The term “glory days” is often thrown around lightly by anyone with even the most humble athletic background. The fact of the matter is, most peak at the intramural level, if they’re lucky.
Amongst Beaver coaches, however, “glory,” seems all too appropriate in describing their playing careers. Boasting national championship appearances, front-page stories and professional careers, ARC’s coaches are a prestigious group.
“We went to the college world series my junior year and my senior year we were ranked number 2 in the country…we had a pretty solid team,” ARC head baseball coach Doug Jumelet said of his time at the University of California at Riverside.
Jumelet takes a lot of pride in his contributions to UC Riverside’s program, with ARC’s baseball team struggling to produce wins in recent years, he has developed an even deeper appreciation for the experience of being a part of an elite club.
“Getting to the points we did defiantly is something (big),” Jumelet said. “It’s not so much that I look back and I tell people what we did, I look back at the memories and say ‘man, it was cool being part of a bunch of great players and a great team.’”
ARC head soccer coach Paul Arellanes, who was part of a conferences championship team at one of ARC’s sister schools, Cosumnes River College, had the unique experience of playing on several of his school’s fist soccer clubs during his time as an athlete.
“It was kind of interesting, because coming up, I was always on teams that were first at (the) school. Cordova high school, my first year I happened to be there was the first year they had a team and then I went to Cosumnes and it was the first year they had a team.”
After playing for Consumnes’ new program, Arellanes continued his playing career at Sacramento State University and eventually joined a semi-pro league. His proverbial ceiling was stifled somewhat by the limited opportunities for soccer players.
“At that time there was no professional league. The only professional league in the whole country was an indoor league,” Arellanes said. “There weren’t that many opportunities to play professionally.”
ARC head volleyball coach Ashlie Frame, boast similar experiences, complimented by several prestigious individual achievements. Frame was something of a prodigy, joining her first traveling club team as a third-grader. Frame played several years above her age group, as the rest of her teammates were teenagers.
This trend continued, when Frame joined the varsity club at La Reina High School in Thousand Oaks, California as a freshman.
“We were C.I.F. champions my junior year, we won league all four years and my senior year, we were in the state finals,” Frame said.
After playing four years on scholarship at UC Irvine, where she was part of two NCAA tournament teams, Frame went on to play professionally in Germany and Croatia.
As a coach, these experiences have helped Frame to manage her current teams, as well as earn her tremendous amounts of respect from players.
“I share a lot of those stories with them, because it makes the challenges here seem like nothing,” Frame said. “Especially with girls, you play with somebody you don’t like versus somebody who doesn’t speak the same language as you…I had the captain of the junior national team (as a teammate), she was 16 and I was also playing with a 40-year-old … It’s more about getting a job done.”
Frame’s experience earns her a great deal of respect with her players. Sophomore volleyball player Sophi Lozano has developed a deep appreciation her coach’s wealth of knowledge during her two years with the program.
“She knows the game better than anyone I have ever been coached by,” Lozano said.
