‘Bulldogs back home.’ NFL players out of Folsom High School reflect on their experience

The blue turf at Prairie City Stadium at Folsom High School bustled with Saturday morning activity even though school was dismissed for summer.

Over 100 children wore white T-shirts emblazoned with the same three words: “Bulldogs Back Home.”

Four former Bulldogs were, in fact, back home and back where their careers started.

Jonah Williams and Jake Browning of the Cincinnati Bengals, Josiah Deguara of the Green Bay Packers and Jordan Richards, formerly of the New England Patriots, visited their alma mater June 17 to help host a football camp titled “Bulldogs Back Home.” The camp served approximately 300 children age 6 to 13, according to representatives from Rep 1 Sports, the athletics talent agency that put on the event.

Sloane Leipzig, camp director and a Rep 1 Sports spokesperson, said that several NFL players will have strong connections to their hometowns because it is usually where their career launched. Folsom, she said, felt extraordinarily special.

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“It’s pretty exceptional to have four guys come out of one high school that is in a relatively small football area,” Leipzig said. “Folsom is a little bit of a suburb, and it’s really exceptional to have a program that can develop kids like this. That definitely sets Folsom apart.”

The co-ed camp included 20 female participants.

Williams, Browning and Deguara currently play in the NFL. Joseph Ngata, who after Folsom enrolled at Clemson in January 2019, was picked up in April as an undrafted free agent by the Philadelphia Eagles. Richards, Ryan Rau and the 77-year-old Virgil Carter are all retired from the league.

In interviews with six of these men, The Sacramento Bee found more commonality than a successful professional career — they each shared an overwhelming sense of community in life, and it started in this suburban city and with a sports program cherished from within.

Jonah Williams

Williams, 25, regarded as “the greatest player in Sacramento-area history,” set up the field before the camp Saturday morning and reminisced about the start of his football career.

“I think the most fun I ever had playing football was playing high school football here,” Williams said. “I’ve had crazier, bigger experiences at the higher levels, but I just loved coming out to practice every single day. The games were always a blast, and winning state was an awesome experience.”

Folsom won a CIF State championship 16-0 in Williams’ junior season in 2014.

Williams attended the University of Alabama after Folsom. He was a rare freshman starter for the college and played both right and left tackle during his time there. He earned Freshman All-American honors in 2016.

He graduated a year early in 2018. He said this was possible because graduated from Folsom early and then took summer classes all three years at Alabama. He declared for the NFL draft in 2019.

Williams was drafted by the Bengals in the first round and was the 11th pick overall.

“(The draft) was an incredible blessing and experience,” he said. “That was my goal since I was here (at Folsom) to one day be a first-round pick. It helped get my NFL career off to a good start.”

Williams helped the Bengals get to Super Bowl LVI in 2022 against the Los Angeles Rams. That season, the Bengals won their first playoff game since 1990 en route to the title game.

Williams will return this season for the Bengals, but he had requested a transfer because of what he said was a lack of communication from coaches and team officials.

Despite that, he said he is grateful for his day-to-day in the NFL. Browning, Williams’ former Folsom classmate, signed with the Bengals in 2021.

“I‘m so grateful for it every day,” Williams said. “It’s really cool to see all these guys that I played ball with that are in the NFL, too. Jake’s on the same team as me, so I go into the locker room every day and see my buddy from high school.”

Jake Browning

Browning, 27, graduated from Folsom in 2015.

He would go on to start as quarterback for the University of Washington where he set numerous season and career records, including 12,296 career yards, which is the fourth most in Pac-12 history, and 94 career touchdown passes, 6th most in Pac-12 history.

He signed with the Minnesota Vikings as an undrafted free agent in 2019 and with the Bengals’ practice squad in 2021. He signed to move to the team’s active roster in January.

“It’s good,” Browning said during the children’s water break at the camp Saturday. “I’m still playing football, which I enjoy.”

He said he attributes “a lot” of his success to the Folsom community.

