Nahshon Wright had simply made an enormous play for the Chicago Bears, and in spectacular trend.
The fifth-year cornerback leaped excessive in full dash together with his hand stretched over his head to intercept a go by Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy in the long run zone to protect a 10-3 Bears lead late within the second quarter.
No wild celebration adopted. As an alternative, Wright jogged to the again of the top zone and took a knee in reminiscence of Oakland soccer legend John Beam, the previous soccer coach at Laney Faculty who died Friday after being shot on campus a day earlier.
“He was watching over me,” Wright, who performed for Beam at Laney in 2018, mentioned after the Bears’ 19-17 victory on Sunday . “It’s loopy. He known as me the evening earlier than he handed and he advised me that each sport he watched, I simply appeared to get a choose. So I simply know he was behind me at present.”
Simply earlier than midday Thursday, the Oakland Police Division responded to experiences of gunshots at Laney and located Beam affected by gunshot wounds. He was transported to an space hospital, the place he was listed in essential situation. At roughly 10 a.m. the subsequent day, Beam was pronounced lifeless.
Oakland police arrested 27-year-old Oakland resident Cedric Irving Jr. as a suspect within the case early Friday morning on the San Leandro BART station. Irving is a former soccer participant at Skyline Excessive Faculty the place Beam as soon as coached, however police mentioned he didn’t play underneath Beam.
Former Laney Faculty soccer coach John Beam holds the trophy after the Eagles received the California Group Faculty Athletic Assn. championship in 2018.
(Peralta Group Faculty District by way of Related Press)
Irving and Beam knew one another however weren’t shut, performing Oakland Police Chief James Beere mentioned Friday at a information convention. Beere added that Irving isn’t a pupil at Laney however “was on campus for a selected cause” on Thursday.
“This was a really focused incident,” Beere mentioned.
On Monday, Irving was charged with homicide and 10 different felonies associated to Beam’s demise. Alameda County Dist. Atty. Ursula Jones Dickson mentioned throughout a day information convention that Irving faces 50 years to life in jail if convicted.
Irving is scheduled for arraignment Tuesday, Jones Dickson mentioned.
Beam coached soccer in Oakland for greater than 40 years. He got here to Laney as operating backs coach in 2004, was promoted to offensive coordinator in 2005 and was head coach from 2012 to 2024. Upon retirement from teaching, Beam continued to function Laney’s athletic director, a publish he had held since 2006.
For a lot of of his gamers and members of the neighborhood, Beam was far more than a coach, as seen by viewers of Season 5 of the Netflix documentary collection “Final Likelihood U,” which centered on Beam and the Eagles through the 2019 soccer season.
“Filming with him at Laney Faculty gave us a firsthand take a look at his ardour, his integrity, and his unwavering dedication to the younger males he coached — and to the town of Oakland,” the present’s creator, Greg Whiteley, wrote Friday on X.
Wright advised reporters that Beam was “somebody I might open up to, somebody that I really like dearly.” He added that the coach crammed an enormous void for him and his brother — New Orleans Saints cornerback Rejzohn Wright, who performed at Laney in 2018 and 2019 — after the demise of their father in 2017.
“Beam stepped in, stepped in as a father determine, a father function,” Nahshon Wright mentioned. “He did quite a bit for me and my brother, my household. He’s been there. He’s been there each step of the way in which, and it received’t cease. I gained an angel, for certain.”
In a scene from “Final Likelihood U,” Laney coach John Beam talks to participant Rejzohn Wright.
(Netflix)
Rejzohn Wright reposted a video clip of his brother’s interception and its aftermath on X and wrote: “Lengthy dwell Coach beam perpetually with us!”
In an Oct. 19 Instagram publish, Beam wrote that he was “in Chicago to observe the brothers battle” because the Bears hosted the Saints. The delight and love Beam felt towards his former gamers was greater than evident within the pictures he posted and the phrases he wrote.
“The Wright Approach — all the time consider and preserve grinding, by no means hand over and consider the trail will open up,” Beam wrote.
