Gee Keeps Giving, Lee Keeps Receiving : Pass-Catcher Van Buren Blossoms at Newbury Park After Leaving L.A. to Live With His Former Teacher

Leodes Van Buren and Ken McGee, Lee and Gee to each other, were having one of their arguments. It wasn’t their first, and it certainly wouldn’t be their last. Yet, for sheer timing, it had to rank as their worst.

McGee, a strong-minded middle-aged man and Van Buren’s legal guardian, was at the wheel of his car while the pair sped through the San Fernando Valley on the Ventura Freeway. Van Buren, a strong-spirited 16-year-old and one of the area’s top football players, was holding the passenger door ajar, threatening to leap if McGee didn’t pull over.

The standoff reached a climax on an off-ramp in Encino. Van Buren jumped from the front seat, slammed the door behind him and fled.

What would McGee do now? What would he tell Van Buren’s mother, who was awaiting their visit to her home in Los Angeles? Above all, what was McGee doing, anyway, trying to be a surrogate father to this defiant adolescent who refused to be home on time, refused to announce where he was going and refused to obey rules?

Perhaps it was best to let Van Buren, already gone from sight, disappear for good.

“There have been times when I felt like, ‘What am I doing and why did I ever think I was going to be able to manage this?’ ” McGee said, a 52-year-old elementary school teacher in Los Angeles and Van Buren’s former sixth-grade teacher. “Sometimes I felt like I was going to drive him back to L. A. for good. But I don’t know, we just stayed at it.”

As always, Van Buren made his way back to McGee’s Newbury Park home--a bit calmer, a bit wiser and, by everyone’s estimation, including his own, a bit more mature. McGee, as always, welcomed him back with open arms.

“All I can say is,” Van Buren said, “it’s taken us some time to get used to each other.”

At the request of Van Buren and with the blessing of Van Buren’s mother, McGee agreed to become Van Buren’s legal guardian when Leodes was 13. The experience has been rewarding, McGee said. Yet it also has meant being a disciplinarian to a teen-ager, a new role for McGee.

McGee was divorced when his two children were not yet teen-agers. They were raised by their mother in Florida. Other than occasional visits from his children, McGee was inexperienced at parenting an adolescent.

“Their first year together, Gee had a time with him,” Annie Carter, Van Buren’s mother, said. “Leodes didn’t want to mind Gee. I told Gee to pop him in the head or step on his toes. But Gee didn’t want to hit him.”

Today, Van Buren is a 6-foot-1, 180-pound junior wide receiver for Newbury Park High with open arms of his own. And he continues to develop as one of the best receivers in the state.

Van Buren has 52 receptions for 877 yards and 11 touchdowns. A week ago, he was the state’s leading receiver, although that distinction currently belongs to teammate Jason Toohey.

On ability alone, Van Buren clearly is a cut above the rest. He has good hands, dangerous speed (4.55 in the 40), tremendous leaping ability and the potential to dominate despite facing double coverage on virtually every down.

Van Buren caught five touchdown passes--two on spectacular grabs--in a 36-31 Marmonte League win over Thousand Oaks. In a 40-35 win over Simi Valley, Van Buren made a Ventura County-record 15 receptions for 183 yards.

“He has a nose for the ball and tremendous hand-eye coordination and concentration,” Newbury Park Coach George Hurley said. “He makes the hard catches, he makes the easy catches.”

Behind a high-powered passing attack led by junior quarterback Keith Smith, Newbury Park is 6-1, 4-0 in league play and in pursuit of the school’s first league title since 1981. The Panthers play host to Agoura on Friday night.

“To be honest, no one has been able to cover me all year,” Van Buren said. “My goal is to go to college. And, maybe, play pro football. The first paycheck I get will go toward getting my mom out of Los Angeles.

“And something for Gee.”

During a 20-minute interview this week, Van Buren also referred to McGee interchangeably as “my guardian,” “my stepfather,” “my stepdad” and, simply, “my dad.”

Although Van Buren maintains close contact with his mother and visits her regularly, for the past five years, McGee has been Van Buren’s primary role model.

“He’s always been really good to me,” Van Buren said. “You can look at him and tell that he cares.”

Following sixth grade, Van Buren, who was born in Los Angeles, spent the better part of a summer with McGee. Van Buren took a fast liking to the tranquil surroundings and, more importantly, began to bond with his former teacher.

“I became very fond of him,” McGee said. “And I knew he liked it here.”

