Mr. Everything thrives at Jordan

It’s lunch time at Jordan High in Los Angeles, and football Coach Elijah Asante is quietly fuming.

He had invited a visitor to campus to meet sophomore DeShawn Beck, who has played a key role in the Bulldogs’ rise to the top of the Eastern League standings, but Beck has slipped out and gone to a restaurant a few blocks from campus.

Beck sheepishly admitted he heard some choice words from his coach when he returned, along with a promise of extra work at practice that day. “I will be running laps,” he said.

For Beck, 15, that’s like adding layers of whipped cream on strawberry shortcake. Running, as his time of 4.5 seconds in the 40-yard dash suggests, is one of his gifts. So is, coaches say, his innate ability to navigate a football field without his 5-foot-8, 155-pound frame being crushed by bigger, older players.

When asked the secret of his success, Beck shrugged. “It’s just the way I play.” Beck has done some of everything for Jordan (7-3) this season. As a running back, he has gained 494 yards and scored four touchdowns in 57 carries. As a receiver, he has 25 catches for 508 yards and seven touchdowns. And as one of three quarterbacks, he has completed 17 of 28 passes for 289 yards and two touchdowns with one interception.

If that isn’t enough, Beck has kicked 11 extra points, handled kicking and punting chores and returned kickoffs and punts.

His versatility will be crucial for Jordan in its first-round playoff game Thursday afternoon against visiting Woodland Hills Taft (7-3).

Right now, Jordan is just happy to be in the playoffs after City Section officials recently investigated the program for player eligibility concerns. Though City officials are still looking into what they termed “administrative errors,” Jordan will not have to forfeit any victories.

“We knew that our players were eligible and confident in the outcome,” Asante said of the investigation.

Asante is also confident that Beck has the talent to become a City player-of-the-year candidate.

“He started last year as a ninth-grader and made all-league,” the coach said. “He’s like [NBA star] Allen Iverson playing football. He can stop and go on a dime. He can regulate his speed. He’s got about five different gears. He’s truly an amazing athlete.”

But, Asante added, “He’s very much a kid. He doesn’t have a big head, but he’s very nonchalant about everything.” But outside of occasional teenage mischief, Asante says Beck is not a discipline problem.

That becomes apparent when you talk to Beck. He’s not rude or boorish, but many of his answers were “yes” and “no” with no elaboration. He rarely looks directly at you when he talks, making you wonder if you’re both involved in the conversation.

But he has no attention issues on the football field.

Beck’s football abilities were spotted early. From 2004 to 2006 he played for the Compton Titans (now Vikings) in the Snoop Dogg Pop Warner League. His youth coach, Haamid Wadood, an assistant at Compton Dominguez, said Beck not only had physical talent but a sense of how and when to make a key play.

“Whenever we needed a big play, it was him that did it,” Wadood said. “Fearless, but also smart. And more smart than fearless. If the opponent was bigger than him, he would beat him with his mind.”

Wadood would have preferred if Beck had enrolled at Dominguez, but Beck wanted to attend his neighborhood school. He lives in the Jordan Downs housing project with his mother, April, who is a school bus driver for Laidlaw, and an older brother, Simmie, who is a Los Angeles City sanitation worker. Simmie and another brother, Prentiss, who does not live with them, played at Jordan.

His father Joe, a construction worker, does not live with the family.

“I came here because it was my home school, and I was well acquainted with everyone around here,” Beck said. “I felt comfortable.”

Now if he could just get his lunch plans straightened out.

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mike.terry@latimes.com