TJC picked to contend for SWJCFC league championship

Published 6:40 pm Thursday, July 24, 2025

BULLARD — With the start of the football season less than a month away, the SEC of the juco leagues gathered on Thursday for their annual summer meeting.

The Tyler Junior College Apaches, defending regular season champions, Navarro College, defending postseason champion, and perennial contender Kilgore College are among the favorites to win the Southwest Junior College Football Conference title this season.

Both the Coaches and Media polls were released during the SWJCFC Media Day that was held at Eagle’s Bluff Country Club on the shores of Lake Palestine.

While the beautiful links of EBCC could viewed outside the meeting, the focus was on football

Navarro is the favorite in the Coaches’ Poll, while Kilgore College is tops in the Media Poll.

The Bulldogs, who defeated the Apaches in the league championship game last season, received six first-place votes among the coaches. They had 62 points.

The Apaches, under fourth-year head coach Tanner Jacobson, are picked second. TJC received one first-place vote and 52 points.

Following NC and Tyler were: 3, Kilgore (45 points); 4, Trinity Valley (37); 5, Cisco, 35; 6, New Mexico Military (1 first-place vote, 24 points), 7, Blinn (20) and 8, Northeastern Oklahoma A&M (11).

In the sports writers poll, Kilgore received three first-place votes and 47 points for first place to edge Navarro (2 first-place votes, 45 points). TVCC was third with 43 points and one first-place vote.

The Apaches received a first-place vote and 43 points to place fourth.

The remainder of the poll included: 5, Blinn, 30; 6, NMMI, 21; 7, Cisco, 16; and 8, NEO, 8.

Manny Almanza served as emcee, noting the Media Day started in 1995 at Pennington Field in Bedford.

Each coach gave a brief rundown of their team’s prospects and each threw in some jokes for entertainment.

Tyler, which opens the season on Aug. 23 against Dodge City (Kansas) at Christus Trinity Mother Frances Rose Stadium (7 p.m. kickoff), has their standout kicker, Bryan Ramirez, returning as well as three huge offensive weapons in quarterback Tre Guerra, tight end Lonnie Johnson, the transfer from SMU, and running back Ashton Hayes, the Gilmer standout who was injured all of last season but hopes to pick up were he left off after a fantastic freshman year in 2023.

The Apaches added to their receiving corps with former Tyler High star Montrell Wade, who transferred from Boston College.

After the game with Dodge City in Tyler, the Tribe will travel to Utah to play Snow College on Sept. 4. It will be like a homecoming for Jacobson, who coached at Snow and who was a three-year starter just down the road at BYU. He also coached at his alma mater in Provo.

TJC opens conference play on Sept. 13 at Trinity Valley in Athens (7 p.m.).

Homecoming is Oct. 11 vs. Blinn (1 p.m.).