Brothers in Arms : Freshman Firebrands Joseph and Anderson Taking Charge in Montclair Prep’s Backcourt

Jerome Joseph and Akil Anderson are as close as brothers can be without being related.

They are freshmen, virtually interchangeable parts as the starting point guard and off-guard for the Montclair Prep basketball team. Joseph is 5-foot-9, Anderson 5-8.

They have lived all 14 years of their lives around the corner from each other in Lake View Terrace. They spend almost as much time in each other’s homes as they do in their own.

“(Joseph’s father) is like my second father,” Anderson said, “and Jerome is like my brother.”

Bob Webb, Montclair Prep co-coach, said the two are inseparable, on the court and off. Together, they form the area’s only all-freshman backcourt.

Webb and co-Coach Howard Abrams said they had not had one freshman starting at guard, much less two. Although they expected Anderson and Joseph to contribute this season, they couldn’t have predicted the results.

Heading into the Mounties’ Division V-AA playoff opener Friday, a 64-58 victory over Mission Prep in San Luis Obispo, Joseph is the team’s leading scorer, averaging 16.7 points. Anderson is third at 10.5. They are averaging 3.5 assists apiece, and Anderson is averaging 2.5 steals.

“I didn’t expect to start because of the seniors,” Joseph said. “You could say I was surprised . . . but it’s not that I didn’t deserve it.”

Confidence is not a problem for either. As long as they’ve been playing, they’ve enjoyed success. But more importantly, they have had each other.

The relationship shows on the court by a sort of instinctive passing. They know where the other is going to be. But outside the gym, the relationship means more to Anderson than simply having a partner nearby for a game of one-on-one.

Anderson’s parents are separated, and he has been raised by his grandmother, Tina Thomas. But the Josephs have served as a second family.

“He’s always around the house,” said Marilyn Joseph, Jerome’s mother. “They’ve been playing together since they were five or six.”

Al Joseph, Jerome’s father, has been particularly instrumental as a father figure for Anderson, Thomas said.

“He’s been very supportive,” Thomas said. “He’s been there when I’ve needed him for Akil to talk to.”

Thomas remembers when Al returned home with Akil and Jerome from a summer tournament in Arizona. Akil had been “a little obnoxious,” on the trip, Thomas said.

“(Al) brought him home and sat here in my house and read him the riot act,” Thomas said. “It showed him he cared to do that. I don’t think he treats Akil any differently than if he were his own son.”

Al, who played basketball at UC Riverside and went to training camp with the Phoenix Suns in 1977, has been a coach as well as a father for the two.

“He’s the one who’s behind all this,” Anderson said. “He’s helped us the most.”

Al, now an assistant at Montclair Prep, coached Jerome and Akil and directed them toward the American Roundball Corp., a Valley-based basketball organization that traditionally includes some of the top rising players in the area.

The 14-and-younger team on which Joseph and Anderson played last summer included Eddie Miller, a touted freshman attending Notre Dame High. Freshmen Brian Laibow (Agoura), Shawn Williams (Oak Park) and Noel Bloom (Calabasas), also ARC teammates of Anderson and Joseph, have all contributed to their varsity teams this season.

“(ARC) helped a lot because it’s a tough competition,” Joseph said. “You’re playing the best teams. That’s what varsity is all about.”

Anderson and Joseph developed quickly in their ARC and junior high seasons. During one game with the Montclair Prep junior high team, Joseph scored 44 points and made 10 of 11 from three-point range.

“Everyone has their days,” Joseph said.

Anderson doesn’t have high-scoring games as frequently. He is more a defensive specialist. Even as a freshman, he has been used by the Mounties to guard the opponent’s top scorer.

Not surprisingly, the two have had some heated games of one-on-one at the Josephs’ court.

“When they are on the court, they play like they’re playing anyone else,” Marilyn Joseph said. “They play for blood.”

Not much blood, though. That would be too much like football. Anderson and Joseph played for the Montclair Prep junior varsity team. Anderson was the star running back and Joseph was the quarterback.

Joseph said he prefers basketball, though, because “football has that . . . contact.”

Anderson doesn’t seem to mind it so much. Considered a football star of the future at Montclair Prep, Anderson gained 1,016 yards in 100 carries. He scored 25 touchdowns in eight games. Anderson’s letterman’s jacket has a picture of a football and a basketball--underneath are the words, “Double Trouble.”

“It means the guys are in trouble who have to guard me in basketball or football,” Anderson said.

Based on football alone, Mountie junior varsity Coach James Lippitt is not surprised by what Anderson has done on a basketball court.

“He’s just one of those special kids,” Lippitt said. “I can’t imagine him being just another player. Whatever he does, he’s going to be a leader.”

A leader? As a freshman? Joseph and Anderson acknowledge that, off the court, they are still only freshmen and subject to the traditional freshman duties such as carrying equipment and dragging around the first-aid kit.

On the court, though, they take charge. They make eye contact; it’s that “time-to-take-control” look, they say.

The more they take control, the more attention they draw from opponents. They no longer can hide behind the anonymity of being freshmen. But it hasn’t slowed them. “After a few games, the other coaches say, ‘We can’t leave this guy open anymore,’ ” Webb said. “So far this year, it doesn’t seem to have frustrated them that much.”

When one is slumping, the other is there to pick him up. Against Village Christian a few weeks ago, Joseph came out cold, scoring only one point in the first half. Meantime, Anderson was having one of his best games. They talked at halftime. “I told him not to let it bother him,” Anderson said. “I just tried to pump him up. (In the second half), I tried to get his self-confidence going by setting him up for some easy layups.”

Joseph scored 19 points after intermission.

“They would be good without each other,” Webb said, “but the fact that they know each other so well helps them a lot.”