from the series.

“Totally unbeknownst to the Benton locals, the town council surprises everyone by inviting Real Housewives superstars Luann and Sonja to help spruce up their small town, which has a population just shy of 7,000. It’s a fish-out-of-water experience for everyone involved, especially when the two Manhattanites check in to the local motel. At the request of the mayor, they take on tasks to boost morale and galvanize the town with new spirit,” a press release notes about the series. “From building a new playground to revitalizing the local theater with a full-on variety show, Luann and Sonja have their work cut out for them as they embrace their new temporary home. Whether searching for the town’s famous crappie fish in the lake with their bare hands or going mudding with monster trucks, one thing is for certain — with Luann and Sonja in charge and out of their element, hijinks and hilarity are sure to follow.”

Related

Luann and Sonja: Welcome to Crappie Lake was announced on Saturday, October 15 during BravoCon 2022 weekend.

Watch The Real Housewives of New York City on Peacock and the Bravo app.

Luann de Lesseps and Sonja Morgan have balls.

The “Real Housewives of New York City” OGs attend a “testicle festival” — where the Countess dares to eat some! — in the wild trailer for their new reality show, “Luann and Sonja: Welcome to Crappie Lake.”

“I don’t want to have testicle breath now, you know?” de Lesseps, 58, tells Morgan, 59, after bravely taking a bite.

“That’s disgusting,” Morgan replies as she watches her friend spray some breath freshener into her mouth.

Making an appearance at the festival is one of many jobs the Bravolebrities are tasked with in Benton, Ill.

De Lesseps and Morgan hope to bring the rural town back to life after it took a hit during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“COVID has effected Benton in a lot of ways,” one local says, while another notes, “We have two celebrities coming into town and they are so excited to help the town.”

During a meeting with the mayor, the city girls are told they will be responsible for building a new park, celebrating Christmas in July, increasing tourism, upgrading the animal shelter and executing an end-of-summer performance.

“We’re never afraid to get our hands dirty,” Morgan says.

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And she’s not lying. The ladies dive in a lake for catfish, clean rancid motel rooms, ride monster trucks and play in the mud as they navigate a rugged life miles away from their chic Manhattan digs.

“I’m not going to blurt out, ‘WTF,’ because that’s what I’m thinking,” Morgan says in preview.

Amid their grueling duties, the socialites make time to have fun — even with handsome locals. “Did you have sex?” de Lesseps asks Morgan, who bluntly responds, “Holy f—k, I got my pipes cleaned!”

Elsewhere, the women appear to both have crushes on a man named Billy. “So this guy Billy, that’s my kind of man,” Morgan says over a clip of de Lesseps kissing the guy in question.

But de Lesseps’ smooch with Billy doesn’t derail Morgan from her flirtatious endeavors.

“I’m going to have sex because I’ve got five victims right here,” she says during a car ride with de Lesseps.

Toward the end of the sneak peek, Paula Abdul makes a surprise cameo. The legendary singer and choreographer seemingly pops in to help de Lesseps and Morgan with their special end-of-summer show, as they wanted to “pull out the big guns” to increase ticket sales.

“How is it with the town being introduced to you two?!” Abdul, 60, asks, acknowledging de Lesseps and Morgan’s larger-than-life personalities.

Despite the chaos they brought to Benton in the summer of 2022, the women seemed to ultimately win over locals with their unique charm.

“I found out real quick that they’re a lot different than what I seen [sic] step off the airplane,” one man says in the preview of his fondness for the two.

De Lesseps and Morgan’s next adventure will be to St. Barts, where they are set to film “Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip: RHONY Legacy” with Ramona Singer, Dorinda Medley, Kelly Bensimon and Kristen Taekman. The Peacock spinoff has yet to receive a premiere date.

“Luann and Sonja: Welcome to Crappie Lake” debuts with back-to-back half-hour episodes Sunday, July 9, at 9 p.m. ET on Bravo.

The series will move to its regular time slot beginning Sunday, July 16, at 10 p.m. ET following the Season 14 premiere of the retooled “Real Housewives of New York City.”