“When you’re in high school, what everyone else thinks is important, you kind of start to think is important,” he said. “Even people that maybe a lot of people don’t know we’re just so supportive of football. A name that comes to mind is Jim Noble, he was our linebacker coach, but he made Folsom football feel very important.”

Browning was in Folsom’s Junior Bulldogs program before high school, he said he is grateful for the quality of people hosting those programs and the lifelong friends he made along the way.

“I graduated from a high school team that won a ton of games; we were really good, (and) it was a lot of people that I played with since I was 8.”

Browning said he met his girlfriend of five years in Seattle. He said “it’s been cool” for her to experience Folsom with him and specifically mentioned Sutter Street in the historic district.

Josiah Deguara

Deguara, 26, said that playing with his fellow NFL league members back at Folsom was “unbelievable.”

“I was able to play basketball, football, play two state championships, five or six section titles,” he said. “We had a lot of success there.”

Deguara now plays as a tight end for the Packers. He was drafted in the third round, 94th overall, in 2020.

“I’ve got to pinch myself every day just driving to work,” Deguara said. “Just being able to pull into Lambeau Field every day, it’s a dream I’ve had forever, and I don’t even know if I dreamt it to this extent.”

The tight end graduated from Folsom in 2015 and went to play for the University of Cincinnati for four years. He almost committed to UC Davis but received the offer from the Bearcats two weeks before signing day. He would obtain two degrees in Ohio: a bachelor’s and a master’s in sports administration.

He sought out the degrees, he said, because after the NFL he still wants to be involved in sports, athletics and the younger generation in some type of way whether that’s coaching, an administration role or being a part of an organization like the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

At Cincinnati, he would run 1,117 yards on 92 receptions and score 13 touchdowns in all.

Terry Richards, 65, father of Jordan Richards, coached at Folsom from 2007 to 2019. He said Deguara was a late bloomer.

“He was probably a kid a little more on the fringe of things in terms of his size,” Richards said. “We were thrilled when he got the opportunity in Cincinnati.”

Now, Deguara will mark the third anniversary of his contract with the Packers in July.

Deguara’s father, Dean, 53, is the lead pastor of Real Life Church in Natomas. Deguara said faith is the reason he plays in the NFL.

“What I do is not who I am,” Deguara said. “At the end of the day, I’m here to spread the love of Jesus with others.”

He said trusting God allows him to trust life’s process and lets him know there is a “bigger purpose for my life than playing football.”

Deguara met his now wife in middle school when they attended Capital Christian on Mayhew Road in Sacramento’s Rosemont neighborhood together. He said they are looking to buy a house in the Sacramento area for the offseason.

He said he feels gratitude when he sits and reflects on his time in the NFL.

“It could be over in a snap of a finger,” he said. “(I) just enjoy every single moment of it.”

Joseph Ngata

Joseph Ngata was touted as a possible fifth- or sixth-round prospect for the 2023 NFL draft, but was called up at the end of April during undrafted free agency by the Eagles as a wide receiver.

In 2017, Joseph and his brother, Daniyel, both of Reno, had to fight off rumors that they lived in a party house full of transfer players or at a hotel as a loophole to residential eligibility. Social media threads accused coaches of recruiting at the time, but coaches and the brothers insist they “did everything right.”

The Ngatas did not let that affect their performance on the field.

“I had Joe his four years at Folsom, and talking about one of the all-time great players in Sacramento history, that guy (has) freakish athletic ability and off-the-chart work ethic,” said former Folsom coach Kris Richardson. “He comes from an amazing family and is one of the hardest working kids I’ve ever been around for sure.”

Richards said he recalled seeing Ngata on the field and the coaching staff collectively going, “Whoa. This kid’s different.”

Paul Doherty, 41, serves as Folsom’s current head coach and did so for the tail end of Ngata’s high school career.

He said Ngata, his family and the other successful players that went on to the NFL have put the Folsom football program on a pedestal that attracts kids.

“The Ngata brothers see Josiah Deguara having so much success, Jake Browning having so much success, (and) it creates this environment that they want to be a part of, which is a huge responsibility,” Doherty said.

