Jonathan Herrera Guevara

Jonathan Herrera Guevara (Born in Mexico City, February 22, 1981) is an American football wide receiver and outer linebacker for the Le Mans Caïmans 72 on the Championship sanctioned by the FFFA . He started playing Pro football with the Mexican club Diablos del Sol A.C. on year 2004. He played college football at Aguascalientes State University (Universidad Autónoma de Aguascalientes).
Early years
Born first child to Jorge Antonio Herrera Berenguer a gymclass teacher and American Football coach, and Ignacia Guevara Reyes a Federal eployee at the time, Jonathan lived his early years in Mexico City.
In 1986 at the age of 5, the family decided to move to Aguascalientes where he grew up. He attended the UAA High School where he lettered in soccer, basketball, and football. In 1998 he played his first season with the Universidad Autonoma de Aguascalientes being the youngest player in the team's roster (17 years old). Regardless of this condition, he became first string wideout that same season.
In year 2000 he was accepted by Head Coach Leonardo Luján for a try out with the Universidad de las Américas in Puebla. Even though he had good comments and reviews, Coach Luján cosidered that Herrera was not mature enough as a player, and was not what he needed on his squad. No football scolarship was offered, and Herrera had to continue his college football career back in Aguascalientes.
Professional career
Diablos del Sol A.C.
Herrera professional debut came on 2004 with Diablos del Sol A.C. where he played the first four years of his career. On his first year, Herrera played as a starter wideout the full schedule of the team that included 3 pre season games, 8 regular season games and 2 playoff games, where the team reached quarter finals. For the 2005 season, the team reached once more the playoffs, and made it all the way to the semi-final. In 2006 Herrera started the season slow and missing some playing time due to an ankle sprain, but recovered quickly and helped the team to make it into the playoffs for 3rd straight year. 2007 was a tough year for Herrera who pulled his left hamstring during the pre-season and had to remain on the Physically Unable to Perform list for 3 weeks, just to come back to the practice field, and suffer another hamstring injury that kept him away for another four weeks, while missing three games. His performance during this season was poor, but got better as he came out of injuries and managed to remain healthy. The team made it one more time to the quarter final playoff game, just before he left to Canada. On April 2008, Herrera came back to Aguascalientes from his Canadian season and played one more season with Diablos del Sol, Having for the first time on his career a more defensive oriented role.
Northbay Bulldogs
After 2007 OMFA Mexican season, Herrera headed to Canada. There, he attended a combine hosted by several Ontario's Northern Football Conference teams where he displayed a very satisfactory performance. With recorded times of 4.68 and 4.71 on the 40 yd dash, 4.52 and 4.58 in the pro agility drill, a 32 inches high jump and 11 reps for the 225 lbs. He caught the attention of North Bay Bulldog's head coach Marc Mathon who on his review stated: "Jonathan have demonstrated a deep desire to play this game at a higher level and have no fear of trying and working hard no matter what the challenge he faces. He has heart and that is something we tend to gravitate towards wanting to work with. He is competitive and appear to want to measure himself against the best players on any competition".
However the Northbay Bulldogs did have a talented veteran receiving corps returning that year, which presented a good challenge for anyone working to break into the starting lineup. That placed Herrera deep down the Bulldog's depth chart, and when the season kicked off he was a second string wide receiver. He only started 4 games that season and had limited playing time, but kept working hard, and at the end of the season he was named the most improved player of the NFC.
OMFA Mexican National Team
After 2008 season with Diablos del Sol, Herrea was nominated for the OMFA (Organización Mexicana de Football Americano) Mexican National Team that played 2 internationalgames against American teams: South Division All Stars on August 2008, and The San Antonio Warriors at the Alamo Battle Bowl October 2008, both losses for the Mexicans.
Arena Football and Injury
In October 2008 he Joined the Aguascalientes Silverbacks, a newborn Arena Football Team that played on the LHFA. On the season opener against the Zacatecas Generals, Herrera suffered the first and so far only major injury of his career: a tendon injury as well as a severe meniscal rupture on the right knee. This injury would keep him away of the fields for over a year.
Nevertheless, after a period of strict medical control, fisiotherapy and conditioning which helped to avoid arthroscopy, he reported ready to come back to the gridiron once again early 2010.
Caïmans 72
On June 2010 July 2010 he finally reached an agreement and signed a one season deal with the Le Mans based club Caïmans 72 where he currently plays.
As starting wide receiver, starting Outside linebcker and captain of the team Herrera made important contributions to the team performance and helped them to have an undeafeated regular season (10 wins- 0 Losses) winning the B Divisional title, and a 3-1 play-off record to win the North Conference Championship, just to lose the National Final to the Toulouse Bears 19-14.

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