For 20 hours every week, Oceanside’s Ramel Bethea cut fruit and stocked the vegetable shelf. His first four years out of high school centered in the produce section at the Harris Teeter Supermarket in Alexandria, Va.
“I didn’t come from a college family,” said Bethea, a 28-year-old freshman forward/center on the MiraCosta College men’s basketball team. “My dad was a trucking worker, and my mom was a receptionist. We just worked.”
The next five years of his life belonged to the Navy. An E-4 machinist’s mate, Bethea did auxiliary and air conditioning maintenance work on the USS John C. Stennis.
“I was living day-by-day instead of looking into a future,” Bethea said. “If I didn’t join, I don’t know what I would be doing now. It was the best decision because it was a stepping stone that forced me to mature.”
The trickiest part for the nearly 6-foot-9 Bethea was the nights he had to sleep on the ship.
“Living on the ship [was like being inside] a box,” Bethea remembered with a laugh. “The ship is uncomfortable, but we were in a rebuilding stage so we had a lot of tubes – imagine a construction site on a ship. It’s very compact. I just had to deal with it. I’m rebuilding my body because of how much it went through in the Navy.”
Despite his height and slender build, Bethea, who grew up in Maryland, spent little of his childhood involved with athletics. As a child and preteen, he boxed sporadically and occasionally played basketball at the local Boys and Girls Club.
He did not participate in high school sports.
“I was tall but scrawny,” Bethea said. “In the military, my body started to develop to where people would say, ‘You’re in the Navy looking like that? You must play basketball.’”
Standing at 6 feet 4 inches when he graduated high school, Bethea hit a late growth spurt in his 20s, sprouting him up another almost five inches.
“I got the gist of basketball from playing pickup with my friends,” Bethea recalled. “When you are away from your family around new people, you have to find a way to build a bond. Playing basketball at the gym built connections and those became friendships.”
In 2021, Bethea tried out and made the team representing the Navy at the Armed Forces Men’s and Women’s Basketball Championships. He was the last man on the bench.
In 2022, he took on a more sizeable role, helping lead the team to second place finish in the Armed Forces Championships — that year held at the Admiral Prout Fieldhouse on Naval Base San Diego.
“The first year I only made the team because I was athletic, but I didn’t know anything about basketball,” Bethea said. “I was like the little brother of the team. After that, I worked on my game and put on a couple of pounds.”
Bethea was selected as one of 12 players to represent the United States Armed Forces in a tournament in Belgium against teams representing the armed forces of a handful of other countries.
“Word got around and a marine named Mitch who had connections in Cali linked me up with coach Rob [Robinson] at MiraCosta College,” Bethea said.
With his five-year contract up in the spring of 2024 and after an internal debate about re-enlisting, Bethea packed only what could fit into a suitcase and, with his family’s blessing, said goodbye to his partner and four-year-old son, boarding a plane for San Diego.
“It’s hard [to be away],” Bethea said. “My sons’ mom saw the vision, too. She told me to ‘do it for my son.’”
The MiraCosta team, comprised mostly of 20-year-olds, didn’t know what to think when they heard Bethea was coming.
“Coach [Robinson] was like ‘I got this 28-year-old coming’ and we just were like, ‘What,'” said MiraCosta guard Naby Diaw.
“We are extremely close,” Bethea added. “They have told me I am the complete opposite of what they were expecting.”
The only player on the team who went from grocer to sailor to hooper, Bethea’s unique skill set as a high-athleticism rim protector was apparent on day one.
“He’s 6-9, but he jumps like he’s 6 foot,” Diaw said. “It’s insane. The first time we played, I ran a pick-and-roll with him and he rolled hard. I threw the ball on top of the backboard and he just catches it and dunks it. I was like, ‘Yep we got one.’”
After a brief stint living in a room found on Facebook Market, Bethea, with the help of the GI Bill, moved into an apartment complex in Oceanside, bringing Diaw along as a roommate.
Between basketball, school and home, the two have become a Jack Lemmon-Walter Matthau act. They workout in the complex’s gym, and Diaw indulges Bethea’s culinary preferences.
“I don’t know why, but he loves Panda Express,” Diaw said with a laugh while sitting in a Panda Express across from Bethea. “We spend a lot of time together. I look at him like an older brother.”
Last season, the Spartans, competing at the junior college level, finished 19-10, with a first-round loss in the 3C2A State Tournament.
“I thought I was about to come here and dominate these kids,” Bethea said. “It’s a reality check – once we played our first scrimmage, I could barely make it up and down the court. When they say, ‘Can’t teach an old dog new tricks,’ I don’t look at it that way. I am open to learning every day.”
Winning and losing are new to Bethea. Buoyed by his 12 points, nine rebounds and three blocks per game, MiraCosta rattled off nine straight victories after opening the season with three losses.
On the morning of Jan. 9, Bethea sat in his Oceanside apartment, his mind replaying the previous night’s 61-59 loss to Southwestern. The loss dropped MiraCosta to 11-6. Bethea’s poor 3-for-9 shooting performance rested heavily on him. He analyzed and then overanalyzed before firing off a text message: “We had a close L yesterday that’s eating me up mentally right now.”
“When you lose in the military, you just have to return to work the next day,” Bethea said. “Now that I am out, I have all of my eggs in one basket with basketball and school. When we lose with the buzz I am bringing, it’s like, ‘How y’all losing with this dude on your team?’ I beat myself up about it.”
He makes phone calls to former Navy mentors to clear his mind.
“I missed some shots I usually made,” Bethea said. “The next day I didn’t even want to go to the gym or touch a basketball. I feel like when I play bad nobody wants me and when I play good everyone wants me. My mentors are telling me [I am putting too much pressure on myself.]”
As the season wears on, Bethea hopes to improve his confidence on the court.
“I know I am very talented but I am scared of failing,” Bethea said. “I have self-doubt but that improves with experience. This is only my first year. The more I touch a basketball the more I develop. I am open to learning every day. I have good people around me.”
Bethea’s play has generated interest from Division I schools, and he is hoping it translates into a name, image and likeness (NIL) payday when he transfers next year. After that, the goal is a professional contract somewhere.
“You get paid every two weeks in the military,” Bethea said. “It’s safe. A lot of people convinced me I can make money doing this; to take a leap of faith.”
