Bonhomme found home in Brandon

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This article was published 09/02/2021 (1963 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The message has been the same all of Ilarion Bonhomme’s life: You’ll have to fight for everything, and sometimes that won’t be enough.

He’ll go down as one of the most valuable point guards in Brandon University Bobcats men’s basketball history, though his worth wasn’t fully recognized until after he left.

Bonhomme, of Washington, D.C., came to Brandon in 2010 to redshirt and was the first-ever Bobcat to earn Canada West rookie of the year the following season. He averaged 12.2 points per game and tied for third in Canada with 6.0 assists per contest in 2011-12.

Bonhomme’s numbers dropped slightly over the next two seasons, which turned out to be his last in blue and gold. But without a doubt, he’s the best player to be ushered off the BU roster before his five years were up.

“My biggest regret in my time here was ever letting him go,” said BU head coach Gil Cheung.

“You talk about people who treat the CEO and the custodian the same way, that’s exactly who he was. I remember being at his house in Washington, D.C. They don’t come from much at all but he’d never talk about poor me or his situation.

“He got us lots of wins and that’s my one biggest regret was not keeping him around for all five. Regardless of if we made the playoffs or not, I missed out on his senior night, which I think I owe him.”

Cheung chose not to give Bonhomme one of his three available import slots. So the six-foot guard went from U Sports all-rookie team to no team at all.

But Bonhomme is at peace with that decision. After all, he didn’t grow up believing anyone owed him anything.

He was surrounded by the game from a young age in D.C.

“For me, everyone I looked up to for some reason happened to be basketball players,” Bonhomme said via video call.

“Watching Allen Iverson going up against the Lakers in the Finals, from then watching him, I wanted to be like him so bad. I took it and ran with it.

“… I was like ‘Man I wanna do this forever’ in like fifth or sixth grade.”

From street ball to Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) organized games, Bonhomme constantly chased opportunities to take on more talented athletes. He had a trainer one summer during his high school days who worked with professionals. When he held his own against some, his confidence grew.

“There’s a lot of people more physically gifted than me, so I decided to focus on the mental aspect of the game and how I can play with my opponents’ minds … it’s a blessing in disguise,” Bonhomme said.

He also knew in the back of his mind that basketball was his only ticket to a higher education. College was not an option financially.

“Like every broke American kid’s story, if you didn’t give me a scholarship I probably would never even go to school. (Basketball) was an outlet in the sense that if I give my all to this I can make things easier for them because someone can pay for my education. That was a driving force for me,” he said, admitting that wasn’t necessarily a healthy attitude.

“What I know now, no kid should ever have to feel like that, but that’s the reality for so many kids.

“… I don’t wish that situation on nobody, even though it worked for me.”

Bonhomme caught a break when BU chancellor Henry Champ walked in on a high school playoff game that he played well in. Champ, who was friends with an English teacher at the school, introduced himself to the speedy playmaker. Bonhomme brushed him off upon finding out Brandon was in Canada.

Canada wasn’t his dream, NCAA Division I was. Specifically, his hometown Georgetown Hoyas.

Champ had him keep a business card anyway.

Bonhomme had a few offers from smaller schools but sprained his left knee the summer after his senior year. Upon telling the schools about the injury, the common tune was a partial scholarship was the best they could do.

“I took that very personal,” said Bonhomme, who finally took up Champ’s offer in August 2010. Champ helped him get a passport, find a place in dorms and enrol in courses. And he paid for all of it.

“He made sure I was looked after. I swear, he really took me from a dark place and to this day I’m always praising him,” said Bonhomme, who redshirted the 2010-11 season.

“Without that man, what would happen? There’s a lot of alternatives that had nothing to do with basketball that would have put me in a tough spot … street stuff.”

He made the most of his shot in 2011-12, leading the team with 32.2 minutes per game as Brandon went 7-13.

Bonhomme recalls having a fantastic relationship with Cheung that season. He’d text the second-year bench boss late at night “my shot’s not falling,” and they’d meet at the gym bright and early to work it out.

The Bobcats finished sixth out of eight Prairie Division teams, with only four reaching the post-season.

Bonhomme turned heads across the country, however, being named Canada West rookie of the year and cracking the U Sports all-rookie team. Anthony Tsegakele (2019-20) is the only other Bobcat to do the same.

“It meant a lot because that first year when I was redshirting … I felt like I was ready to play then. You got to mentally tell yourself just come to practice, be professional even though you’re not going to get the opportunity to play,” Bonhomme said.

“I was always ready because my father always told me ‘You never know, one guy could get hurt and you were supposed to be getting ready and you’re not ready.’

“When it was my opportunity to play I was ready for it. I was lucky to have a great support system in all my family and henry. Even within the team, Ritchie Jacobson was great for me, (assistant coach Jeremy) Wielenga, some of the veteran guys like Kyle Vince, Donovan Gayle, those guys really brought me on.”

Bonhomme stayed in Brandon that summer to train, but wasn’t able to hit the court as the new Healthy Living Centre gymnasium was under construction. He bulked up from 150 to 175 pounds, which in hindsight he says wasn’t beneficial.

After a pair of six-win seasons, Cheung searched for a change ahead of the 2014-15 campaign. He had three import spots and was returning forward Kenonte Ramsey. He brought in Earl Thompson Jr., leaving one spot for Bonhomme, or anyone else. His relationship with Cheung was deteriorating and he considered moving on, but hadn’t disclosed that to the coach yet.

