By admin 
There’s an old saying in football that the best gig is that of the assistant coach.
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Lou Baiz has lived that experience.
He coached the defense at American River College for nine seasons and played a role in the junior college program’s status as a Northern California regional powerhouse. Baiz coached his stoppers, went over game film with the other coaches and then went home without the burden of responsibilities for the entire program, which means he didn’t look like walking death at the end of the season.
Now Baiz is the head coach of the Beavers, and the burden is his. His broad shoulders and confident tone suggest he can handle it.
Baiz takes over for longtime ARC head coach Jon Osterhout, now the assistant athletic director and chief of staff of Sacramento State’s football program, his alma mater. Baiz coached 17 years at Sac State, the loyal assistant, and he was the defensive coordinator at Folsom High School in 2012 and 2013 for teams that went 28-2.
“It’s awesome,” Baiz said with enthusiasm at practice this week, speaking on coaching in general. “This is the best part of the day — practice. I love this.”
ARC seeks its seventh straight conference championship and another playoff or bowl berth. The program reached NorCal title games in 2022 and 2023. The roster is robust, dotted with former Sacramento Bee All-Metro players and high school stars.
The Beavers have 105 players in the program, and 85 will suit up for Saturday’s season opener against NorCal No. 2-ranked Modesto, a 1 p.m. kickoff at ARC.
ARC is NorCal-ranked No. 9 by the JC Athletic Bureau, with regional rivals in Sierra College of Rocklin ranked 12th and Sacramento City College 13th.
Large rosters, big hopes
Sierra and Sac City also have huge rosters and scores of Bee All-Metro players eager to make their mark with the shared hopes of landing at a four-year program via scholarship.
The challenge for the coaches is bringing everyone together, curbing egos and finding common ground.
JC football is robust in California, reflective of the high school talent and the ripple effects of the NCAA transfer portal that allows four-year programs to retool in quick order with college players rather than the old-fashioned way of recruiting high school or JC players.
Each of the three local JC programs has coaching stability. Baiz is a known commodity, as is Ben Noonan at Sierra and Dannie Walker at Sac City. Noonan has been Sierra’s coach since 2013 and directed the Wolverines to seven consecutive postseason bowls through 2024. Walker has been at Sac City since 2005 and the head coach since 2014.
Walker says that JC ball “can be the launching pad for the rest of their lives — if they put the time in.”
A level of football, academic development
High school players generally don’t want to go the JC route. Their ambition rooted from high school stardom is to land a scholarship at a four-year program, which is easier said than done, given the amount of players across the country scrambling for such chances.
At the JC level, there are no promises of a starting job or future scholarships. But JC programs do offer a chance to compete and be seen and heard. JC programs are indeed a launching pad to bigger and better things.
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“It’s all we have, an opportunity,” Baiz said. “We’re all about player development, and we don’t talk about winning. It’s all about how we help these guys evolve, develop, mature, help them grow academically, athletically, socially, emotionally, spiritually.”
Unique home game vibes
ARC plays home games on a surface that has become increasingly rare in football: real grass. The field is pristine with the Beavers practicing on nearby fields.
Sac City plays home games at famed Hughes Stadium, which has aged beautifully at 98. Upgrades in recent years have not taken away the old-school feel of a venue that once hosted NFL exhibition games in the 1950s and ‘60s.
Sac City on Saturday hosts longtime national powerhouse City College of San Francisco, kicking off at 1 p.m.
Sierra College competes at Homer “Buzz” Ostrom Stadium, a cozy 1,500-seat venue named after its famed coach. The stadium can expand to 3,000, and the Wolverines play under the lights.
The team opens at 6 p.m. Saturday against Fresno, which is ranked fourth in Northern California.
Players to look for
ARC’s quarterback room is deep, and the competition is fierce. The starter is former Oak Ridge of El Dorado Hills star Joaquin Graves-Mercado. He is backed by former Whitney of Rocklin prep star Whit Kruse and former Destiny Christian star Dallas Munn. All of them will play in 2026, Baiz said.
The lead running back at ARC is Nathan Crawford, The Bee’s Small School Player of the Year out of Twelve Bridges in Placer County in 2023, when he rushed for 1,958 yards and 39 touchdowns. He rushed for 1,317 yards and 21 scores in 2022.
Sac City’s starting quarterback is Tyson McNeil, a freshman from Spanish Springs High in Reno, where he passed for 3,562 yards and 53 touchdowns with just four interceptions for a 13-0 team that won a state championship. McNeil passed for 2,495 yards and 20 touchdowns as a junior.
Instead of playing at a small college, McNeil elected to go the JC route. His targets will include Grant High School graduates Leka Letuli and Kyle Jones.
Sierra College has three quarterbacks to ponder, and all will play early, Noonan said.
One of them is Dempsy James, a prospect out of Washington. He is a dual-threat quarterback who can pass and run. The depth at signal-caller for Sierra includes Bee All-Metro performers Ricky Cole of Inderkum High in Sacramento and Josiah Melendez of Woodcreek High in Roseville.
Both were record-setting passers in high school, with Brody going for 5,065 career yards and 80 career touchdowns and Melendez earning 2025 Bee Medium School Player of the Year after passing for 2,602 yards and 22 touchdowns and rushing for 827 and 10 scores for the program’s first CIF Sac-Joaquin Section championship team.
Sierra’s defense will include 6-foot-5, 255-pound defensive end Caleb Thomas, the team’s highest-rated four-year prospect.
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JC Athletic Bureau NorCal rankings
1. San Mateo (12-1 in 2025)
2. Modesto (9-3)
3. Diablo Valley (10-2)
4. Fresno (7-5)
5. Butte (8-3)
6. San Francisco (7-4)
7. Sequoias (7-4)
8. Foothill (6-5)
9. American River (5-6)
10. Feather River (10-1)
11. Monterey (7-4)
12. Sierra (4-6)
13. Sacramento City (4-6)
14. Los Medanos (10-1)
15. De Anza (10-1)
This story was originally published August 27, 2026 at 5:30 AM.