The following is a story I wrote about Oberlin alum Jordan Beard when I was a sophomore. I had the good fortune to suit up with Jordan during my freshman season and he is the best player I have ever played with. His tremendous blend of compassion, humor, determination, and competitive fire make him one of the finest players, leaders, and mentors I have ever known. The story below is about why Beard decided to stay close to home, to attend Oberlin, rather than accept numerous scholarship offers at Division 1 schools to play basketball, baseball, or football.
           
Earlier this month, Beard made the roster for the United Basketball Association's Ohio Racers, the first step in his journey to fulfilling his dreams of playing professional basketball. And this shows, if anything, that you can pursue your goals no matter where you decide to go, or for that matter, stay.
   
On a muggy Friday evening in April, Oberlin College's West gymnasium is filled with the current crop of Yeomen basketball players. It is now 5:15 p.m. Open gym began at 4:45 p.m. and the players are well into their second game when Jordan Beard, a 2009 graduate of Oberlin College and one of the greatest basketball players in school history, calmly saunters in with an Adidas duffle bag over one shoulder. Now open gym officially begins.
 
Beard isn't big, standing at 5'10'' and 185 pounds, but he has presence. Mid-game, players turn away from the action to say “What's up JB?” He flashes his famously bright smile and shoots them a wave.
 
With a tremendous ability to shoot the basketball (earned from hours and hours and hours by himself in the gym), always balanced and releasing the ball at the top of his jump, Beard can get a shot off whenever he pleases. But he doesn't dominate tonight. As he extends for a layup he sees a young freshman open in the corner for a three and dishes the ball out of the paint. The freshman misses long. 
 
“It's all good,” yells Beard as he backpedals on defense.
 
***
A few days later I'm waiting with a few of my teammates to interview Jordan in my dorm room. We were scheduled to meet at three o'clock.  Three o'clock became four o'clock and then four o'clock became five.  At 5:10 Jordan knocks on the door and everyone in the room drops what they're doing.
 
Now the interview begins.
 
 ***
From the minute Jordan entered high school he was a three-sport varsity athlete, starting all four years in football, basketball and baseball. He ran a 4.5 second 40-yard dash and could bench press 250 pounds. Baseball coaches from LSU, USC, UCLA, Ohio State, Florida State, Florida, Pittsburgh, West Virginia, Indiana, and Michigan wanted him to play shortstop.  Football coaches from Syracuse, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati wanted him to play quarterback. But he wanted something else. 
 
“I just played football and baseball because I was good,” he says.  “I never thought about playing those in college.  Basketball was always my passion, my first love.  I wanted to hoop.” 
 
He had plenty of options to play basketball at the collegiate level as well.  The University of Akron, Cleveland State University, Dayton University, and a slew of other mid-major programs all offered him scholarships.
 
So why did arguably one of the most accomplished high school athletes in the nation shun the bright lights of Division 1 athletics to stay home? 

***
 Michael Jordan Christopher Beard was born on January 26th, 1986 in Oberlin, Ohio.  His first word was “ball” and he began playing sports at the age of two. By the time he entered high school he was a force on the court.
 
In his senior season his Oberlin High School Indians (now Phoenix) finished second in the conference and knocked out the number one seed in the section championship in his final high school game. It's rare to end a high school career with a win.  Even more rare, Beard had the win ripped out of his hands as the Indians played two academically ineligible players that game, officially forfeiting the contest. 
           
“I was in typing class when the principle called us down,” recalls Beard.  “I went back to the classroom, in the back where they had the extra computer equipment, with my teacher Ms. Tolbert...and I cried.”
 
During his senior season he averaged 24 points, 5.5 rebounds, 3.5 assists and shot 87% from the free throw line (missing only 11 all season) en route to scoring 1,433 career points.
 
At halftime of the Lorain County All-Star game Beard received perhaps the most prestigious honor of his athletic career--Lorain County Mr. Basketball. There is a snapshot of Jordan accepting his award in a now-yellowed newspaper clipping from The Chronicle Telegram that reads “Beard Area's Best.” In the picture stands a much more boyish looking Jordan Beard than the one sitting across from me now, smiling and pointing to a crowd of students.
 
He was the first Oberlin High School athlete to win the award, solidifying his status as an Oberlin icon. And in case there was any doubt that he should win the award, he proceeded to score a game high 18 points in that all-star contest.
 
