PLEASANT HILL – As Jacob Neely neared the end zone on another fall evening he lowered his shoulder, opting to put an exclamation mark on his night, and ran over one more defender. Neely finished the game with 356 yards and five touchdowns as Pleasant Hill earned its seventh consecutive victory.
That final touchdown was his third receiving touchdown of the game, but it didn’t come from his typical slot receiver position.
After starter Kai Davis was injured, Neely was thrust into action at running back. Despite not taking more than a couple snaps at running back in practice, he ran for 8.7 yards per carry on a total of 200 yards that night.
“He steps in at running back, and this is no slight to Kai at all. Kai’s an incredible player, but (Jacob) steps in for Kai against Creswell and after Jacob’s first two runs, me and our coach in the box (Derek Brimmer), we were like, ‘We might be better,’” Billies head coach Kenny Koberstein said later.
Neely feeds off the crowd, he said.
“Our last home game was the loudest I’ve ever heard … I couldn’t hear the other QB talking, anything like that. You just feel yourself in the moment, you have that adrenaline, and your body doesn’t even hurt until after the game,” he said.
After his big game, Neely ranked in the top five in both receiving yards and touchdowns among Class 4A and 3A players in Oregon.
Jacob Neely’s big moments in the 2025 season thus far. THE CHRONICLE PHOTO ARCHIVE
Being something of an entertainer is not new.
“I’ve noticed in basketball, in football, in any sport he plays, if he knows he has an audience, like if certain people are going to come to that game, I feel like he just kicks it up a notch,” said Neely’s mother, Joelle.
Among his peers, Koberstein describes Neely as a “goofball,” but stresses that people shouldn’t underestimate his maturity.
“Jacob is a natural leader… he’s got this strength, but he’s learned over his lifetime to use that strength to serve others, to build other people up, to encourage people,” said Ryan Melvin, Neely’s longtime basketball coach and father of Neely’s best friend, Landon.
ADON ECCLES / THE CHRONICLE
Besides trying to put on a good show, Neely has two significant motivations.
The first is a hallmark of all great athletes: an insatiable desire to be the best.
“He doesn’t know how to not give 110% … last year, he was playing Siuslaw and he broke a couple toes. I mean, his foot was broken, and he got out the game, took a shoe off, taped it up, and went right back in. He’s like, ‘I don’t care. I’m going. I’m not sitting out,” Joelle said.
His other motivation is the need to prove something to the father that has rarely been there. Neely’s father has struggled with alcoholism since Jacob was born, and spent long stretches incarcerated. He’s determined to stay away from the vices that got to his father.
“I’m never planning on touching an alcohol bottle in my whole life. It’s just not something that I plan to do. I know what it does, and nothing good comes out of it, even if you’re just doing it for fun,” he said.
Support network
Despite that absence, Neely has all sorts of support. Joelle has been a steady presence.
“She’s really been the person I can just share anything with that I know will be there for me emotionally, physically, everything, just taking care of me,” he said.
He also has a longtime girlfriend, and his relationship with the Melvins has grown from a close friendship to a true familial bond.
Ryan Melvin said his family has four boys – the three Melvins, and Jacob. Landon Melvin and Neely’s relationship began when the two were playing basketball on the blacktop courts on the Pleasant Hill K-12 campus off Hwy. 58. Landon invited Jacob to play on his Oregon Amateur Basketball team, which Ryan coached. That was in third grade; the two have been inseparable ever since. The transition of Ryan and Jacob’s relationship from coach to father figure happened more gradually.
“Around fifth grade or so, I would include Jacob in my conversations with Landon. So if it was a character issue or an opportunity to lead, I’d bring them both over together and just talk to him as if he was my own son. And I think that relationship just kind of took off from there to where, you know, I consider him one of my own boys,” Ryan said.
Until about six months ago, Neely had the mindset of just keeping his grades good enough to continue to play sports in high school. He was excelling in the Pleasant Hill construction program, and planning to go to Lane Community College. Because of his support system, Neely is now dreaming big.
