Jessie Is Responding to the Call of His Coach at Ventura : Basketball: Former standout at Edison High goes north to help Pirates (33-1) reach second round of the South regional.

Brandon Jessie was pounding the hardwood during another intense practice with the Ventura College men’s basketball team when he heard that oh-so-familiar voice.

“What did you do that for?” Coach Philip Mathews yelled at Jessie, stopping the action. “Why did you let him beat you to the rebound?”

Jessie, a freshman forward from Edison High School, didn’t answer. There was no point in trying. If Jessie has learned something this season, it is that silence is a virtue--and a survival tool--when the boss admonishes.

Which for Mathews is standard operating procedure. Even after blowout victories, the highly successful but volatile coach often criticizes his players.

So far, Jessie has been able to handle it, although admittedly he has moments when his gut reaction is difficult to control.

“Sometimes, I want to get him (Mathews) in a headlock and choke him,” Jessie said. “When I first came up here and he yelled at me, I wanted to go home. Then I realized you listen to what he says, not how he says it.”

The pupil has paid close attention.

Originally targeted to open the season as a backup, Jessie cracked the starting lineup just before the team’s first game in November when power forward Robert Coyne quit the team for personal reasons. At the time, Jessie belonged to Ventura’s “Black Team,” a unit of reserves that entered games together to spell the regulars.

Now, others come into games to give him a breather.

As the top-seeded Pirates prepare for their game against Rancho Santiago (20-12) at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in the second round of the South regional, Jessie has become an integral part of the team. His steady play at both ends of the court helped Ventura (33-1) to the Western State Conference North Division title with an 8-0 record.

Jessie, 6-foot-5 and 220 pounds, was second on the team in scoring with a 20.6 average and first in rebounds with 9.6. He opened WSC North Division play with a 26-point, 13-rebound performance in a 98-54 rout of Cuesta on Jan. 20 and a week later scored 27 points and grabbed 12 rebounds in Ventura’s 66-47 victory over Santa Barbara City.

Yet Mathews says Jessie, 18, hasn’t reached his potential.

“He’s young. He doesn’t know how to play hard yet,” said Mathews, who has coached Ventura to eight WSC North Division championships and the state title in 1986-87. “He plays in spurts. When he becomes consistent throughout the whole game, you’ll see a different player.”

Mathews never saw the original version of Jessie, the basketball player, in high school. He recruited Jessie, son of former Ram All-Pro wide receiver Ron Jessie, strictly on the opinions of other coaches and the hope that the youngster had inherited some of his father’s athletic ability.

“I recruited him on reputation alone and on the recommendations of other people who I respect in the coaching profession,” Mathews said. “A player of that caliber who everyone tells you is good, you have to believe that.”

Jessie, however, believed he was headed for more celebrated places after a brilliant prep athletic career.

At Edison, Jessie was a Times All-Orange County pick in basketball his junior and senior seasons, and the Sunset League most valuable player both seasons after leading the Chargers to back-to-back league co-championships. He established school records for most points with 1,580 and rebounds with 818 as a three-year starter. Jessie also set Edison’s single-game scoring record with 43 points against Westminster in 1991-92.

But although highly gifted and heavily recruited by Division I colleges as a basketball player, Jessie also had gained considerable notice from major colleges in football after playing only five games at wide receiver his junior year--the only time he had ever played organized football. That’s the sport Edison football Coach Dave White says Jessie could have turned into a profitable profession.

“He was the best athlete I’ve ever seen,” White said. “I thought his football potential was unlimited. I honestly believe he would have made the NFL some day and could picture him there as a tight end. I hope he makes it to the NBA, but it might not be that easy for a guy his size.”

Despite White’s attempts to keep Jessie focused on football, Jessie decided to concentrate on basketball his senior year.

He had played both sports and ran track as a junior, and wanted to rest instead of going through two-a-day football practices before the 1991 season. That was part of the reason he had joined the football team late the year before. Besides, Jessie said, his legs took too long to adjust from football to basketball.

“I told him before the season I wanted him but he would have to go through two-a-days like everyone else,” White said. “After one game into the season, he came to me and said he wanted to play. I told him I’d put it to the team, especially the seniors, because I really value their opinions. They voted not to let him back.”

