LAKEPORT — Jaron Mertle is getting his dream shot.
The standout Clear Lake High School basketball player, recently graduated, is ready to tackle life’s next hurdle, college. He is headed to UC Merced where he will continue his athletic and academic pursuits for the NAIA-sanctioned Bobcats when the 2020-21 school year commences.
Standing 6-foot-6 and 195 pounds, Mertle is coming off back-to-back record-setting seasons for the Cardinals. The two-time North Central League I most valuable player helped lead Clear Lake to a 27-4 record during his junior season in 2018-19, which broke the school’s record for most wins and best winning percentage by a varsity boys basketball team. The Cardinals came right back this past season to go 27-5.
“I’m really excited to go down there,” Mertle, 18, said of attending UC Merced, which is more than just his next basketball destination.
“Their program is real good and they specialize in what I’m interested in studying (engineering),” Mertle said.
The Bobcats finished 18-10 last season with a 9-5 California Pacific Conference record. How much playing time Mertle sees in his freshman season depends on several factors, not the least of which is the COVID-19 pandemic that has already canceled entire seasons at California’s community colleges.
“Their coach (Kevin Pham) told me there is going to be a season,” Mertle said.
Will he be a starter or a reserve?
“It’s kind of hard to tell,” said the high school center who will be asked to play a stretch forward position for the Bobcats. “I’m comfortable with it,” said Mertle, who along with an imposing inside game also has an outside shot. He made 22 3-pointers (second-best on the team) for the Cardinals last season.
The opportunity to play for and study at a UC that has a reputation as an engineering school was just a dream for Mertle until very recently. He was prepared to play for Gavilan College in Gilory, which had shown great interest in acquiring his talents, until a few months ago.
“During the quarantine no UCs or state schools were looking at me,” Mertle said. “Then UC Merced reached out to Scott (De Leon, Clear Lake’s now retired coach), then to me.”
After a zoom meeting with Pham, Mertle was on his way.
“He (Pham) said it looked good to go and he asked if I wanted to play there,” Mertle said. “Once I got the letter of intent I held off just a little bit to make sure that’s what I wanted to do, and then I signed it.”
Mertle, the son of Jeff and Brite Mertle of Lakeport and the eldest of the three Mertle children — sisters Abby and Emma will be sophomores at Clear Lake High in the fall — reports to UC Merced on Aug. 16 and the first team meeting is Aug. 17.
Moving away from everything he’s known for so long is a bit scary, according to Mertle, as is the challenge that awaits — competing at the collegiate level.
“I’m really excited to go do it,” he said. “To see how I compete against other players from bigger schools. I know it’s going to be tough. I’m definitely going to have to work a lot harder.”
Hard work and Mertle aren’t exactly strangers. While starring on the basketball court for the Cardinals, Mertle held down a 4.0 GPA in the classroom. As he sees it, his biggest challenge will be leaving his comfort zone of Lakeport and Clear Lake High School.
“I’m definitely nervous to leave my small town,” Mertle said. “I’ve been playing sports with some of my friends for a long time, people that have been with me since the beginning (including Clear Lake teammates Tyler Cerini, Darius Ford, Travis Howe, Wasif Hussain, Treppa Marcks, Donovan Valadez, Keanu Ford, Matthew Martin and Evan Coakley). I’m really going to miss those guys.”
While his varsity career at Clear Lake couldn’t have started any worse — he broke his leg on the first day of varsity practice his sophomore year and missed the season — Mertle said he wouldn’t change a thing about high school career and that he will also cherish the many memories of his teammates and coach De Leon.
“Being one of Scott’s players is a team experience few players ever get, it’s so family based, not individual,” Mertle said of De Leon, who had the perfect halftime line in the team’s final game this past season, a 79-42 loss to Lincoln High School of San Francisco in the quarterfinals of the NorCal playoffs.
Trailing 55-25 at halftime, the Cardinals were one depressed group, according to Mertle, as they eyed the end of their season and, in the case of the team’s seniors, their high school careers.
“We were all pretty sad and he walks in and says, ‘We’ve got them right where we want them,’ and we all laughed and felt better.”
This summer Mertle is once again working for Disney’s Water Sports in Lakeport (his third season there) and he hopes to land a job with PG&E once he graduates from Merced.
“That’s always been something I’ve wanted to do,” Mertle said of employment with PG&E. “But if I get another job opportunity right out of school I might take it.”
He recently sold his 2003 Toyota Tacoma pickup truck to sister Abby and has replaced it with a Ford Fusion.
“That’s my new commuter car,” he said.
Did he give sister Abby a good deal for the truck?
“I gave her a great deal,” Mertle said. “It’s in perfect condition.”
When he leaves home in a little more than a month, he’ll be the first sibling to head off on his own. He said he expects there will be a few tears that day, but happy ones.
“I think my mom is going to miss me most in the beginning, but I think my dad will miss me more later on,” Mertle said. “He’s the one that always pushed me … he told me I need to do well in school if I want to keep playing.
“It definitely won’t be an easy thing,” he said of leaving everything he knows behind for his next big adventure.