“Ryan had a meeting with me and (Jacob) and the counselor at the school and has offered to help with a four-year college, and basically didn’t want him to have limitations, and he basically told him to shoot for the stars,” Joelle said.
Neely has been laser-focused on playing football in college since then.
“It’s just been a whirlwind this whole senior year, because I’ve just seen him click into a different mode,” Joelle said.
New challenges
Neely is excited for the possibility of playing college football, but even more so for the chance to attend college with Landon. The two have been at the Melvins’ house every day after school, doing homework and filling out college applications and essays.
They have been talking about which college they’d like to go to together; weighing factors like the quality of the football program for Neely, and the quality of the basketball squad for Landon. Oh, and proximity to rivers where fish are plentiful.
Fishing has been something that Neely and Landon have bonded over for years. Neely’s father was an avid fisherman.
Fishing has always been an integral hobby in Neely’s life — representing a connection to his father and to his freinds. PHOTOS PROVIDED
“He’s been fishing since he can remember. So that part is the only thing that he took away from his dad that was kind of a positive thing,” Neely’s mom said.
The Melvin family loves to fish as well, going on a trip to Lake Billy Chinook every year that now includes Neely.
Landon and Neely plan to take a graduation trip that includes a bush plane to different parts of Alaska to fish in remote and beautiful locations. The boys have dreams of opening their own fly fishing shop one day.
Another mentor
A fresh addition to Neely’s inner circle has been Koberstein, who’s in his first year coaching the Billies. Koberstein has engineered a one-year turnaround for the Billies, leading the team to its first playoff appearance since 2016 and its first seven-win season since 2012.
An example of the trust that Koberstein has in Neely was evident during the game against Sisters. The coach dialed up a fake punt on 4th-and-9 from the Billies own 22-yard-line. Pleasant Hill led 19-14 late in the fourth quarter, and Koberstein decided to try and put the game away right then. In the biggest moment, he turned to Neely, who completed a pass to Knox Meyers for the first-down conversion.
Despite his novelty, first-year head coach Kenny Koberstein has become a role model for Jacob Neely. THE CHRONICLE PHOTO ARCHIVE
“When the lights are brightest, when the game is on the line … He is supremely confident in his abilities, and he should be,” Koberstein said.
Koberstein’s penchant for smart risk-taking appeals to Neely, who can be seen asking his coach on the sideline if they can run certain trick plays. The blend of having fun and being demanding are qualities that Neely said makes Koberstein a favorite.
They also bond over golf. Neely and some teammates would golf before or between offseason practices. Koberstein would do the same, and the competition with his players drove him to a single-digit handicap.
Neely had to take on the running back/wide receiver hybrid role once more at Madras in the regular-season finale. Pleasant Hill fell 34-29, losing the chance to secure a league title. Despite nagging injuries, Neely accounted for 190 of his team’s 258 yards of offense and three of its four touchdowns in the game.
The versatility that Neely has shown over his high school career speaks for itself. As a freshman, he had 11 interceptions as a cornerback. During his sophomore year, Neely played quarterback when regular starter Steven Bounds sustained a season-ending injury. In his junior season, he was a wing back in a Wing T-style offense and a third-team all-state safety.
This year, he has 1,243 yards from scrimmage and 21 touchdowns. Just for good measure, he has chipped in 144 yards passing with a touchdown, and 6 interceptions, including one returned for a touchdown.
On the rise
The Billies’ strength of schedule has worked against them this season. Despite beating a Class 4A team in Cottage Grove, the state’s official ranking system has them at No. 17 in Class 3A. They are the lowest-ranked team to make the playoffs, and head to Cascade Christian, the No. 1 ranked team in Class 3A. Cascade Christian has both scored the most points in 3A and allowed the fewest.
Pleasant Hill’s run defense will need to limit Bryson Walker, who was tied for the most rushing touchdowns among Class 3A and 4A players coming into last week.
Neely’s big-moment heroics will need to be in full effect if the Billies are to pull off an upset in Medford on Friday. It is the biggest of Neely’s football career.
The Challengers better be ready for him, because when Jacob Neely locks in on something, he usually achieves his goals.
