He’s the active ingredient
From the moment Christopher Bearden showed up on the campus of La Habra Sonora four years ago, he has been anything but invisible.
On his first day of school, he wore what basketball Coach Mike Murphy described as an “all-white tuxedo.”
“What are you doing, Chris?” Murphy said.
“I want to make an impression,” Bearden replied.
“Well, you have,” Murphy said.
At lunchtime, while most kids huddled around the quad, eating, talking and socializing, Bearden headed to the library. If he wasn’t in the library, he was reading by his locker or reading in the gym.
“Chris seems different,” a classmate observed. “He goes off by himself and reads all the time.”
After basketball games, he has been known to sprint outside the gym if that’s what it takes to shake hands with the officials.
“I try to shake their hands before and after to let them know I appreciate the job they do,” he said.
During games, Bearden runs around the court acting as if he has consumed 10 cans of an energy drink. He’s so animated that Murphy had to warn other coaches in the Freeway League that his senior guard wasn’t trying to be boastful or conceited.
“I just feel passionate about basketball, and when our team is doing well, I scream,” Bearden said. “I like to show I’m having a lot of fun out there.”
Two weeks ago, after returning from attending the inauguration of President Obama, Bearden wore an Obama T-shirt during warmups for a game against Fullerton.
“The excitement of Washington D.C. was amazing,” he said. “It was an experience I’ll remember the rest of my life.”
Welcome to the life and times of an 18-year-old who his coach calls “a once-in-a-lifetime player.”
“He’s truly an amazing individual,” Murphy said.
Averaging 16 points a game for Sonora (21-1), ranked No. 12 by The Times, the 6-foot-1 Bearden has a 3.8 grade-point average and wants to become a director, actor or cinematographer.
His energy is passed on to teammates, which helps explain how the Raiders are able to play defense with so much vigor.
“Our team feeds off him,” Murphy said. “If you didn’t know him, you’d think the guy is crazy. It consumes him when he gets on the court. He doesn’t hold anything inside. He’s one of the only players I’ve ever told, ‘You need to slow down a little bit.’ ”
Bearden has opened up since his freshman year, when he came from a small Christian school determined not to let his values be influenced or corrupted.
“I absolutely knew nobody,” he said. “I wanted to start my high school career off with a bang.”
That helps explains his all-white outfit and Afro.
“People had their eyes on me and were asking, “Who are you?’ I didn’t care if people were saying, ‘Is he weird? Is he cool?’ I just wanted attention,” Bearden said.
On Wednesday, Sonora will play at neighborhood rival La Habra in a game for first place in the league. If somehow you can get a seat in the sold-out gym, watch how much Bearden enjoys the moment.
“It’s ridiculous,” he said of the rivalry game. “Sometimes we don’t need to warm up because it’s burning up. The gym is packed, there’s constant noise and cheering. Every basket sounds like a game winner. It’s a lot of fun, a lot of energy, a lot of excitement.”
As for what the future holds for Bearden, Holy Cross and Harvard have inquired about his basketball skills. But others have a suspicion he’s an actor in the making.
As Murphy said, “If he could, he’d come to school every day in a Joker’s costume because he loves that Batman movie.”
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