One year after helping Kemper County to title, Jones gets opportunity at SHS
It’s been almost a full calendar year since Chris Jones accomplished his goal of winning a state championship and the train he’s driving hasn’t stopped.
When Jones walked out of Davis Wade Stadium, he did so with a Class 3A State championship for a Kemper County program that had not tasted the type of success he brought it. As that calendar turned into 2017, Jones accepted the position of being the head coach at Starkville High School and the same goal remained from day one.
SHS Athletics Director Milton Smith studied Jones’ success closely and has been even further following him since he’s been with the Yellowjackets. Nothing that he’s done to this point is a surprise to Smith who spent years playing and coaching the game.
“We talked about this when we first hired him and our expectations and it all lined up,” Smith said. “He’s done a great job since he got here. We watched them work with the kids and those players bought into what he was doing. They’ve been in it since day one. Being a former head coach and watching him, he’s done a great job.”
This week, Jones is preparing for yet another state title game and he’s doing it in his first year in Class 6A. As he so often exclaims, he believes in speaking things into existence and Starkville won a Region 2 championship and a North State championship to this point. There’s only one more to go on Friday when they meet Pearl.
“I’m proud of it and all of that, but I expected to be here,” Jones said. “We talked about it as a
unit to begin with the end in mind. That’s why we worked so hard because we wanted to put ourselves in this position.
“I’m not surprised we got
here. I felt all along that we would be just fine even with the losses that we had. Sometimes you have to take (a loss) to step back and see what you need to fix. We found out a lot about ourselves.”
It’s been a difficult road
to this point for the Jackets, who has losses to West Point and Warren Central but two big wins over Madison Central and one against Meridian, which are two teams that made it to the state semifinals.
The ups and downs have
been there, but Jones has been proud of how his team continues to weather the storm in a 13-2 season. After winning just seven games a year ago, SHS has found a way to navigate through tough moments in and after games this
season.
For Jones, the success lies on the players’ backs.
“It’s all about the players and having kids that can make the plays,” Jones said..” I feel like our kids show up in big time games. That’s all we
can ask for as a staff. We just have to make sure that they’re prepared.”
Friday night’s state championship is set for 7 p.m. at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium on the campus of Ole Miss. Tickets are on sale for $14.