Jessie said he accepted the decision and never had a problem with his former teammates or White.

“A lot of people thought it was between me and Coach White, but that wasn’t the case at all,” Jessie said. “I like Coach White a lot. He helped me quite a bit. He always told me I should keep my options open. I regret not playing (football) but I made the decision not to play.”

Coming from the son of a former pro player, Jessie’s attitude toward football seemed strange. But Jessie said the family connection never entered the picture.

“My dad never pushed me to play sports,” Jessie said. “People looked at me and said, ‘Well, you should go pro because your dad went pro.’ They thought I should have followed my dad’s footsteps and played football.”

Said Ron Jessie: “I always emphasized there was more to life than sports. If you want to do it for yourself, fine. But it takes too much time and effort to do it for someone else. I encouraged him when he wanted to do it but I didn’t force him.”

With the football question settled at Edison, Jessie went into the basketball season bent on impressing recruiters from major colleges. And he apparently did. Jessie said some of the schools that showed an interest were UCLA, USC, Colorado, Kansas, Washington, Nevada Las Vegas and Pittsburgh. That was until he failed an algebra class that was part of the core curriculum required by the NCAA for high school athletes planning to attend four-year colleges.

“I was taking geometry in night school and I passed it, but I failed algebra. That did me in,” said Jessie, who scored high enough on his Scholastic Aptitude Test to qualify to play as a freshman.

By failing the class, Jessie’s grade-point average in core classes dipped under the 2.0 needed to satisfy NCAA eligibility rules. That would have forced Jessie to forfeit his freshman athletic season in a four-year college and maintain the GPA standard set by the individual school. So Jessie chose instead the junior college route, where the eligibility guidelines don’t apply, and first considered playing football and basketball at Orange Coast College until his father suggested they contact Mathews.

“I was telling Henry (Dyer, Cal State Los Angeles basketball coach) that my kid might have to go to junior college and I wanted to get him into a school that had a good academic and a good athletic program,” said Ron Jessie, who played with Dyer on the Rams and is now a supervisor with the Santa Ana Recreation and Parks Department. “That’s when Henry recommended Ventura.

“I felt he should get away from home for a while. If he went to a JC down in Orange County, he would have been hanging around with the same crowd. They have a laid back, beach mentality. I wanted him to concentrate on what he had to do with his studies and have a more positive influence. I’m very pleased so far with everything that’s happening.”

Once Jessie visited Ventura with his parents and older brother, he was sold on Mathews and his program. He had started toying with the idea of playing football, but Mathews convinced him to stick with basketball because playing two sports would have taken too much time away from schoolwork.

“I knew from the beginning that Ventura was a winning program,” Jessie said. “It’s the best decision I’ve made. . . . I know Coach will help me get my academics together.”

There were times, however, when Jessie’s budding athletic career was the one in doubt.

His mother, Sharon, is a devout Jehovah’s Witness who raised Jessie and his brother, Ron Jr., in the strict code of the religion. Ron Jessie is not a member of the group, but the boys attended meetings with their mother and Ron Jr.--who was never seriously involved in sports--still does. Brandon, on the other hand, hasn’t been as committed since moving to Ventura.

The religion’s dogma, Jessie said, clashed with his desire to play sports. Until high school, his only real sports experience was one season on a youth baseball team or in pickup basketball games at a park near his home. When he got the opportunity to play at Edison, Jessie appealed to his mother.

“They (Jehovah’s Witnesses) don’t disapprove of you playing sports, but they don’t encourage it,” Jessie said. “My mom thought I would be around people who would be a bad influence, the party crowds and all that stuff. She wanted me to devote myself to the religion. I was living at home and going by her rules, but we all talked it out as a family. To this day, she doesn’t like me playing.”

But, Jessie said, she tolerates it more now and has even attended some of his junior college games with Ron Jessie, who is a fixture among Pirate rooters in the bleachers. After all, Jessie is part of an outstanding basketball program, one that could open doors to prestigious four-year schools.

That means, of course, listening to Mathews for another season.

“The first time he yelled at me I said, ‘I want to go home,’ ” Jessie said. “He tells everyone that if you have a thin skin, you can’t play for him. So I’ve been thickening my skin pretty quick.”