Friday, July 16, 2010
Cougars turn to another ex-player in new coach
Pulaski County hires Essex coach Todd Jones who, like his predecessor, played for the Cougars under Joel Hicks.
varsity.roanoke.com
Timesland on Twitter
Being the Pulaski County High football coach must be one dandy job or else Todd Jones never would have left Essex.
"It was tough, really tough," he said. "But sometimes an opportunity comes up and you think about it and reflect and you just have to go after it."
Jones, 37 and a 1990 graduate of Pulaski County, was announced as the new Cougars coach by the Pulaski County School Board on Thursday evening.
Jones, a 14-year veteran head coach at Essex, a Group A Division 2 school on the Middle Peninsula, said that from time to time he had it in the back of his mind that he'd like to return home and coach the Cougars.
"I'd be lying if I said I didn't," he said.
He's leaving quite a program. The Trojans, the defending state champions, are coming off a 14-0 campaign with four starters back on offense and six on defense among 30 returning lettermen. The junior varsity has lost a total of two games the past two seasons. The Trojans hammered Radford 30-0 in the title game. Coincidentally, the Bobcats will visit Dobson Stadium for this year's season opener.
During his term at Essex, Jones' teams went 135-34 and won nine Northern Neck District titles and four Region A crowns. The Trojans were twice state runner-up. Jones was chosen district and region coach of the year six times each.
Jones comes into an unsettled situation in the wake of the sudden resignation of predecessor Jack Turner and subsequent revelations of VHSL rules violations related to out of season practices. Those offenses were sanctioned harshly by the league. In addition to cash fines, the program faces reduced practice and scrimmage times and a 2010 postseason ban, among other sanctions.
"We can't do anything about that," Jones said. "We're moving forward. My focus is Radford. We're going to play 10 games and play them hard as we can."
Jones was settling affairs in Tappahannock before taking the long trip to the southwest. He said he hoped to arrive in Pulaski County the first of next week. He didn't rule out traveling back and forth a couple of times in order to be able to take care of everything.
Jones and his wife Meredith have two girls, 5-year-old Payton and Kylie, 4. Meredith Jones is a mathematics teacher at Essex and the former softball coach there. She'll have a similar teaching job at Pulaski County.
"I don't know if you could call it a package deal, but if it is, then they hired me in order to get her," the new coach said.
Jones is also walking away from the Trojans' athletic director's job. That post is filled at Pulaski County by Mark Hanks.
Preparations for the coming season are handicapped not only by the reduced workout times, but also the late start for the new coach. Nevertheless, Jones is already considering installing new offensive and defensive schemes. Essex worked out of the one-back spread offense while Pulaski County has primarily been a wing-T team. Defensively, Essex deployed switching defenses in order to disguise what it was doing.
As for major changes in scheme, Jones said simply, "We'll take a look at some things when I get there."
Remnants of Turner's coaching staff have been keeping the Cougars' offseason program together. Jones said he would hope to retain most of the existing staff, many of whom he'd known previously.
Jones' stepfather Roger Lee Dalton, who raised Jones along with his mother Peggy, died May 30. Peggy Dalton still lives in the county.
"It's been hard this spring," Jones said.
Jones, a reserve player for coach Joel Hicks, in high school, is a 1994 graduate of Emory & Henry. Jones will be only the fourth coach in school history following Dave Brown, Hicks and Turner.
Jones noted the tradition (16 district titles, seven regional crowns, one state championship). He said he could literally feel that heritage when he looked in on a conditioning session when he came back for the funeral of his stepfather.
"Seeing the intensity those kids were showing just gave me chills," Jones said.
