Inner fire

Dundee-Crown senior guard Jeff Beck is The Courier-News Player of the Year.
(Michael Smart/Staff Photographer)

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Jeff Beck's cool and calm personality is very well documented, but beneath that outer layer is a fierce competitive streak.

Losing just doesn't sit well with the Dundee-Crown senior. Just ask longtime friend and teammate Justin Strzelczyk.

"That's how Jeff has always been," Strzelczyk said. "If it's video games, volleyball in his back yard or whatever, he always has to win at everything."

Beck's competitive nature served him well during his third and final varsity basketball season. As D-C's point guard and undisputed floor leader, he was the driving force behind a season that ended with a fourth-place finish in the Class 4A state tournament and a school record for wins.

Along the way Beck became D-C's single-season scoring leader, amassing 532 points to top the previous record of 493 points set by Mike McKibben in 1999. Beck finished the year averaging 17.2 points, but his 5.6 rebounds, team-best 2.5 assists and team-leading 1.6 steals per game illustrate that his value to the team went far beyond scoring.

For his efforts Beck landed spots on the All-Fox Valley Conference team and Illinois Basketball Coaches Association Class 3A/4A All-State fourth team. To the list of accolades he can also add 2009 Courier-News Player of the Year.

"I would take 1,000 Jeff Becks any day, any year," D-C coach Lance Huber said. "He was one of the most competitive players that I've ever coached. He doesn't really have the emotional side where people see it on the court, but when you watch him play in practice each day and see what he'll do to win, you know that he has that competitive fire and it burns pretty deep. He just hates to lose."

That competitive fire burned hotter than ever for Beck as D-C advanced deeper and deeper in the postseason.

In the Elgin Sectional championship game against St. Charles North, it was Beck who calmly delivered the game-winning shot from 15 feet with five seconds left and a defender in his face. Four days later, he poured in a season-high 29 points to lift the Chargers to a shocking upset win against Neuqua Valley in the NIU Super-Sectional.

While carrying his team to the State Finals in Peoria satisfied Beck's deep desire to win, it also kept the win-at-all-costs competitor from feeling the disappointment of a season-ending defeat until the last possible moment.

"I knew we were capable of winning a lot of games and I just didn't want that last game to come," Beck said. "A lot of the guys would come up to me and say 'If we lose this, it's going to be your fault.' It wasn't in a mean way or anything, but they were just saying 'You're going to carry this.'

"I didn't want that to be on my shoulders. I knew what we were capable of, so I just wanted to end my senior year with a bang."

Beck says he can't really identify a key influence on his basketball career. Sandwiched between two older and three younger sisters, Beck grew up the only boy in his house. He says he idolized Allen Iverson, which explains the gritty playing style Beck employs.

If anything, Beck grew to be the player he is today through hard work. Huber estimates he can count on one hand the number of in-season and off-season practices Beck missed during his three-year varsity career.

That diligence helped Beck develop into the team's leader. For all of his on-court heroics, Beck's efforts behind the scenes were equally important to D-C's success.

"He just kind of willed our team to make sure we wouldn't be denied," Huber said. "He made sure we practiced well every day and he got on guys when he needed to. He would really lead by example in our film session when we had to take notes for our scouting report.

"I just can't say enough good things about Jeff. He's just a good, solid, fundamental high school basketball player and a super kid."

More basketball is in the future for Beck, who is being recruited by a number of Division III programs, including St. Norbert College in Wisconsin, Lake Forest College and Benedictine University. He said he plans on visiting a number of schools in the next few weeks with the hopes of making a final decision within a month.

Wherever the game takes Beck, he can rest assured his legacy at D-C is safe.

In addition to his single-season scoring mark, Beck also owns the school record for field goals in a season with 200. For both accomplishments, his name will go on the wall in D-C's field house recognizing the basketball team's individual record-holders. Beck also joined the school's 1,000-point club in the final game of the year and finished his three varsity seasons with 1,007 points.

While those milestones are nice, Beck said he's glad they won't define his high school career.

"A lot of people might play on some bad teams and achieve those accomplishments and that's really all they have to look back on," Beck said. "Accomplishing those is great and a cool thing, but that will just be a little side note to what our team accomplished.

"If we didn't go as far as we did it might seem a little more important, but because our team played so well and got so far in the tournament, those are just little side notes that don't really mean too much compared to the season we had as a team."