Fiery On-Court Demeanor Belies Acquiescent Nature of Alemany’s Beauchemin

A representative from a Los Angeles-based newspaper, selling subscriptions, recently canvassed the Granada Hills area. The salesman called on the Beauchemin home.

Although the Beauchemin family already subscribed to 2 newspapers, son Jon, who answered the door, couldn’t refuse the offer for a third. He succumbed quickly to the sales pitch.

When Jon’s mother, Kathy, learned that he had crumbled like a soda cracker under the salesman’s pressure, she promptly nixed the extra paper and gave her son yet another lecture on assertiveness.

But Beauchemin, the starting point guard at Alemany High, is hardly a milquetoast on the basketball court. Though too timid to grab a seat on a crowded bus, he has no qualms about diving into crowded stands after a loose ball. The same guy who won’t say boo when people cut in front of him at the supermarket wields a vicious elbow when opponents try to box him out of the key.

His passive, live-and-let-live demeanor grinds to a halt when his competitive juices flow.

And his intensity is not exclusive to basketball--Beauchemin is equally emotional on the baseball diamond. His red-faced, jugular-bulging fervor doesn’t go unnoticed by his parents. It has become somewhat of a family joke.

“My wife calls him Jekyll and Hyde,” said Brian Beauchemin, Jon’s father. “Once he gets on the field there aren’t any friendships.”

Brian, who coaches basketball at Glendale College, has a similar temperament.

“I guess that’s in the Beauchemin blood,” Jon reasons. “Once you hit the hard court you’re all emotional and intense, and when you get off you’re a teddy bear.”

Jon, a 6-foot senior, averages about 18 points a game and last Tuesday scored 30 against Loyola, the fourth-ranked team in the Southern Section 5-AA Division. His figures are even more impressive considering he is frequently double- or triple-teamed.

“Every team is focusing their defense on him and that’s probably frustrating,” Crespi Coach Paul Muff said. “And he looks a little frustrated out there.”

Beauchemin’s most tenacious opponent might be himself. Alemany’s program is in transition and the team and has won just 3 games. The Indians’ state of flux often tests Beauchemin’s tolerance.

“He’s not a franchise player,” said Rocky Moore, Alemany’s first-year coach. “He’s not the big kid in the middle. He’s got the tools but he doesn’t have the supporting cast.”

Moore adds that Beauchemin puts a lot of pressure on himself to shoulder the scoring burden. “He’s very team-conscious but it’s frustrating for him when he passes to a player who drives and fumbles it out of bounds,” he said.

Beauchemin approaches the problem philosophically.

“All the way through basketball--youth, sophomore and JV--we have won a title,” he said. “It’s just fighting through adversity.”

But the adversity goes beyond double-teams and bobbled passes. He has been hampered by the flu for about a month. The duration of the illness prompted Beauchemin’s parents to take him to the hospital where he underwent a battery of tests. The tests proved negative, and he was given penicillin and told not to overexert himself--a concept alien to Beauchemin.

And Beauchemin does not figure to exert himself any less this baseball season. He believes that baseball is his forte, and Alemany Coach Jim Ozella says that he is one of the best players in league.

Beauchemin played catcher on the varsity as a sophomore and batted .300 with 20 runs batted in and 4 home runs. He moved to third base last season and slumped to a .211 average with 8 RBIs.

Ozella says that much of what Beauchemin accomplishes will be dictated by whether he is able to keep his composure while the hits aren’t coming.

Still, the coach will not ask him to temper his intensity.

“He puts his heart almost too much into the game,” he said. “But I’d rather have a kid like that than someone who doesn’t care.”