Van Buren decided he wanted to stay and attend school in Ventura County. McGee decided he wanted the same. Together, they approached Van Buren’s mother, who had raised her only son as a single parent since separating from Van Buren’s father when Leodes was 4.

“He didn’t want to come home because he knew he would have it tough in school,” Carter said. “He said, ‘Mama, I don’t want to go to school out here. All the kids are in gangs and none of them want anything in life.’ ”

Said Van Buren: “If I stayed in L. A. I might be shot by now, lying somewhere dead.”

Carter signed over legal guardianship to McGee, who had lived alone in Newbury Park for nine years with a spare bedroom, a lengthy daily commute and, perhaps, a few pangs of loneliness.

“One of the biggest advantages I had is that I didn’t have any family,” McGee said. “So, I could give Leodes a lot of time.”

Van Buren began to flourish in his new surroundings. At 13 and already approaching 5-11, Van Buren joined a flag football team and was an instant star with physical skills that widened the eyes of all who watched. With Van Buren scoring 29 touchdowns and totaling 931 yards in receptions, the team coasted to an 11-0 record.

“He was blindingly fast and he was so much more refined in his hand-eye coordination than anyone else,” said Bill Hurter, the team’s coach. “You could throw him a football and he would catch it one-handed easily. He was a marvel to watch.”

As a 15-year-old freshman, Van Buren joined the Newbury Park varsity and made 24 receptions. As a sophomore, he had 65 catches for 987 yards and 10 touchdowns. With another year of high school remaining, Van Buren already has drawn interest from USC and Penn State.

With 141 receptions, he is within reach of the Southern Section record. J. K. McKay of Bishop Amat, later a receiver for USC, holds the record with 207 catches from 1968-70.

Watching Van Buren move closer to college while maturing under his roof is McGee’s reward.

“Lee has given as much to me as I could possibly give to him,” McGee said. “I really enjoy being a parent and that’s something I wanted very much. . . . I told Leodes, ‘I really want you here. I’m not going to throw you out.’ ”

Not that the thought hasn’t at least crossed his mind. Immediately after Van Buren’s arrival, the head-butting began.

The four-year relationship has been a series of “power struggles,” McGee said, and, at times, a test of McGee’s mettle. Conflicts raged over issues ranging from curfew to chores to responsibilities and privileges.

The freeway incident was typical. McGee was summoned out of town for a weekend and he wanted Van Buren to stay with his mother rather than spend the weekend unsupervised. Van Buren refused.

Van Buren, who said the pair have not had a large-scale argument in more than a year, is learning to respect McGee’s wishes.

“He made me do things all the time that I really didn’t want to do,” Van Buren said. “I know why he would do it, I just didn’t want to do them. My mom spoiled me, I guess. That’s what my friends say. I really never had to do all the things he wants me to do.”

About two years ago, Van Buren stormed back to Los Angeles to live with his mother, only to ask McGee if he could return.

“I really didn’t think he was coming back,” McGee said. “I left it that he was welcome to come back, but things would have to change.”

Gradually, both sides say, things have.

“It all boiled down to basically that he set his own standards and he never had any structure,” McGee said. “To him, it was unreasonable that somebody would expect these things from him.”

Van Buren has not seen his father since he was 11. He says he speaks with him occasionally and that they have “a good relationship.” Yet he is uncertain whether he lives in Louisiana or Texas.

Van Buren is shy, soft-spoken and humble. He is uncomfortable when the conversation turns to his talent. He fidgets and fumbles for words to describe his feelings for McGee. He says he is appreciative of his guardian’s efforts, but years may pass before he fully realizes McGee’s impact on his life.

“He’s great,” Van Buren said. “I have everything in my room anybody could want. If I need $100 to go out and buy some clothes, he’ll give it to me because he knows I need it. The only thing that makes him mad is when I’m not straight with him.”

Carter said that her son has expressed his feelings for McGee to her.

“He said, ‘Gee treats me like his son,’ ” she said. “I have to give Gee all the credit in the world. I think Gee has made a man out of him.”

Hurter described McGee as “a saint.”

“He’s not a strict disciplinarian,” Hurter said. “He’s really a low-key guy. Who knows why he took Leodes in?”

Perhaps to give Van Buren a chance to succeed. Perhaps to give himself an experience he never had.

Maybe the time was right to become a father to a teen-ager.

“It’s been one of those experiences where people say, ‘Maybe if I’d known everything at the beginning, I wouldn’t have had children,’ ” McGee said.

“But at the same time, it’s been great. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”