Then Ramsey told Bonhomme that Cheung said he was bringing in another guard, six-foot-two Texan D.J. Jordan.

“The part that was frustrating to me was because I met with him and told him I was thinking about leaving. We sat down and talked it out and I was like ‘I’m going to stay, let’s figure this thing out,’” Bonhomme said.

“Everybody kind of speculates what happened but the reality of the situation is I reached the point where I wanted to leave and I was telling people I was close with that it was probably best for me to move on.

“I didn’t know but Gil felt the same way and wanted to go in a different direction, which was his right.”

The idea was Jordan could bring a pure-scoring spark Bonhomme didn’t possess. To some extent, that added up. Jordan averaged 15.2 points on 15.4 field-goal attempts per game that season, then led the Bobcats with 17 ppg, averaging 17.2 shots, in 2015-16.

Bonhomme stayed in Brandon that first year, but naturally stayed away from the team and focused on school. At that point, it was time for a change of scenery.

“It’s all good now. That’s in the past. For me it’s just basketball. His wife and his kids were so good to me and I could never just shut him out. Those first few years he was great for me and my growth as a player,” Bonhomme said.

“Based on how I was playing that third year … I have nothing against him for the decision he made.”

While he sat out, Manitoba Bisons Keith Omoerah and Wyatt Anders reached out and asked him to transfer to the provincial rival. Five years later, the thought of the day he met with coach Kirby Schepp still brings a smile to his face.

“I just liked his philosophies … mentally the way he coaches the game, I was like ‘This is somebody I could really learn from.’ His ties internationally were something I was really interested in too,” Bonhomme said.

“It was awesome for me. With all due respect to the Brandon University basketball program, the way things were run was just night and day.

“There’s a culture at U of M. Kirby builds his culture and if you break the culture, it don’t matter who you are. If you try to put yourself above the team or disrespect the team, you’re done. You’re going to respect everybody, compete hard every day and play basketball the right way. There’s no ifs, ands or buts about it.”

Manitoba went 15-5 that year, beating Brandon (1-19) by double-digits in both their meetings. Bonhomme missed most of January due to injury but averaged 10.2 ppg in 22 minutes, sharing a backcourt with Justus Alleyn and A.J. Basi.

Manitoba came within one win of the national tournament, and lost the conference bronze-medal game to the UBC Thunderbirds. Bonhomme felt a welcome difference all season.

“Everybody worked so hard,” he said.

“Everybody does their team workouts, then we’d shoot and do our own skill work, not scheduled.

“Then we go to practice, then everybody stays after practice and gets in extra work. We do our scout as a team, then the core of the team would get together and do more.”

Bonhomme’s fifth year of eligibility was his best yet. In 2016-17, he posted 11.9 ppg and 5.0 apg, playing all 20 games as Manitoba went 12-8 and secured home court for a play-in series against Regina. The Bisons won, then downed the Thunderbirds 2-0, including a 98-96 overtime win in Game 2. Needing one more victory to reach the U Sports championship, the Herd went into Calgary and edged the Dinos 74-72 before dropping the conference final to Alberta.

It was enough to achieve what felt like a pipe dream in past years.

“In our first team meeting, Kirby put up a powerpoint and it was Halifax’s skyline … He’s like ‘This is Halifax. This is where we want to be … with what we have in this room, this is where we can go if we do the right things,’” Bonhomme recalled.

“To see it all come full circle and make it there, it was like ‘Whoa, man, we’re here.’

“It was cool, super, super cool. I used to always joke with (former Bobcat) O’Neil Gordon like ‘I’m going to nationals, I’m going to get there one way or another.’ To really get there was crazy.”

The Bisons lost both their games in their return to the final eight after a 30-plus-year drought.

But Bonhomme’s journey continued. He headed to Norway to practise with a professional team and didn’t sign, but ended up landing a gig in Australia in January 2018.

The moment he put pen to paper on the contract was surreal.

“I couldn’t believe it, like ‘Man, you guys are going to pay me to play?’” he said.

“To see it come to life and realize my job is to play basketball … something I’ve done for free all my life, just my love, now I’m getting paid to do it, it was wild. To be in Australia, it was amazing.”

Bonhomme posted similar stats to his university days and his club fell in Game 3 of the best-of-three league final.

His next stop was in Spain for the 2018-19 campaign, then he signed with a Norwegian club in 2019. He had to leave early in March when COVID-19 hit, but re-signed in September.

A Ukrainian club bought out his contract and he unfortunately tore the meniscus in his right knee three weeks later.

He opted to return to D.C. and can opt to undergo surgery or rehab without it, but expects to be back on the court next month.

Now 29, he’s at peace with the idea of his playing days being behind him, or making another run or two at the pro game. If it’s the end, he wants to get into coaching or personal training and might just return to Canada for a master’s degree.

After all, that wasn’t so bad the first time.

“Brandon started it all. I met so many great people and learned so much, matured so much into an adult there. Realistically that’s my second home,” Bonhomme said.

“I spent time there every summer and that don’t even sound right. I’m from Washington, D.C., what business do I have going to Brandon and just hanging out there?

“There’s just so much love there, I got some of my dearest friends I met there … I love Brandon. With everything that happened with me when I was coming out of high school, I’m super grateful I ended up there.”

» tfriesen@brandonsun.com

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