By Kim J. Harmon

 

DANBURY – A sweet, long-range jumper or a slashing drive to the basket were never really tools of the trade for Jayme Beckham.

No, her tools of the trade – from four years at Newtown High School right through four years at Western Connecticut State University – have been leadership, intensity, work ethic and fearlessness on the basketball court.

And those aspects are the things that have made her the indispensable player she is today for the Lady Colonials.

“I had expectations going in,” said Beckham, 20, in her second year as co-captain, “but my experiences have exceeded those expectations. You don’t really get the full glimpse of it until you are a senior and have a chance to look back.”

Beckham carved out a fine career for herself at Newtown High, as a junior helping lead the Lady Nighthawks to a South-West Conference championship in 1999-2000. Even though numbers were never her forte (she scored 407 points in her career, 29th on the all-time scoring list) she nevertheless was a powerful weapon for head coach Gregg Simon and was, perhaps, at her best when she was the sixth man.

When it came time to look towards college, she knew she wanted to keep playing but was hoping to find a school close to home.

“When an (WCSU) assistant came to see me play, that made my decision for me” said Beckham, who had simple hopes for her impending collegiate career. “All I wanted was a career that similar to my high school career, where I could be a leader and one day hold a captain’s role.”

One might think Beckham would have had to adjust her game in order to play Division III basketball, but that was not so.

“You don’t change it,” she said, “but you make it stronger and develop it more.”

Her first year on the floor at WCSU was the last in the tenure of former head coach Jody Rajcula and Beckham saw limited action, appearing in 15 games and taking just 29 shots (canning 13 of those) while scoring a mere 33 points (2.2 per game).

“It’s a whole new world,” said Beckham, “and it can be intimidating. College basketball is a huge mental step to take – everything from the coaches’ intensity to the more intense practices and more intricate plays.”

Beckham learned a lot sitting on the bench for the Lady Colonials and was ready when her time came as a sophomore – just as the program was shifting gears, with coach Rajcula stepping down and coach Rybczyk stepping in.

“It was a big changeover,” said Beckham, “and I was nervous.”

But coach Rybczyk – a 1988 graduate of WCSU and former head coach at Southwestern University – told Beckham what she expected, what she wanted, and told the sophomore guard, “We need your leadership, your knowledge on the floor. We need your intensity and your work ethic.”

And Beckham delivered.

In 25 games (starting 19 of those), Beckham averaged 24.6 minutes per game while scoring 5.4 points per game (48-of-131 from the floor and 37-of-67 from the free throw line) and bringing down 4.0 rebounds per game. She was also second on the team with 15 blocked shots.

As a junior last year, Beckham appeared in 26 games (starting 22 of those) and averaged 4.6 points per game (46-of-128 from the floor and 26-of-41 from the free throw line) and bringing down 3.1 rebounds per game.

But both years, the Lady Colonials finished 9-17 – the third and fourth consecutive losing seasons for a program that had not suffered through a losing season since 1981-82 and enjoyed 16 consecutive appearances in either the NCAA or ECAC tournaments.

“You have to look at those as building years,” said Beckham, “and you have to look at what steps you are making within yourselves. Even though the records were the same, we made some big strides as a team.”

This year, the Lady Colonials are off to a 6-4 start after returning from the four-day Surf ‘n’ Slam Tournament in San Diego, California. WCSU picked up its Little East schedule on Tuesday with a visit to Skidmore and will be at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth on Saturday before returning home next Tuesday for a game against Keene State.

Things seem to be looking up for the Lady Colonials. Can the team make its first trip to either the ECAC or NCAA tournament since 1999-2000?

“We’re capable,” said Beckham, “but we are young.”

Beckham – who is majoring in English and secondary education – dreams of leading the Lady Colonials into the post-season (the post-season beyond the Little East Tournament) and maybe along the way she can realize her other dream.

“I definitely want to help build a foundation for the future of the program,” she said.

And it certainly appears as if she is doing just that.