***
A few plays later, Beard catches an outlet pass from one of his teammates. He's been unselfish for most of the game but now he wants a bucket. Just past half court he lunges at his defender with his right leg as if he's going to drive right.  Only, he brings the ball back between his legs and launches a high arcing three. Count it.
 
***
By the end of his senior year of high school Beard chose to continue his education and basketball career at Oberlin College.
 
“It came down to Wooster, Walsh College, and Oberlin,” he explains.  “At that time I was either             going to play big time or stay close to home.  I always wanted to go to UCONN [University of Connecticut], but they weren't looking for a 5'10'' shooting guard.  I really liked Coach Happy Dobbs (Oberlin's head basketball coach at the time) plus my dad and uncle played there.” 
 
In fact, Beard's legacy at Oberlin College is about as long as they come.
 
By committing to Oberlin, Beard became the 15th member of his family to be an Obie.  His father, Byron Beard, is the Yeoman's second all-time leading scorer, (“He would have been first if they had a 3-point line then,” argues Jordan) and set the single season record for points (652) during the 1985-86 season.
 
Beard's uncle, Christopher Donaldson, a special advisor in the Class Deans office also attended Oberlin College and helped raise Jordan. 
 
Donaldson believes Oberlin was the obvious answer for the hometown hero.  “It was a significant decision for him,” says Donaldson, “This felt like home to him, it felt natural to him.”
 
Unfortunately, injuries haunted Beard's collegiate career.  First it was a torn ACL and meniscus in his left knee the summer before his freshman year. Then it was a stress fracture in his right leg, which caused him to miss his entire sophomore season. The same injury returned during his redshirt junior season. He also had recurring shoulder problems caused from the wear and tear of high school football and baseball.  But in a triumphant senior season, Jordan established himself as one of the best players to ever where the crimson and gold.
 
While the 2008-2009 team struggled to a 5-20 record, Beard achieved many individual accolades, and left his mark on the wide-eyed freshmen he suited up with each game. Undoubtedly the team's leader and number one scoring option, opposing defenses focused all of their attention on stopping Jordan Beard. They failed miserably.
 
He led the Yeomen in scoring on 20 separate occasions that season, shot 51% from the field, 47.5% from three (75-158), and 88.2 % from the free throw line. He scored 458 points on the season (1160 in his career) for an average of 18.3 points per game. He earned First Team All-NCAC accolades, recognizing him as one of the five best players in the North Coast Athletic Conference, a feat almost unheard of for a player on a losing team.
 
I remember sitting in the visitor's locker room at Hiram College at the end of that season, looking over at Beard, who I expected to be emotional after playing his final college game. But on that day he shed no tears.
 
“I didn't feel like basketball was over,” he says.
 
***
 
Beard has dreams of playing professionally, and with numerous tryouts scheduled in the next couple of months these dreams may very well come to fruition. But with these dreams in mind, I can't help but wonder. Why didn't he get out of dodge when he had the chance? Why didn't he accept one of those other scholarship offers and play at a bigger school?
 
Maybe it was because if he got injured he wanted a world class education to fall back on. Maybe he wanted to be the 15th member of his family to go to Oberlin College.  Maybe he wanted to play college ball where his father played.  Or maybe there was something else.
 
Now Jordan leans his back against his chair, holds out both of his palms, and begins to count.
 
“I am the oldest in my generation of the family,” he explains.  “I have a sister that's 16, a cousin that's 18, one that's 16, two that are 14, one that's 11, two that are 10, one that's 8, one that's 7, one that's 6, one that's 4, and one that's 2. And I know they watch every step that I take.”
 
“We always preached family first,” says his mother, Laura Donaldson.  “My big thing is, family is what you have. You have to take care of it.”
 
“I'm just not one of those people that needs to get out,” Beard says. “I like it here.”
 
***
At game point Beard has the ball in his hands. He shakes his defender loose for what seems like the hundredth time and elevates for the game winning shot. But once again he passes to a freshman. Brick.
 
“It's all good,” says Beard as the open gym comes to an end. As everyone begins to file out, Beard pulls up a chair near a hoop where some young kids are playing.
 
“Why are you still here?” I ask him.
 
“I'm watching my cousins play.”