Slain Bayview athlete soared high, fell hard

(07-03) 21:53 PDT -- San Francisco, like every big city, has a mythical basketball team of lost souls who are remembered with sadness and with stories of their feats and their wasted potential.

Stephen Powell Jr. is now on that team. His dream of becoming a real basketball star died a week ago Saturday night when the 19-year-old was shot and killed at the corner of Market and Castro.

Three years ago, Powell, a pint-size high school sophomore from the Bayview, scored 50 points in a game. He had dazzling skills and a personality to match.

"I had the misfortune of coaching against him (in high school), and the pleasure of coaching him (in Amateur Athletic Union ball)," said Randy Bessolo, coach at University High. "He was just a joy to be around. He had a great sense of humor. Everyone around him enjoyed his company, and none of his fun or humor ever detracted from his productivity."

What did detract, and prove fatal, was Powell's inability to pull himself away from old friends on the streets of the Bayview. Police say Powell's killing was gang-related.

They arrested 20-year-old Ed Perkins on weapons charges but lacked sufficient evidence to charge him with murder. Police say Powell knew Perkins.

Powell's parents insist their son was not in a gang, but admit that he didn't break free of friends whose street world clashed - violently - with Stephen's world of potential.

"Don't say my son was part of a gang, because he was not," Stacey Powell said. "He was loyal to his (old) friends. Some of them he played basketball with as kids; they were old teammates. And they were in the same boat (unemployed)."

But as Stephen Powell Sr. said, "You get to a certain age, you make choices for yourself. I don't sugarcoat anything. All I know is my son is dead."

A loving family

The younger Powell's downfall won't be chalked up to the cliche of the inner-city child falling victim to parental neglect and a failed educational system.

Bessolo said, "The sad part - well, it's all sad - but he's got two wonderful parents who were constantly involved and supporting him. Usually in cases like this, you have absentee parents, but not in this case. They couldn't be more loving and supporting."

Their love was returned. Powell would tell his mother, who called her son "Boss," that he would become an NBA star and buy her a new home and car. The NBA might have been an unrealistic goal for a young man who was 5-foot-10 and 165 pounds. But ...

"I've never been one of those coaches who say, 'I've got the next Michael Jordan,' " said Deon Otis, Stephen's first coach (fourth-grade Catholic Youth Organization) and his last coach (AAU ball last summer). "But there's no doubt Stephen could have played Division I. Easy."

Otis added: "Most other kids didn't play as hard as he did. He was one kid, I would tell the other players, 'You guys need to bring your game up to his level.' "

Powell was to the manor born. His mom had been point guard on a state championship team at Woodrow Wilson High (she also ran track) and dad was point guard on a high school state championship team in Alabama (and later at a community college, and on a high-level club team in San Francisco).

Stephen Sr. and Stacey met when she visited her grandmother in Sylacauga, Ala. Stephen Sr. lived across the street. He was shooting hoops one day and noticed Stacey watching.

"I hear you play," he said to her. "Come on out here and let's see what you got."

Stephen followed Stacey back to San Francisco. Stephen Jr. was born in 1990, and three years later, the Powells bought a home in the Bayview. They would have two daughters, Ashley (now 15) and Kimberly (13).

Motivated to excel

The Powells didn't have to push their son to play basketball, simply provide the opportunities. Stephen Sr. is employed with a security company, Stacey is in banking, and both parents worked extra jobs to pay for basketball-camp tuitions and AAU fees. Stacey still referees rec-league basketball.

Powell loved to compete. The family equipped its home with a ping-pong table and a pool table. He also played football, baseball, tennis, track, lacrosse and chess.

Powell's parents sent him to Stuart Hall High, a private all-boys school of 160 students in Pacific Heights. Stuart Hall is in the Bay Counties League West, a small league whose top basketball teams often hold their own against Bay Area powerhouse schools. He was an instant star.

"He was a nightmare for the other teams, even as a freshman," said Will McCulloch, who covered prep sports for The Chronicle. "He was so great to watch. He really played hard, and he seemed very coachable, didn't have an attitude. He had fabulous instincts, and he was fearless."

Mitch Stephens of CBS MaxPreps said Powell was one of San Francisco's most celebrated prep boys basketball players in recent years.

As a sophomore in 2006-07, Powell averaged 21.2 points and Stuart Hall went 24-6. He scored 50 against Oceana-Pacifica, gaining instant celebrity that eventually worked against him. Because when Powell and other boys were caught stealing laptops and he was expelled, Powell wasn't merely a student who made a mistake - he was a fallen legend.

Powell had been "beloved" on campus, Stuart Hall admissions director and assistant coach Tony Farrell told the Examiner, but now he was out in the cold.

"It was a downward spiral," Stephen Sr. said. "A teenage boy on a plateau like that, he was like a mini-celebrity. When he failed, he was embarrassed. He couldn't recover."

Struggle to get on track

Powell enrolled at Lincoln High but was ineligible to play basketball as a junior.

"It seemed like he was getting some things together (the summer after his junior year)," Lincoln coach Mike Gragnani said. "He was doing great, he was fitting in real well with our kids. ... You saw glimpses of greatness.

"And he was a real nice kid, real pleasant, real personable. He was a kid you enjoyed being around. He really enjoyed himself and his teammates."

But: "At the start of his senior year, he kind of got lost again," Gragnani said. "Just seemed like he couldn't stay away from the streets. His mom was trying everything she could to keep him involved in positive outlets."

Powell left Lincoln and enrolled at Ida B. Wells, a public alternative school, but dropped out and earned his GED.

Last summer, Powell returned to basketball, with the AAU San Francisco Rebels, coached/mentored by Otis, long a secondary father figure.

"I didn't start him at first," Otis said. "I wanted to teach him a lesson and get him hungry and focused again. He hadn't played in six months, but he climbed back up the ladder real fast."

Bessolo, a Rebels assistant coach, said, "We played some of the top teams in the country. ... Stephen was excelling against some of the top high school players in the country."

A community college in Washington state offered Powell a chance to play. He visited the school but, said his parents, he became homesick and returned ... and soon was back on the streets, where his story ended.

E-mail Scott Ostler at sostler@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page B - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle