Edison’s Brandon Jessie Finds His Game Despite Mother’s Misgivings : Basketball: Son of former Ram receiver Ron Jessie leads the Chargers in scoring in only his second year of organized play.

You might think that being the son of a professional football player adds stress to a young athlete’s life. Not so, says Brandon Jessie, a sophomore on the Edison High School varsity basketball team and son of former Ram wide receiver Ron Jessie.

“Since I really don’t remember him playing, it has no effect on me,” Brandon Jessie said. “Actually, it’s mostly other people--they expect me to follow in my dad’s footsteps, football-wise. But my dad doesn’t pressure me.”

Ron Jessie played with the Rams from 1975-79. He also played for Detroit and Buffalo before retiring in 1981 after 11 years in the National Football League. Today, he is an assistant superintendent for Lincoln Property Management Co., an Orange County development company. You also can find him at his son’s basketball games, sitting quietly at the top of the stands.

“Brandon’s picking up the game real well, and I don’t know anything about basketball, per se,” Ron Jessie said. “I have a lot of respect for his coach; that’s why I wouldn’t want to cramp him by interfering.”

This is only the second year that Ron Jessie has had a chance to interfere in Brandon’s athletic pursuits. Brandon’s mother, Sharon, is a Jehovah’s Witness and did not allow him to play organized sports before high school.

“The Bible shows that bodily training is good for us--it can help us develop physical coordination, and it’s refreshing mentally,” Sharon Jessie said. “But bodily training is only beneficial for a little (while); making sports serious business can spoil the fun.”

But, Brandon said, during his freshman year at Edison last year his grades began to slide and his parents became concerned.

“He seemed not to have any reason to go to school,” Ron Jessie said. “He didn’t have any goals. I felt he should get into sports and learn a little discipline, because you have to study to be on the team.”

Said Sharon Jessie: “I was trying to keep him out, of course. But finally, the school called and talked to my husband and Ron said he wanted Brandon to play. (Ron) being the head of the household, I had to accept this decision.”

As a freshman on the junior varsity team, Jessie was the leading scorer and rebounder, and was named the team’s most valuable player. The Edison coach, Jon Borchert, said Jessie could have played varsity as a freshman, but because it was Jessie’s first year of organized sports, Borchert opted to wait.

This season, despite having the flu early in the season, Jessie leads the Chargers in scoring with a 15-point average. He has started five games, helping Edison to a 6-2 start.

He said his grades have improved, his coach is happy and his mother has started to come to his games.

“Brandon just turned 15 in May and he’s the best athlete I’ve ever coached,” Borchert said. “He’s picking up the skills; working as a team--that’s the area he’s had to work on most. But as far as pure athletic ability, he’s the best kid that ever played for me in 18 years of coaching.”

Borchert said the coaching staff had known of Jessie for a long time, but there was nothing for them to do until Sharon Jessie decided to allow her son to play. “It was a waiting situation. She has her views, and I respect those views,” Borchert said.

“It (mom’s dislike of my playing sports) made me real uncomfortable at first,” Brandon Jessie said. “After my JV season, she said, ‘You had a good season, but I don’t think you should play this season.’ But my dad talked to me and said ‘You should play, and I’ll talk to your mom.’

Said Sharon Jessie: “The biggest thing to me (about basketball) is the associations to which he is exposed. Locker-room talk generally has sexually immoral tones; team trips to other schools--it’s extended time, in the company of persons I don’t really know about. Sports are OK when they don’t dominate your life--I just don’t want to expose him to damaging situations.”

“I know right from wrong,” Brandon Jessie said. “I’m not going to do anything wrong, and there’s no one on the team involved in drugs or nothing--she knows that. I just have to work on my attitude toward my parents.

“I’m not that bad--I’m no Billy the Kid--I’m just a teen-ager. Sometimes I don’t think they understand what I’m going through, but they really do and I just have to accept it.”

Jessie said he is thinking of joining the track team in the spring--maybe competing in the long jump--like his father. Ron Jessie, a high hurdler and long jumper at the University of Kansas, won the NCAA indoor long jump in 1969.

“I told my mom I might, and she just rolled her eyes,” he said.

In the meantime, the 6-foot-4, 200-pound forward is playing with his father’s approval and his mother’s misgivings.

“He’s still a kid,” Ron Jessie said. “He still looks in the stands to see if I’m there. I try not to get too emotionally involved in the playing aspect of the game--I let Coach Borchert do that.”

Said Borchert: “The only thing Brandon is lacking is experience. Once you combine a couple of years experience on varsity basketball with his ability, he’s going to be one of the most sought-after kids in California, maybe in the country. That’s why we’ve been hitting his grades so hard--it’d be nice if he were able to accept the choices that will be offered him.”

Added Sharon Jessie: “If Brandon were only OK or pretty good that would be one thing. But he’s got so much talent. I don’t know--mainly, I think, what could it hurt him right now? But I’m proud of my stand and I know it’s the right one because it works--they need it. They need something.

“Hopefully he’ll quit playing soon,” she said with a laugh. “No, I’m serious. Maybe he’ll see there’s much more to life than basketball.”