Davis replaces longtime coach Jones
Longtime coach Dwayne Jones departs under controversial circumstances
Dwayne Jones was Jesse Bethel High School’s original boys basketball coach in 1998.
After a stint at Hogan High School from 2006-2010, he became the Jaguars coach again after Hogan closed its doors for good. For his career, Jones compiled 229 victories and won five league championships with Bethel in 15 seasons. He took two other teams to ARCO Arena (the former home of the Sacramento
Kings) in 2012 and 2013.
Jones said he planned on coaching just two more sea sons before stepping down but the school closed the book on his career over the summer.
T he Va l l e j o school hired welltraveled Billy Davis, 69, to become its head coach for the 2021 season.
Davis said he’s been coaching basketball for 46 years in states like Texas, Oklahoma, Georgia, Florida and Alabama. He has won three state titles and his teams have been state runner-up 12 times. He has a degree in mathematics from Miles College in Alabama and is currently an AP Calculus and Algebra II instructor at Bethel.
“I’ve been retired but my wife wanted to come to California,” Davis said. “I was approached by (former Superintendent) Dr. Adam Clark during a church function and he encouraged me to be an assistant at Bethel. I fell back in love with the game.”
Davis said his wife is a nurse at Queen of the Valley Medical Center in Napa.
Asked what kind of coach he was, Davis said, “I’m a disciplinarian. I’m a teacher first and a coach second. I don’t believe in letting the kids slack off and I like to use my whole bench.”
Davis said he’s been in contact with some of the players and gave them some drills to work on at home during the coronavirus pandemic as they are not allowed on the basketball court at the school.
Davis was Jones’ assistant coach on the varsity team the last two seasons. The Jaguars went 1117 last season but 23-7 the year prior and won the TriCounty Athletic League Stone Division tournament title.
Jones said there were some signs that he was no longer favored by adminis
tration during recent years.
“I think something was in the works for the last two years,” he said. “I sensed it but I didn’t really know it back then.”
Jones said things soured with administration concerning the relationship the school had with sponsor BSN Sports.
“Their relationship really centered around football. It had no benefits for basketball,” Jones said. “During the time we had them, they bought five basketballs. That’s it. The uniforms we got were either donated or I paid for them out of my own pocket.”
Jones said he helped set up a meeting with East Bay Sports in Vallejo and there were meetings with the freshman, junior varsity and freshman basketball teams. He said Principal Ramon Cusi attended the meetings. Jones said the school eventually went with East Bay even though Cusi was not pleased with
Jones’ involvement.
Jones said that Cusi invited him to lunch at Black Angus and asked him if he wanted to be an assistant coach with Davis becoming the head coach after the 2018-19 season. Jones declined.
Cusi did not return an email from the Times-Herald. Athletic director and head football coach Jeff Turner said he was not part of the interview process in the summer.
Jones said he was not informed by Cusi or Turner that he was no longer the head coach. He said he found out from Davis, who said he had been offered the job.
The city of Vallejo has now lost two longtime basketball coaches in recent years. Duke Brown stepped down after the 2018-19 season after winning 259 games. Jones and Brown are good friends and were both mentored by Vallejo Sports Hall of Famer Fos
ter Hicks.
Jones said Ramon Wellington (2004) was the best player he coached at Bethel. He also mentioned Chance McMillion (2019), Duane Jones (2003), Shamar Armstrong (2001) and Rodney Cook (2012) in his top five. Greg Smith might have been the most talented player to ever play at Bethel but he transferred to Edison High before eventually playing at Fresno State and then for the Timberwolves and Rockets in the NBA.
Jones noted that he was planning to step down in two seasons to spend more time with his son, who is 12.
“I really only wanted two more years anyway,” he said. “I wanted to go out on my time. I wanted to help bring in someone young and fresh into the program (as head coach).”