Skyline’s football field will soon carry a new namesake to honor beloved Coach John Edward Beam.
Skyline Athletic Director Koresh Adams announced the decision on Dec. 4. The project had already been in the works and was originally planned as a surprise for the first football game of the 2026 season, but after Beam’s tragic death, Adams
said the time to announce the tribute was now.
Coach Beam, widely known and loved around Oakland and made more famous in the Netflix Series “Last Chance U,” was shot by a gunman at Laney College on Thursday, Nov. 13. He died the next day at Highland Hospital.
Beam spent 22 years at Skyline, five as defensive coordinator and 17 as head football coach. He recorded 160 wins, 33 losses and three ties, winning 15 Oakland Athletic League championships and 11 Oakland Section titles. His teams had four undefeated seasons. In 1997 he was named California Coach of the Year.
To many, Coach Beam’s legacy was how he cared for people. “He was the big brother that I didn’t have,” said Skyline PE teacher James Salazar. “He looked after me and made sure I was alright.”
Dance teacher Dawn James was close friends with Coach Beam for 33 years. “He was a colleague. He was like a brother to me. He always looked out for me. He was a role model. He was a force everywhere he went,” Ms. James told The Oracle.
Less than 24 hours before he was shot, Coach Beam checked in on Ms. James after hearing about the Skyline shooting.
“‘Did anybody come check on you? Did Coach Sal come check on you? Did anybody come? Because you know, if you need me, I’ll be there. You know that,
right?’” Ms. James recalled.
Many say this moment captured the kind of person Coach Beam was: someone who showed up for others without hesitation.
Last week, Ms. James dedicated a dance about gun violence at Spirit of Dance to Coach Beam. The performance was preceded by a slideshow honoring his life.
Laney College also held a tribute on Wednesday, Dec. 10, when more than a thousand people retraced Coach Beam’s steps from the main campus to the football field along a path lit with luminaries. On the field, candles spelled “BELIEVE,” videos of Coach Beam played on the scoreboard, and a light show created by hundreds of drones illuminated the sky.
As the Skyline community mourns, staff say the best way to honor Coach Beam is to live out the values he modeled daily: showing up for others, supporting one another through difficult moments, and striving to be the best we can be.
Many will motivate others using Beam’s phrase: “Two Claps, Ready, Ready.”
