![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/BETHELFB2.jpg\")
The Jesse Bethel head football coach, Gary Lee, talks to players during practice on Friday. (Chris Riley\/Times-Herald)<\/p>\nAuthor Jim George once stated, \u201cIt\u2019s not how you start that\u2019s important, but how you finish!\u201d The quote best describes the 2024 Jesse Bethel High School football team.<\/p>\n
The Jaguars began last year\u2019s campaign by losing their first seven games. Plenty of teams would have quit after that, throwing helmets and complaining on the sideline.<\/p>\n
Bethel was different. It won its next three \u2014 the ones that really mattered \u2014 and was able to win a crazy tiebreaker that gave them the Tri-County Athletic League title and a spot in the postseason.<\/p>\n
Now that the Jaguars got a taste of the playoffs, they want a refill in 2025.<\/p>\n
\u201cWinning boosts confidence,\u201d Bethel senior quarterback Kylen McNeal said on Wednesday after the Jaguars\u2019 practice. \u201cLosing brings self-reflection, but we\u2019re done with that now. We\u2019re going to make some noise this year. The city is going to know about us.\u201d<\/p>\n
McNeal\u2019s teammate, Melvin Miller, agrees.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast week we had a scrimmage against some very good teams, but we all showed maximum effort in that scrimmage,\u201d Miller said. \u201cOur mindset now is that nobody is going to mess with us. We\u2019re going to ball out and have fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bethel\u2019s season begins Friday night with a game at Las Lomas. Head coach Gary Lee says the team is ready after having a full offseason in 2025, something he didn\u2019t have in 2024 after being hired just four months before the season started.<\/p>\n
The Jesse Bethel head football coach, Gary Lee, talks to players during practice on Friday. (Chris Riley\/Times-Herald)<\/p>\n
\u201cOur expectation last year was to win a league title, and we did that,\u201d Lee said. \u201cThis year with a full offseason the bar has been raised. We\u2019ve embraced the whole offseason and we\u2019re very confident we can do even better this season.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of the players with the ability to lead Bethel to a postseason game closer to home is McNeal, a three-sport athlete who once again will start at quarterback.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve loved his maturity this year,\u201d Lee said about McNeal. \u201cHe knows his strengths and weaknesses and he\u2019s owning up to everything. He\u2019s like everyone on this team \u2014 if we get a first down, we wonder why we didn\u2019t score. If we knock the ball down on defense, we\u2019re going back to finding out why we didn\u2019t have an interception.\u201d<\/p>\n
McNeal will be throwing to wideout targets Dennis Walton III and Anthony Young.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s also matured and he\u2019s running hard on every play and blocking on every play,\u201d Lee said about Walton. \u201cIf he doesn\u2019t get the ball on a play, he\u2019s not acting selfish anymore. He\u2019ll keep working hard and then quietly let people know that he was open and what can work better on the next play.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other wideouts are Jayshaun Jiles-Bishop and Jermeer Lee-Hicks. The Jaguars will most often not use a tight-end in their offensive formations.<\/p>\n
Bethel is known for a strong running game, going all the way back to when C.J. Anderson played for the Jaguars, as well as Thome Walters and DeAundray Taylor in the last 15 years. The running backs this year will be Miller, Jeremiah Gulley and Julian Reyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cMelvin is our power back,\u201d Lee said. \u201cHe\u2019s put on about 30 pounds of muscle.\u201d<\/p>\n
The offensive line consists of senior Diego Mejia, right guard Anthony Dondiego, right tackle Keith Salmon, left guard Leonardo Gutierrez and Kali McNeal at left tackle and backup center.<\/p>\n
![\"Jesse](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/BETHELFB3.jpg\")
Jesse Bethel’s Jermeer Lee-Hicks works on blocking drills during practice on Friday. (Chris Riley\/Times-Herald)<\/p>\n
On defense the Jaguars are led by Young and Jiles-Bishop at safety, while Walton and Julian Fasanella are the corners. Miller and Gulley are at linebacker, along with Young.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey (Young and Miller) are two of the biggest heartbeats of this team,\u201d Lee said. \u201cThey make my job a lot easier.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kevin Fuentes and Kylen McNeal will be two of the biggest players on the defensive line. Lee said he knows that most teams don\u2019t play their quarterback on defense, but the coach said he\u2019s too talented to have him sit on the bench.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s one of our best defensive players as well,\u201d Lee said. \u201cHe reads plays well and he always puts his head down and gets ready to work.\u201d<\/p>\n
Salmon, Mejia and Kali McNeal will also be rushing the opposing quarterback.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur goal isn\u2019t just winning a league title this year,\u201d said Lee. \u201cWe want to win a few more games in the regular season so that when the playoffs begin we\u2019re not traveling all the way to Humboldt in the first round. We\u2019re changing the culture here.\u201d<\/p>\n
After a road game on Friday, Bethel returns home to Corbus Field on Sept. 5 for a game against Elite, followed by a Sept. 12 contest against Pinole Valley. Bethel\u2019s Mayor\u2019s Cup game against Vallejo is on Saturday, Oct. 4, while a cross-town vital league matchup against St. Patrick-St. Vincent is on Saturday night, Oct. 11 at Corbus Field.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Author Jim George once stated, \u201cIt\u2019s not how you start that\u2019s important, but how you finish!\u201d The quote…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":325483,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2060],"tags":[1443,7,3131,212,125,2401,213,929,3141,4438,6,28680,46492,59925,13587,9,13588],"class_list":{"0":"post-325482","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville-jaguars","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-high-school-sports","11":"tag-jacksonville","12":"tag-jacksonville-jaguars","13":"tag-jacksonvillejaguars","14":"tag-jaguars","15":"tag-latest-headlines","16":"tag-local-sports","17":"tag-newsletter","18":"tag-nfl","19":"tag-north-bay","20":"tag-northern-california","21":"tag-pushly-alerts","22":"tag-solano-county","23":"tag-sports","24":"tag-vallejo"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115109671066569889","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=325482"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325482\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/325483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=325482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=325482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=325482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}