BREAKS OF THE GAME : Alonzo Jamison Will Pass Up His Senior Season in Football to Preserve Basketball Career

When Alonzo Jamison returns to Santa Ana Valley High School this fall, he’ll probably face a barrage of questions from friends wondering why he decided to forgo his senior season of football to concentrate on basketball.

He could answer them simply with: “Mother Knows Best.”

Though he played only two games last season, Jamison, 6-feet 6-inches and 200 pounds, has gained attention from college scouts because of good hands, excellent speed and great leaping ability.

But the reason he played in just two games is the main reason he’ll be watching this season: Jamison broke his leg in the second game, missed the rest of the 1984 season and one third of the basketball season. He doesn’t want to jeopardize his basketball career by playing football.

Or, more precisely, Jamison’s mother , Theadie, doesn’t want her son to risk an injury that would threaten his basketball future.

Jamison was torn between playing both sports or only basketball. But his mother had decided for him. Theadie Jamison said she would not sign the insurance form that would have given Alonzo permission to play football.

“My mom made the final decision,” Jamison said. “She knows I have a chance to get a college scholarship in basketball, and that’s what she wants me to go for. I really wanted to play football . . . I wish I could play both sports. I have something to prove to myself after what happened last year.

“But my mom has always called the shots. She knows if I see something I really want, such as a basketball scholarship, I’ll go after it. I won’t care what’s in my way.”

Willie Williams, Falcon football coach, is taking Jamison’s decision surprisingly well, considering he is coming off an 0-10 season. Jamison certainly wouldn’t have hurt the team’s chances of regaining some respectability.

“He could have been an outstanding receiver and some college coaches liked him as a tight end, but his forte is basketball,” Williams said. “We have enough kids who will fit into the team real well. Alonzo is an outstanding basketball player, and I’d like to see him excel in that sport.”

So would Tim Riach, Santa Ana Valley basketball coach, who only had Jamison’s services for two-thirds of last season because of the knee injury he sustained last September.

It was the second game of the season and the Falcons were losing to Mater Dei, 23-0, at halftime. Jamison, running a post pattern in the third period, jumped for a pass that was well out of his reach.

As the ball hit the ground about 15 yards behind him, he came down and planted his left cleat into the Santa Ana Stadium turf. Monarch safety Chris Gill then hit Jamison above his left knee and broke his femur, the leg bone extending from the pelvis to the knee.

Mater Dei’s team captains later visited Jamison in the hospital to apologize. But that hardly eased the pain.

Jamison knew his season was over, and all he thought about as he was being carried off the field was whether he would be able to play basketball.

The answer came sooner than expected. Jamison’s leg was in a cast for four weeks but, after a month and a half of weight training, riding on a stationary bicycle and shock treatments to stimulate his thigh muscle, he was training with the basketball team by December.

The team struggled through a 1-6 start until Jamison came to the rescue. He scored 10 points in the final nonleague game and exploded in the league opener, scoring 30 points against Villa Park to lead Santa Ana Valley to a victory.

The center averaged 18 points and nine rebounds a game for the remainder of the season and led the Falcons to an 8-6 record, good for fifth place in the Century League.

This summer, Jamison, who lists his strengths as defense, quickness inside and jumping ability but says his jump shot must improve, has emerged as one of Orange County’s best 10 players.

Last week, Jamison joined nine other county players on a traveling all-star team that won six of nine games and finished sixth in the 35-team Las Vegas Invitational Tournament.

He was recognized as one of the top 20 players to compete in the Slam-N-Jam spring league at Dominguez High and also was named among the top 15 at the UC Santa Barbara Superstars Camp in July.

“It really boosted my ego,” Jamison said.

But does Jamison’s ego need stroking?

“Not really,” he said. “All the girls at school already say I’m getting big-headed. They think that I think I’m too good for people now. But they don’t understand. I try to explain my situation to them, that this hasn’t really sunk in to me yet. It’s just a phase I’m going through and it will be over soon.

“I don’t think I’m big-headed. If I was, I’d walk around with a newspaper under my arm or run off at the mouth saying how good I am. I’m not like that. I let my play do the talking and whatever you say about me is your opinion.”

There have been some distinct positive benefits to Jamison’s success on the basketball court, though. The realization that he might be good enough to receive a scholarship has given him the incentive to improve his grades.

Jamison had a 1.9 grade-point average during his first two years of high school but improved to 2.7 last semester. He’s making up an algebra class in summer school so he can take geometry this fall.

For the first time in his life, Jamison is taking school seriously. And he’s enjoying it.

“My sophomore year, I was just thinking about sports and not academics,” Jamison said. “It was a joke. I was just going to school to be going, doing things just to barely pass, to get by. But now that I have a chance to go to a major college, it clicked in my mind that I should start working on my grades.”

Said Riach: “Alonzo realized that he had a good deal of physical talent and that if he pushed himself on and off the court, he could get something out of it. I’d be surprised if he didn’t get a scholarship. He’s doing real well and we’re real happy for him.”

Along with his improvements in his game and grades, Jamison says his personality has improved. He has become more outgoing.

“I was just in my own world during my sophomore year,” he said. “I didn’t really care about anyone but myself. But now, I ask people how they’re doing and get involved in other people’s lives. I don’t know why, but it just started happening.”

The injury might have had a little to do with it.

“When I broke my leg is when I got popular,” Jamison said. “We had an assembly the next day and the principal, Ivan McKinney, told everyone I was in the hospital and that they should send get-well cards. I got a lot of them.”

And he got better, too.