Courtney Beasley
Basketball
Courtney Beasley could have been a great football player. Even as a youngster, Beasley was bigger and more skilled than all the other kids his age. The problem was football is played outside and Beasley wanted no part of it. “I can’t stand being out in the sun,” he says. “I need air conditioning and heat.”
As a result, Beasley turned to basketball and eventually became a star, as an All-Stater at Butler High, a four-year starter in college and several years of professional ball overseas, leading to this recognition by the Huntsville-Madison County Athletic Hall of Fame.
He was seven years old when he started playing with the Boys & Girls Club in Lincoln Village. From that point on, Beasley never picked up another ball. He excelled early on in the sport under the tutelage of Keith Bonner. Says Beasley, “Coach Bonner coached me early on up to school ball. I was bigger than everybody. I was always bigger than everybody until I got to high school.”
Beasley played at East Limestone as a seventh-grader and scored 40 points in a few games. Then he moved back to Huntsville and played for Bonner at Ed White Middle School. That’s where current Grissom High and former Butler High head coach Jack Doss, a Hall of Fame inductee in 2007, saw him.
“Somebody told me about Courtney and I went to see him play,” Doss remembers. “His motor ran a lot harder than everybody else’s. He played both ends of the floor. He could do it all. He led us to a state championship by doing it all.”
Beasley helped Butler win the AHSAA Class 5A state championship in 2004, defeating Athens High School and future Alabama player Richard Hendrix in the title game.
A four-year starter for Doss at Butler, Beasley was named the Most Valuable Player in the state tournament. He was also a four-time All-State, All-City and All-Area selection in addition to being the MVP of The Huntsville Times Classic as a senior in 2004.
“It’s a great honor,” Beasley says of his induction into the Hall of Fame. “Basketball gave me an opportunity to get an education and improve my lot in life. I want to thank all the people that supported me throughout my career. They deserve as much credit as I do for this honor.”
Doss, who has coached a number of great players during his legendary 47-year career, says Beasley was as good as any of them. “Courtney made everybody around him better,” Doss says. “He was a guard, but because he was 6-2 we played him in the post a lot. He was going to do everything he could to help us win. He wasn’t going to let us lose.”
Beasley committed to Jacksonville State after his junior year, but after leading Butler to the state championship, he decided to go to prep school at Bridgton Academy in North Bridgton, Maine, leading his team to a 30-6 record and a league championship. A year later, Beasley signed with Southern Mississippi, where he was a four-year starter (2005-09). He started the second-most games in USM history, scoring 1,461 points, fifth-most in Eagles’ history. He was named to the Conference USA All-Freshman team and led Southern Miss in scoring as a sophomore and in rebounding as a junior.
After leaving Southern Miss, Beasley had a tryout with the Dallas Mavericks. After that, he spent three years playing overseas in Peru, the Philipines and finally in Iceland. After that, at age 27, Beasley decided to stop chasing his basketball dreams. “I had gone as far as I could,” he says.
Doss remembers Beasley fondly after he played for him more than 20 years ago. “Courtney had the biggest heart of anybody who every played for me,” he says. “He was the most competitive player I have ever had.”
Now, Beasley is competitive in the business world. Courtney and his wife, Stormi Steele, the proud parents of 3-year-old son, Chess Peace Beasley, founded Canvas Beauty Brand, a skin and hair care product business, in 2018. Together, they ship 45-50 different Body Glaze products around the world. “We’ve been working on it since 2015,” Beasley said. “My wife is the founder. I’m just the logistics guy. I do all the hard labor.”
Much like he did while leading Butler to the 2004 state championship.
--Reggie Benson
