Foutball in Auckland, Californiait's more than a sport. This is a community. In many schools, coaches are like parents who help young people in difficult times get into college, and sometimes even get drafted into the National Football League.
So, when gun violence went on for a long time Auckland football coach John Beam, whose mentorship changed the lives of generations of students, devastation reverberated across the city.
Beam, 66, was shot in the head Nov. 13 at Laney College's track and field complex in what police called a “targeted incident.” He died from his injuries in hospital the next day.
A 27-year-old man, Cedric Irving Jr., made his first court appearance Tuesday after being charged with Beam's murder. Irving, who has no prior criminal record, is being held without bail and is scheduled to enter a plea Dec. 16.
If convicted, he faces 50 years to life in prison and charges that he personally fired the gun and that Beam was particularly vulnerable. Prosecutors have not disclosed a possible motive.
Beam's death shocked the northern California port city. On Wednesday afternoon outside the Laney College athletic complex, under a heavy gray sky, a makeshift shrine was filled with flickering candles, flowers, sneakers, a tripod, a soccer ball and outpourings of love scrawled on hats and T-shirts. Students and family friends came to pay their respects. The athletic field, usually filled with players and games, was empty except for a flock of Canada geese.
Jack Nelson, a retired teacher, volunteer coach and 1972 graduate of Skyline High School, where Beam led the team to 15 Oakland Athletic League titles, said the killing felt like a big moment: “It's huge. It's like killing the governor. To me, he's the governor of Oakland.”
After his death, Nelson said, students chanted Beam's name. The other day he was running past a high school where students were playing football, and after landing they were all chanting, “John Beam! John Beam! John Beam! he reminded.
Gun violence remains a widespread problem in Oakland, although the city has seen a recent decline in homicide rates since the peak of the pandemic. Skyline High School was on lockdown due to a shooting the day before the fatal shooting in Beam. third school shooting for the same number of years. December 18 hundreds of Skyline students went on strike to protest campus insecurity and gun violence.
City coaches have long played a role in helping young people cope with and prevent violence, he said. Frankie NavarroCommissioner of the Oakland Athletic League, Oakland Unified School District. According to him, Beam, with whom he worked closely for many years, was no exception.
“They are truly life mentors, and no matter the students’ home situation, their socioeconomic status, they can be a resource for our youth to develop into good people.”
That's the role Beam played in the lives of many Oakland students, said J'Charlon Jones, 47, now a website developer in Denver.
Raised in West Oakland by a single mother, he attended Skyline High specifically for the sports program.
“If you play sports, you're protected, drug dealers don't bother you,” said Jones, who used to come to school at 6:30 a.m. to lift weights and spend afternoons doing track practice.
Skyline High, led by Coach Beam, won a state championship, which earned Jones a position at Colorado State University on a full scholarship to play football.
“I used to call Coach Beam on Father's Day. I never had a father in my house. When you don't have a father, you don't have somebody to give you advice. He's a man who cares. He didn't care,” Jones said. “You felt what it was like to have a team, to be dedicated to your cause, to be celebrated.”
“Heartache, shock, denial and the whole gamut of emotions – the last thing on the bingo card was what happened to Coach,” said Haran Jackson, another former Skyline student whom Coach Beam helped get into college.
Jackson will never forget the look on his mother's face when Beam explained to her that her son was being accepted into college on a scholarship and that they were going to “take care of his room and board, education and everything.”
Jackson was late to join the football team and never expected to be recruited, he said. His first encounter with Beam involved him being scolded for hitting the ball to some female student-athletes in a manner that Beam found disrespectful. But instead of feeling embarrassed, Jackson went and apologized and felt inspired to work hard to prove himself to Beam. And it worked.
Growing up in a single-parent home in Oakland, Jackson never expected to attend college, which changed his life's trajectory, allowing him to see the country and the world. “Coach helped me through this whole situation,” Jackson said, adding, “He, like me, really enjoyed finding the diamonds in the rough.”
Beam even told him about his current career in theater and film, hinting at auditioning runners for Nike commercials. Jackson got the job.
The day before the fatal shooting, Beam texted Jackson about another former student, Daniel Cotroneo, who also lives in Los Angeles and works in the film industry. “I think you two should meet. Let me know how it goes,” Beam said.
On his first day joining the Skyline high school football team, Cotroneo, now a cameraman and director, sprained his finger while catching a soccer ball.
“Coach Beam kind of chuckled at me and said, 'Well, hey, football might not be your thing, but we're looking for a video guy,'” Cotroneo recalled.
From there, he became the football team's videographer, filming home games, away games and co-editing highlight reels for players being recruited by colleges. This experience helped Cotroneo enroll in film school and begin working in the film industry.
“He was single-handedly responsible for getting six or seven players on full scholarships every year I was with the team. And probably most of those guys never had anyone in their family that went to college,” Cotroneo said, adding that “he gave kids a purpose and an outlet.”
Cotroneo estimates the number of people whose lives Beam has touched: 30 to 40 players per team per year, multiplied by more than 45 years. “And then you have to consider that a lot of these guys who end up on football teams don't necessarily have strong male role models in their lives,” he adds.
Beam found the balance of a man who “demanded power in every room he walked into, but he was also personable and funny, and he challenged you.”
Cotroneo discussed the possibility of collaborating with Beam on film projects. Also. According to Jackson, Beam read the script for a social horror film that Jackson wrote and wanted to be a part of it, hence the text introduction.
“I don't think I've seen a network of other successful black men in Oakland like the one I saw with the athletes, Skyline and John Beam,” J'Charlon Jones said.
Beam was always a “networker,” said Navarro, the OAL commissioner: “He was the guy who built bridges between connections” — creating opportunities for people in his vast, multi-generational network to help each other.
Nelson is raising funds for an alumni basketball game in Beam's honor and said a 25-foot sign is being built at Skyline Athletic Field that reads: “John Beam/Anthony Fardell Athletic Complex.”
This year, Navarro and Beam jointly created first annual Oakland Football Classic in October to begin the league season. The classic will be named after Beam, Navarro said.
Cotroneo is seeking a feature film in the Bay and aims to involve local youth to pay tribute to Beam's legacy.
Jones wants to create a website where all of Coach's stories can live forever.
“I don't believe in heaven, but when I get to heaven, I'll be looking for John Beam with a flashlight so I don't miss him,” he said.
