It would come as a surprise to many that Grant Hill, a 2-time NCAA basketball champion, a 7-time NBA all-star and former Olympic basketball player, is not the all-time leading scorer in South Lakes High School's boys basketball history. That honor belongs to a 6-foot 10-inch former McDonald's All-American (1993) named Joey Beard, who recorded 2,138 points in his career — exactly 110 points more than Hill.
"With Joey, he was so humble, it wasn't something that he would walk around with a big [sign] on his chest," said South Lakes assistant basketball coach Irvin Greene, who was also Beard's first hoops coach with the Reston Select Seahawks 13U squad.
"He was a big old bean pole," said Greene of Beard, who was 6-foot-3 by the time he was 12-years-old.
"My freshman year, I had met [South Lakes head coach Wendell Byrd] and I had been playing for Irvin for years before," said Beard. "I always heard the possibility that they might have me try out for varsity, but the only other guy to do that was Grant. I didn't really think it was a possibility."
So, on the first day of tryouts, Beard started making his way to the freshman team practice area. "Wendell grabbed me and said 'no you are over here,'" remembered Beard, who was led to varsity practice. "I had a lot more fear than excitement."
Beard got over that fear in his coming out party in the regional tournament that year with three powerful dunks in the semifinal.
"He just came down through the middle and had three of the same kinds of dunks," remembered Greene. "Coaches were looking like, 'Damn, is this kid a freshman?'"
Byrd remembered Beard's dunks and knew that he had found someone special.
"You are shocked at first when he throws one down over top of someone," said Byrd. "It was an awakening to everyone and to himself as well, that he was capable of producing that way. This was the type of player that he can be and will be."
The dunks gave Beard the confidence he needed.
"I think that's what put me on the map," he said. "I had my confidence and my teammates had confidence in me."
But Beard, who was not yet comfortable playing as a big man at 6-foot 10-inches tall, would take until his junior year — the season after Hill left for his first year at Duke — to truly grow into his body frame.
"Grant really kind of opened people's eyes to me," said Beard. "They saw this 6-10 athletic kid that was young and raw and Grant was the same way when he was a freshman."
Beard did what Hill did — he took the lead role.
AS A JUNIOR, Beard recorded 22.5 points per game, 10 rebounds, 4 assists and 2.5 blocked shots per game. He helped Byrd to his sixth consecutive 20-win season and to the school's second regional title (1991-1992).
"A lot of people don't realize, he was a tremendous outside scorer as well," said Byrd of Beard, who shot 28-percent behind the 3-point line as a senior.
Beard helped South Lakes to a 17-4 regular season record and Great Falls District title (10-1) by leading the team in the following categories as a senior:
Points per game: 20
Rebounds per game: 10.3
Blocks per game: 1.6
He also recorded 2.4 steals per game, 2.9 assists per game. He was intent on winning another regional title before he left South Lakes. He showed that by scoring 35 points and hauling in 27 rebounds in the 97-81 regional tournament opener against T.C. Williams. The win not only continued South Lakes' 15-game winning streak but gave Byrd his seventh 20-win season in nine years and a career 189-44 record heading into the regional quarterfinals.
Beard, that year's regional player of the year, helped the Seahawks topple Hayfield in a low-scoring 46-43 game in front of a crowd of 5,000 at Robinson Secondary for its second consecutive Northern Region title.
The victory would be short-lived as the state-favorite Seahawks were stumped by Woodbridge (25-2), which ran a box-and-1 defense holding Beard to a season-low four points en route to the 50-49 double overtime thriller at Robinson ending South Lakes's season at 23-5. Beard was selected as a third team Parade All-American and the recruiting battle, which had showed signs of life prior to his junior year, intensified. Beard, who had been receiving recruiting letters since he was in eighth grade, had already narrowed his choices down to the University of North Carolina, Duke, Notre Dame and the University of Virginia. In all, Beard won two Great Falls District Championships (1989-1990, 1992-1993), three regional championships (1989-1990, 1991-1992, 1992-1993) and he had been to three state tournaments. He was the regional Player of the Year twice and the state Player of the Year as a senior (1993) — beating out future college and NBA stars like Allen Iverson (AAA POY 1994) and Joe Smith — and was selected as a McDonald's All-American as a senior.
"My high school career couldn't have been better," said Beard. "I was the type of player that Wendell really liked to coach, the 'mobile big guy.' Back then, there weren't a lot of big guys that were running the break or shooting the three and Wendell was one of a few coaches that encouraged me to do that."
BEARD, WHO HAD signed with Duke as soon as he could, was shocked when he arrived in Durham, N.C.
"I'm 18 years old, and I'm one of the top five players in the nation, so I'm coming in expecting to play right away," remembered Beard. "I want to prove myself and play immediately. That was the assumption that I got. I went in there with that attitude rather than having to earn my spot. That was the best of the best. I thought I could breeze right in and fit right in."
Beard, sat the bench for the majority of his freshman season and played only 64 minutes in 16 games and recorded 1.3 points per game, three assists, and 0.5 rebounds per game. He returned his sophomore year with a different outlook.
"I came back and readjusted my attitude and wanted to work hard," said Beard, who was then diagnosed with mononucleosis and did not agree with Duke's coaching staff that wanted to red-shirt him.
The former VHSL Player of the Year was considering not even playing basketball and leaving Duke.
"I really lost my confidence and I didn't think I would be able to regain it at Duke," said Beard, who transferred to Boston University, where he sits fourth all-time in field goal percentage (.533). He scored 958 points in three years and averaged 11.6 points per game.
For the last several years, Beard has played his professional career overseas and has even retained dual citizenship in Italy. He currently plays with Benetton Basket Treviso and was part of the BBT team that won the 2005 Italian National Cup. In two seasons with BBT he has averaged just under three points per game. When he and his wife Elizabeth — a professional beach volleyball player and physical therapist — are in the United States, they live in Atlanta, Ga.
Joey Beard is 43 in a survey of the area's Top 100 Athletes by Connection Newspapers in 2000.