American River College baseball manager Doug Jumelet talks to his team after getting routed 15-7 by Diablo Valley College in 2015. Jumelet is not qualified to manage the baseball team for he hasn’t finished with a winning record since 2005. (File Photo)
The American River College baseball team finished its 2019 season in a 7-1 victory over Cosumnes River College on April 26.
The team finished its season with a poor 8-32 overall record and went 5-19 in conference play. The team’s batting average for the season was .229, on base percentage was .318 and they only had seven home runs.
With this season, ARC baseball continues their streak of losing records to 14 seasons in a row. The last time the Beavers didn’t experience a losing season was in 2005, when the team went 27-10.
Manager Doug Jumelet has been coaching at ARC for 20 seasons and has been managing the team for 16. In his first year as head of the club, ARC went 18-18 but missed out on the playoffs.
Jumelet has been less than an average manager for quite some time. A man that hasn’t coached his team into a winning season should have been fired five years ago. People could even argue he should have been fired ten years ago. But people don’t pay attention to the school’s baseball team because they have been less than average for 14 years — which is exactly why Jumelet needs to relieve himself from his role or be let go from the baseball team.
It’s not the ball players that could be bad either; Jumelet’s coaching is what’s bad for the school. High school players may think they would like to go to a community college to play some baseball. The Sacramento players coming out to look at ARC realize they have a great school but the baseball team has been nowhere to be found in the last 14 years. It has been despicable and it falls on Jumelet.
The Beavers’ 2019 campaign was Jumelet’s worst as the manager yet, followed closely only by 2012. In that season, ARC finished 8-28 and last in its division, the Big 8. ARC had a poor batting average of .233, on base percentage of .302 and only two home runs.
In 2005, Jumelet second season, he had his best year managing the team. With a 27-10 record, the team’s batting average was an incredible .331, 11 home runs and their on base percentage was an impeccable .401.
ARC was awarded the sixth seed in the 2005 Northern California Playoffs for Community Colleges. ARC got past Marin College in a 2-0 series win in the first round but got eliminated by Cosumnes River in the second round.
Since then, whatever spark Jumelet started off with was gone and his teams haven’t even sniffed the playoffs since.
The ARC Athletics Department should be embarrassed for allowing Jumelet to still be mismanaging our team. It’s time for a change.
ARC needs someone new at the manager position for their baseball team. The athletic department needs to find someone who can bring a winner’s mentality to the diamond — somebody who can provide new drills, better off-season programs, recruit like hell and who aims to turn the ball club around. Jumelet no longer fits any of these requirements.
In 2019, ARC lost an astonishing 15 games in a row in the middle of the season. The team only had two winning streaks on the season — the first two games of the season and the last two games.
Because of his poor management, Jumelet could also be wasting star talent on the team. Due to the team’s poor record, it’s possible that there are little to no scouts looking for players from ARC. No scouts means that everyone’s baseball career ends at ARC.
Players are losing faith in themselves as the team continues to struggle.
Jumelet’s time is up as manager of ARC’s baseball team. He has managed the team for too damn long for the club to not get anywhere. Not making the playoffs since 2005 is a sick joke. If ARC wants students to come to their school to play meaningful baseball, they need to turn towards another direction.
As someone who loves the game of baseball, it is sad to see my school’s baseball be so terrible for a decade and a half. If ARC is looking to improve its baseball team, Jumelet is not the answer.