Ngata played at Clemson University in South Carolina.

He is credited with 88 career receptions for 1,287 yards and six touchdowns in 1,510 offensive snaps over 45 career games at the school from 2019 to 2022, 25 of which he started in. He averaged 23.2 yards on 14 kickoff returns in 2019.

Jordan Richards

Richards, 30, played corner at Folsom but moved to safety at Stanford. He graduated from Stanford in 2015 with a degree in public policy and was drafted later that year by the New England Patriots in the second round as the 64th overall pick.

Richards said he started playing football in third grade in the Junior Bulldogs program. Participants can start as early as 6, when students are usually in first grade.

“I felt like there was probably a core of any 25 (to) 30 guys, and we all kind of grew up together with our families, friends and siblings,” he said. “I wouldn’t say I felt at the time how special it was until you get older and realize that wasn’t necessarily a traditional experience to be able to play ball with the same friends for so long.”

What resonates with him most about his time in the NFL is the amount of life he got to live playing the game and the relationships with people he formed along the way, he said.

“I came into the league single and just trying to figure it out,” he said. “By the time I was done. I was married, (had) three kids and lived in four states.”

Richards lives in Texas. He and his wife, Mary, have three kids: twin boys, Emmanuel and David, 2, and a daughter, Mercy, 1.

He said he would let his sons play football, but he “definitely” would not let them play as early as he started playing.

“I don’t think there is as much value to them playing so young,” he said. “I started playing tackle in third grade. I think that can get stretched out to middle school. I don’t think that I was that much further ahead of my peers by playing as a third grader than if I would have started as a fifth grader or sixth or seventh grader.”

Richards played in Super Bowl LII against the Philadelphia Eagles in 2018. He said he broke his hand very early in the game on a kickoff but stayed in the game.

“I was a one-handed bandit out there,” he said.

Like Deguara, Richards said he attributes most of his life’s journey to God and that religion is a big part of his life.

“I feel like that’s our mission and purpose is trying to glorify God in the process of it all, and he’s certainly taught me a lot along the way,” Richards said.

Richards currently interns for the NFL Players Association, and Mary Richards, formerly a D1 athlete, runs a nutrition business that her husband said tries “to use sports and nutrition as a way to help people.”

He said he is fully retired from the NFL. Beyond the NFLPA, he said he does not know what will be next.

Ryan Rau

Ryan Rau, 32, a Folsom graduate, said he would not let his almost 2-year-old daughter play football.

“It can be a very violent sport,” he said. “She’s my little princess.”

Rau, primarily a linebacker, made his NFL debut with the Eagles against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Dec. 9, 2012. The quarterback at the time was Nick Foles, fresh off his third-round draft pick that year. The 23-21 victory ended an eight-game losing streak for the Eagles.

Rau was not drafted, the Philadelphia team gave him a tryout after college. He flew out, practiced for three days and went home. Only then did he receive a phone call that the team wanted to sign him as an undrafted free agent.

After that, Rau either practiced or played in the preseason with the Cleveland Browns, the Carolina Panthers or the Miami Dolphins from 2013 to 2014. Rau holds onto a game ball from his debut game, while his mother, Leslie, keeps his jerseys in his parents’ home in Folsom.

Rau practiced for a short time in early 2014 with the Edmonton Eskimos, a Canadian football team, before he pulled his hamstring and the team released him.

His NFL career ended toward the end of 2014, but Rau said he was happy he made some sort of impact.

“I wanted to be able to contribute, help my teammates and help them win games whether that be in practice just giving them good looks, or in games and making great plays.” he said.

Rau played college football at Portland State. Before that, he played at Folsom under coaches Richardson and Troy Taylor. Rau graduated from Folsom in 2008.

“They gave me the foundation to kind of go all the way, and I think one of some of the reasons behind that is they have such an advanced program compared to other schools,” Rau said.

He spoke highly of the weightlifting program and the state-of-the-art stadium.

“Those type of things are going to boost your confidence as a as a young kid,” he said.

