Ramel Bethea announced his commitment to play college basketball for Doug Gottlieb at Green Bay. He will be a 29-year-old sophomore.
Although there are a lot of scenarios in which it is easy to point and laugh at the old age of college athletes in the transfer portal and NIL era, this is not one of them!
Bethea only began his college basketball career in 2024. He is not one of those guys who stayed in college for way too long and transferred to eight different schools in six years to get paid NIL money because they are not good enough to go pro. His story is quite admirable. Let’s start at the beginning.
Born in Fort Washington, Maryland, Ramel Bethea graduated from Friendly High School in the Class of 2013— 12 years ago. College was not something that suited him at the time so he took a couple years off of school and started working in the produce section at the Harris Teeter Supermarket in Alexandria.
I didn’t come from a college family. My dad was a trucking worker, and my mom was a receptionist. We just worked.
— Ramel Bethea, via The Coast News
However, the DMV-native was facing unemployment at his local grocery store due to the pandemic in 2020 and decided to join the Navy. Bethea spent the last five years serving our country as a mechanic, performing auxiliary and air conditioning maintenance work on the USS John C. Stennis.
Although he graduated high school at 6-foot-4, the Petty Officer 3rd Class hit a late growth spurt while living on the ship and grew five inches to 6-foot-9. His shipmates passionately encouraged him to start playing basketball— a sport that he was not super familiar outside of some casual pickup games at the Boys and Girls Club as a kid. Bethea ultimately tried out for the team representing the Navy at the Armed Forces Men’s and Women’s Basketball Championship in 2021 as the last man on the bench.
The first year I only made the team because I was athletic, but I didn’t know anything about basketball I was like the little brother of the team. After that, I worked on my game and put on a couple of pounds.
— Ramel Bethea, via The Coast News
He took on a bigger role in 2022 and led the Navy to a second-place finish. He later represented the U.S. Armed Forces in a tournament against other countries in Belgium.
Word got around about his skills, which led MiraCoasta College head coach Rob Robinson to reach out to Ramel Bethea with an offer to hoop on the Juco level during the 2024-25 college basketball season. His teammates and his opponents were obviously much younger. There was a bit of a learning curve at first!
I thought I was about to come here and dominate these kids. 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.
— Ramel Bethea, via The Coast News
However, Bethea averaged a double-double (almost) during his lone season at MiraCosta with a team-high 12.7 points and 9.7 rebounds per game. D1 schools immediately started to take notice.
Fresno State, Boston College and Texas A&M were among the schools to kick the tires. Eastern Kentucky was also in pursuit but Doug Gottlieb and Green Bay ultimately received the commitment. Ramel Bethea committed to the Phoenix as a rising 29-year-old sophomore with three seasons of eligibility remaining.
I was not aware of Bethea or his story prior to his commitment but I am a fan for life. Even if it is funny to laugh at the downfall of Gottlieb, I am rooting for his newest power forward to find great success. There are a lot of guys who are too old to be playing college basketball in this current era for all of the wrong reasons. The U.S. Navy Veteran committed to Green Bay is not one of them.