Clutch Herndon Shooter Jonathan Beltran Headed to Marymount

With a mop of thick dark hair pointing all different directions poised atop a body that looks as if it could stand to be a little more chiseled, Jonathan Beltran doesn’t look like a college basketball player.

In fact, he fits in better with the scrapping-for-a-run underclassmen standing on the sidelines in Herndon basketball coach Chris Whelan’s open gym than he does with Elon-bound Austin Hamilton, Herndon legend Scottie Reynolds and former Westfield star Erroll Robinson, who were all hustling up-and-down the court during a pick-up game last week.

But Beltran, who nailed more than 50-percent of his three pointers last season as the Hornets advanced to the semifinals of the Northern Region tournament, won’t be on the sidelines this fall. He’ll be playing basketball and studying  Physical Therapy at Division III Marymount University in Arlington.

“He’s not going to pass the eye test,” said Marymount coach Chris Rogers, who played basketball for Penn State in the 1990s, recounting what Whelan told him about Beltran. “But he’s tough as nails, and he’s a great shooter.”

And that’s something the Saints, who finished 6-19 in Rogers’ second year, can use. Even if it comes in a package that barely stands 5-foot-10. “Any kid that shows up and shows some kind of athleticism and toughness, and can pick up what we’re doing , is going to have an opportunity,” Rogers said of Beltran’s anticipated role next year.

“Jonathan Beltran got the most out of what God gave him on the basketball floor. And he’s only getting better,” Whelan said about his All-Concorde District guard. “His name’s going to go up on the wall (of Herndon’s gym).”

As Beltran runs the floor, his looks allow him to fly under the radar. He says other players underestimate his skills because he doesn’t look like a basketball player—he’s not 6-foot-6 and lean.

“People underestimate me because of how I look, and of course, I’m Asian,” said Beltran, whose parents are from the Philippines.  “All the people who talked trash on the court helped me strive to become better. It made me work harder and go to the gym to shoot more.”

Sometimes that shooting came during early morning sessions before school that paid off during games.

“He doesn’t really look like a basketball player, but once he steps on that floor, he’ll give it to you,” said Hamilton, who has played with Beltran since they were in sixth grade. “You can sleep on him all you want, but he’ll find ways to get it in the basket.”

While Robinson, who played for Slippery Rock University after his career at Westfield, drove through traffic for lay-ups and Reynolds calculated his next move on the perimeter, Beltran was fighting through screens on defense and floating to the wing on offense while looking for an open shot. Once the game got going, he fit in just fine.

And without Beltran, Whelan said, there’s no way the Hornets would have made it within a few shots of the state tournament.

“They just had an unbelievable year, and every time I saw him, he (did) things. He gets by people and he makes good plays,” Rogers said. “It helps to have an Austin Hamilton there with him, but Jonathan, he makes shots, he’s tough, he takes care of the ball. They beat teams they probably shouldn’t have beaten, and not just once, but two or three times.

 The more they won, I’m just like, ‘this kid’s a player, he’s got to be able to play (somewhere).’ It’s not really scientific.”

Beltran helped the Hornets come from a dozen points down in the second half to win the district championship game against Chantilly. It was the third time Herndon downed the Chargers in 2010-11. He said his team was depressed in the locker room at halftime, thinking its season was about to end. But Beltran, Hamilton and Raleigh McKenzie pulled the team together.

“We said ‘we worked so hard to come this far. We just can’t lose,’” Beltran said.

Late in the third quarter, Beltran and Hamilton teamed up for six quick points that gave the Hornets a one-point lead en route to 64-58 win.

“Patrick McLaughlin gave me the ball, and—we’ve been doing this for years—I saw Austin out of the corner of my eye coming behind me and I just dropped the ball off, and I knew it was going in, he wasn’t going to miss that big shot,” Beltran said. “It cut the lead to two and then I remember hitting a three to put us up by one after that.”

Whelan said Beltran will be hard to replace. He will be missed on the court. 

But there’s a segment of the population in Herndon that will miss Jonathan Beltran more than most.

Those who run Chipotle and Five Guys came to count on Beltran as a great customer.

“I’ve never seen anybody eat as much as Jonathan,” Hamilton said, smiling. “He can go through probably two Chipotle burritos and it won’t even faze him. He can chow down. … If he didn’t play basketball, who knows (what he would look like).”