His daughter, Isabella, 2, lives with Rau and his wife in Oregon. They have a second child on the way. Rau, who graduated with a bachelor’s degree in social sciences, now invests in real estate and operates an online nutrition supplement company.

Virgil Carter

The earliest NFL player to come out of Folsom is Virgil Carter, 77, who was drafted in the sixth round, 142nd overall in 1967, the same year the Super Bowl debuted.

“I think, from a player standpoint, it was a big deal because it was going to finally put some competition that meant something between the NFL and the AFL back then,” Carter said.

Carter, a quarterback, would play for the Chicago Bears from 1968 to 1969 and the Cincinnati Bengals from 1970 to 1973. After jumping around some more, he would return to the Bears for his final NFL season in 1976.

He graduated from Folsom in 1963. When he attended, he said there were roughly 600 students enrolled. One-third came from Folsom, another third from Rancho Cordova and the last third, Carter’s group, hailed from Mather Air Force Base.

“They bused us from Mather to Folsom,” he said.

After Folsom, he attended Brigham Young University and set six national records, 19 conference records and 24 school records, he said. He was an All-American scholar-athlete.

Carter’s father served in the military for approximately 30 years. The Bears would send Carter to the National Guard in the ’60s, but he flunked the physical due to spondylolisthesis, a spinal disorder where a vertebra slips forward onto the bone below it causing lower back pain.

Instead of serving in the National Guard, he would lead an 8-year career in the NFL.

Academics were prominent in Carter’s career. He graduated with a degree in statistics and mathematics from BYU then went for his master’s at Northwestern in the offseason of his first three years with the Bears.

He said he conducted research on the NFL solving for expected values of having the ball at different spots on the field. The subsequent paper he wrote about was published in a research journal when he graduated in 1970, he said.

“A professor figured out a way for me to do this big research program and got me credit for that class,” Carter said.

Now, Carter is retired and living in San Bernardino County. Before that, he created an insurance agency specializing in chiropractic malpractice insurance. His stepson now runs the business.

He said, health permitting, he hopes to make it to his 60th Folsom High School reunion in October.

A common denominator

Taylor, 55, now directs Stanford’s football program. He coached the Folsom team in the early 2000s but stepped away for a time to participate in the California Golden Bears’ radio broadcast, according to Richardson. Taylor would return in full capacity from 2012 to 2016 and help earn the 2014 state championship title.

He then took a passing game coordinator and quarterbacks coach position at Eastern Washington in 2016 and oversaw the likes of Cooper Kupp, a wide receiver for the Rams.

From 2018 until 2022, he was Sacramento State football’s head coach. Taylor offered Richardson the assistant head coaching position at the university. Richardson said he was ready “to ride off into the sunset” but found himself answering Taylor’s call.

Richardson said Taylor’s biggest protege was Browning and that Taylor coached him all through youth football.

Browning said that the youth football camp was going “full circle.”

“I remember coming to a football camp like this when I was younger,” Browning said. “Richardson and Taylor we’re putting it on for the high school. I remember thinking, ‘This is really important because these are the high school coaches, and they’re like the local celebrities.’”

Richardson assists

Richardson, 54, now oversees the offensive line at Sacramento State.

Rau said Richardson and Taylor are to thank for transforming the Folsom football program.

“They pretty much transformed an average program (into) one of the best programs that entire nation,” Rau said. “Now, (Folsom’s) become such a powerhouse. They have so many colleges looking at all the athletes.”

During Richardson’s coaching career with the high school, 23 years from 1995 to 2018, Folsom would win state championships in 2010, in Division II, and 2014, 2017 and 2018, in Division I.

Richardson said he and his wife, Kelly, made a “J-ball” because so many of the successful players that came out of the coaching program Richardson helped create had first names that start with “J.”

“Jordan, Jonah, Jake, Josiah and Joe Ngata have all signed this one football,” he said. “We knew they were pretty special athletes, but the five of them getting the shot in the NFL, (it’s) a weird thing that they all start with Js.”