Glendale Community College men’s basketball coach Beauchemin retires

After undergoing replacement surgery on his right hip in the fall, Brian Beauchemin went through a series of rehabilitation sessions during a hospital stay. While at the venue, Beauchemin overheard another patient in a nearby room complaining of pain following knee surgery.

It left Beauchemin to ponder not only his health at 70, but how much longer he might coach the Glendale Community College men’s basketball team. Beauchemin’s decision became an easy one.

“I could hear the patient who had the knee surgery moaning and groaning and I realized life is too short,” said Beauchemin, who officially retired as coach Monday following a 35-season run that included 21 postseason appearances. “I just want to get better and do some other things with my life, like watching my three grandchildren playing sports.

“It’s been a great run at Glendale college and I had a chance to coach a lot of great players, coach in a lot of memorable games and I’ll never forget that. There are still games from years ago that I can remember quite well. It was fun coaching each team because there were always going to be new challenges for me to take on.”

Beauchemin, who coached at Glendale from 1979-2014, leaves with 592 victories (third all time in the state). He didn’t coach last season after having the surgery in November and handed the coaching responsibilities to longtime assistant Vigen Jilizian. Glendale finished last season 3-20, 2-10 in the Western State Conference South Division for last place. The Vaqueros had to forfeit the final two games of the season because they didn’t have enough players to field a team.

Beauchemin, a New York native, went 592-476 at Glendale and coached for 48 years. The Sherman Oaks Notre Dame High graduate had previously served as head coach of the Notre Dame High boys’ basketball team before spending two seasons as an assistant with the L.A. Valley College men’s program and then moving on to Glendale college. He was inducted into the Notre Dame Hall of Fame and most recently the California Community College Men’s Basketball Coaches Assn. Hall of Fame in March of 2014. He will be inducted into the Glendale Community College Athletic Hall of Fame in October.

The thought of reaching the 600-win plateau occurred to Beauchemin, who led the Vaqueros to the second round of the Southern California Regionals in 2014.

“My son told me I needed just eight more wins to get to 600,” said Beauchemin, who took over the program from Ed Goorjian and led the Vaqueros to conference championships in 1981 and 1985. “In the end, it’s just another number.

“Getting 592 wins is something and it’s because of the players I’ve had through the years and excellent coaching staffs. We did something at Glendale college that we should all be proud of.”

Perhaps Beauchemin’s biggest milestone moment came Feb. 7, 2008.

That day, Glendale rallied to post a 105-98 division home victory against Valley, earning Beauchemin his 500th career win.

“That was an awesome moment after we had come from behind against Valley,” said Beauchemin, who piloted the Vaqueros to six Southern California Regional finals and trips to the elite eight in 1985 and 2001. “That’s a game I don’t think I’ll ever forget.”

Glendale Athletic Director John Cicuto said he left the door open for Beauchemin to return next season.

“We had lunch a few times following his surgery,” said Cicuto, who added Glendale will begin its search for a replacement soon. “I wanted to see how he was feeling and told him he could make his decision on whether or not he wanted to return.

“You could tell he wanted to be with his grandchildren and spend a lot of quality time with them and his family. He wants to enjoy that. He provided stability within the program and he’s going to be hard to replace. He’s meant not just a lot to the program, but to the college’s history. I’ll miss him.”

Jilizian served as Beauchemin’s assistant for nine seasons before he was named the interim coach last season.

Jilizian, who played and coached at Hoover High before moving on to play guard at Glendale college from 1988-90, said Beauchemin encouraged Jilizian to entertain the idea of joining the coaching fraternity.

“I learned so many things from him when I played and when I’ve coached, whether at Hoover or GCC,” said Jilizian, who is the program’s all-time assists leader with 436. “When I coached at Hoover, I’d find time to go to his practices and see how he would prepare you to be organized and go over different drills. I took a lot from that and it showed me how to be able to keep progressing my teams and get them to where they needed to be.

“I’ve had the luxury of being able to have played for him and coached alongside him. He was more fiery back in the day and he’d let you know he wasn’t happy if you didn’t do something the right way. Over the last few years, he had become a lot more patient. He’s had a very good run at GCC and he’s at a good place now being with his family more.”

While Jilizian played and coached under Beauchemin, Howard Fisher played and coached against Beauchemin for many seasons.

Fisher played at L.A. Pierce College for two seasons in the 1980s and has been the head coach at College of the Canyons for 15 seasons. Glendale and Canyons compete in the same division.

“He’s well prepared and his teams are always disciplined,” Fisher said. “That’s what it was like then when I was playing at Pierce all the way up to the times coaching against him.

“When you played against Glendale, you had to compete for the full 40 minutes and for all 94 feet of the court. You couldn’t take any plays off.”