Jones, Thome headline Hall class
Larry Wayne Jones Jr. was a throwback, a guy who played for only one major league club and always stayed focused on a single goal — trying to get better every day.
Pressure was an afterthought for the man dubbed Chipper, except perhaps in 1990 at the beginning of his career with the Atlanta Braves organization.
“Maybe my first year in rookie ball there was some pressure. Obviously, I didn’t perform,” said Jones, who batted just .229 with one homer and 18 RBIs in 140 at-bats in the Gulf Coast League while dealing with a hand injury. “There was some pushback for the Braves taking me.”
Any doubts about the switchhitting overall No. 1 pick of the 1990 draft from the Bolles School in Jacksonville, Florida, quickly faded. In Class A ball the next season, Jones batted .326, hit 15 homers, drove in 98 runs and stole 40 bases. Four years later he was a regular in the Atlanta lineup at age 23 and relishing the journey.
“For me, it was just having fun and playing the game,” said Jones, whose nickname surfaced at a young age after family members called him a chip off the old block because he looked so much like his dad. “I never saw a
ing a place on the podium in the Nationals, her ultimate dream is to compete in the Olympics. She admitted that, while she is ranked in the top 50 nationwide, she is not super close to making the Olympic team. That hasn’t kept her from dreaming about working to secure a spot for the 2024 Olympics in Paris or the 2028 Games in Los Angeles.
Hoffman also said she feels confident in the progress she’s making through training and competing more and more.
“I listened to my coach, and I’m beating girls I had tough time with a couple years ago,” she said. “If I just continue what I’m doing, that’ll be enough.”
Hoffman said she’s currently looking at Division I colleges with strong fencing programs like Columbia University, Northwestern University and Notre Dame. She added that’s she’s already received offers and gone on official visits to colleges.
Hoffman hopes the rigorous level of competition, coupled with taking additional lessons, will help her make the U.S. Olympic team. She said she’s competing every weekend, and, so far this year, she’s travelled to Richmond, Virginia, Anaheim, California, and, for the first time, abroad to compete in Germany.
Hoffman said she especially enjoyed travelling to Germany and seeing how their fencing tactics differed from those in the United States.
Looking ahead, she will be taking part in competitions in Milwaukee and Kansas City and also at the North American Cup, which features fencers from the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
Hoffman briefly explained the three different fencing disciplines.
Foilist and eppes have a bit more time to think about what their doing, while sabre, which is the discipline she practices, is more about speed and just doing things.
“I’ve always been a saberist,” Hoffman said.
In fencing, points are scored by touching opponents with the tip or the blade of the sword. A buzzer wired to the sword makes a noise to indicate contact. For those who compete with sabers, points are scored by making hits above the waist, excluding the hands.
The winner is the first to post 15 touches or whoever has the most touches at the end of a trio of three-minute rounds.
She added that saberists often have a strong personality, something she was not told when her coach Dennis Kolakowski discovered her and started training with her.
Hoffman said she first got into fencing because her little sister started with it when she was 7 and they ultimately ended up taking lessons together. Her sister ended up moving onto the martial arts, she added, but she stuck with fencing, and it would change her life.
Hoffman said before she took up fencing she was never much into sports.
“I was a pretty unathletic kid,” Hoffman said.
She added that she wasn’t as focused in class as she is now, with a few Bs and Cs on her report cards.
“I didn’t care about school,” Hoffman said.
But, with fencing, she found herself better able to focus and set goals.
“Now I have a 96 GPA (grade point average),” Hoffman said, although it means taking homework on road trips and staying up late, even when she has to be awake before 6 a.m.
And she also said she loved how fencing combines mental and physical exercise at once.
Her training regime includes making a 45-minute trip to Poughkeepsie on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays to train at the Phoenix Club. At hom,e her training regimen is a mix of training with weights and going running with friends. Sometimes, she even runs in her gear to prepare for the rigors of competing with her mask on in spaces that don’t have the best air conditioning.
“It’s really hot,” Hoffman said. “It gives you the feeling of being claustrophobic, sweating and hot.”
On top of all of this, Hoffman teaches youth lessons at the Phoenix Club during the evening before she starts her training sessions.
“It helps me a lot,” she said. “Teaching it helps me understand.”
And, she added, she hopes her lessons will help youngsters find something the love.
“It changed who I was,” Hoffman said.
As for her academic plans, Hoffman is considering studying environmental studies or possibly engineering. But she admitted it’s too early for her to make a definitive choice.
“I like English and science classes,” she said. “Maybe engineering would be a good fit.”
Right now, she’s happy to have happened upon something she loves so much.
“I was lucky I found it while I was a teenager,” she said.