LJ b BB: Brownie points

Forward Evan Brown (23), with some of his
senior teammates, on Senior Night.
(Photo by Ed Piper)
 

By Ed Piper

Wow--there are 64 Evan Browns listed on Athletic.net, the track and cross country website.

But we like the one we have at La Jolla, the leaping, sprawling forward in basketball as well as the defender/receiver in football. We just wish we had more time with him, with his senior year counting down as we speak.

The bespectacled Brown (a Clark Kent kind of thing when he's not competing) hopped, skipped, and jumped 44 feet, 9.25 inches in the CIF Division 2 Finals on the Saturday before Memorial Day last May. That placed him fourth among all Division 2 triple-jumpers in the county.

He's also one of the yakkers on his respective teams: In football, someone needed an interview, and the coaches sent out Evan. I interviewed him for something else. Able to flow, put the words together. Makes sense with what he says. Comfortable in speaking.

I have a confession to make. Last year, I wasn't too impressed with Brown's play in basketball. I liked the heart, the effort. But too many times he went up for a shot under the basket--sometimes hesitating before launching--then got stuffed, or even hit the ball off the underside of the rim.

Now I can say it, because that isn't the way he finished this most recent basketball season, unfortunately his last at LJHS, since he's a senior.

Against higher-seeded Mater Dei Wed., Feb. 13, in their CIF Division 1 first-round playoff game, Brownie launched, launched again, and he wasn't hesitant the way he had been too many times during his first season against varsity competition.

It made its mark in showing me the impact--I hate to go through this again, but it was unfortunate--that Evan could have had on the Vikings' season if he had been healthy all season.

More to his needs, than to my "need" for La Jolla's basketball team to succeed for my own happiness, what a wringer Evan went through in coming back to competitive sports at the end of November, immediately reinjuring his healed broken collarbone in the first 1:58 of his comeback game, then sitting out until only recently.

What an emotional and mental challenge that is, to deal with the idleness and inability to do something you love and enjoy. Meanwhile, the clock was ticking on his remaining opportunities to get a further taste of basketball before his senior season was up.

I remarked on his abandon and total exertion against the Crusaders to Evan's father, Eric, who was proudly (deservedly so) taking photos of his son's team in the playoff. Eric's response was, "Each game he has played, he has gotten more and more back to where he was."

Upon reflection, I can see the growth and vast improvement even his limited play at the end of this season was in comparison to where he was last year. It's remarkable how much a teen develops in 12 months. Just amazing.

Besides growing normally over the span of 12 months, in that time Evan has worked out in football, lifted weights for that sport, and done all the things he did in training for his field events on the Viking track team last spring, culminating in his fourth place in CIF Division 2 in the triple jump.