HighSchool OT

Jonesing for special features

By Tim Candon
Oct 10, 2008

Sound the horns for West Johnston.

I had several items left over that didn’t make it in to the story I wrote about the West Johnston football team and coach Bennett Jones.

Consider the story and what’s to come below a DVD. The story is the movie, and here are the special features.

Payday

Every Friday is payday for West Johnston. As a way to pick up his dragging team during a preseason practice, Jones just hollered, “Aug. 22, we’re getting paid. It’s payday.”

“It became a slogan at the very beginning of practice,” Jones said. “We had a countdown to payday."

After the Wildcats’ season-opening win at Athens Drive, a team parent told everyone in the postgame huddle they got paid today. And she handed out Payday candy bars to the entire team, a routine that’s been repeated each Friday since.

“It’s just something we rally around,” Jones said. “We feel like if we do the job we’re supposed to do throughout the week, then on Friday, Friday should be fun. Friday is the day you get rewarded for all your hard work.”

Community service

As noted in my story, this week, every player was required to go out in the community and do something nice for someone else, such as carry someone’s groceries to their car or offer to cut someone’s grass. They were also required to do perform a similarly selfless task for someone at school.

Why?

“To simply say thank you,” Jones said. “If they ask why are you doing this? Just say, ‘ Thank you for supporting West Johnston football and West Johnston High School.’ If they say, ‘I don’t support them,’ say, ‘Maybe you will in the future because we’re trying to be a good representative for our community.’

"Football may seem like everything, but it’s only a small aspect of what they’ll accomplish in their lives. My goal is not only to make good football players, but to make good young men, somebody the community can be proud of and say they went here.

“They are in a position where people see them, and it’s a responsibility. They have to make sure they’re doing the things that are good and positive. Obviously, we have people that make bad decisions and you have to discipline them. But discipline is a big part of the program. It’s not always easy, but those are the things that are necessary to establish the validity of the program.”

They said it

Jones on what he learned about how to run a program from Clayton's Gary Fowler:

“I learned several things from Gary. Number one is in terms of just managing the entire program. I think when I got the job at Beddingfield, I was so young, I just focused on the football aspect and didn’t understand all the other responsibilities that come along with it — dealing with the press, dealing with officials, weight training — and Gary helped prepare me in terms of managing a program.

“He also taught me a lot in terms of dealing with people, how to handle different people. I have the tendency to speak my mind and Gary taught me it’s OK to be that way, as long as you stay true to your convictions but at the same time always treat people with respect, always understand they have opinions as well.

“The third thing is just to establish a family atmosphere. Everything at Clayton is a family, the way the coaches get a long, the players, the entire atmosphere at the school surrounding the football program. And that’s one of the things I really want to establish here. That’s why after every game we get together at the end of the field. We invite the parents, cheerleaders, everybody. We want them all to be around us when I talk to the team. They are an integral part of our success.”

Jones on his predecessor, Kwame Dixon:

“I told the players their former coach would be proud of them. I know what he’s going through. I left Beddingfield, and it was tough watching somebody else succeed with the players you felt like you had developed. And somebody else gets the credit. I felt that way. I was happy for them, but at the same time it was tough watching somebody else win when felt like you were on the cusp of it. Kwame was on the cusp of it last year. I think he’s proud with the job the kids have done. We owe a lot to the job he did.”

Jones on how his team has responded to its windfall of success:

“This school is still relatively young and has not really had a lot of success with the football program until last year. Dealing with success is hard. Going from being the hunter to the hunted is a big step. One thing I’ve been proud of is they have taken that step.”

Fowler on losing Jones at the start of the season:

“I didn’t want to lose a coach at that time of the year, especially one of my co-coordinators, but any time I can get a guy a head job, that’s part of my job, too. I’m tickled to death for him, and I think West Johnston is lucky to have him.”

Fowler on the Wildcats’ 7-0 season and the Comets’ 2-5 season:

“Maybe he knew what he was doing with he left. I kid him about that.”

Fowler on the importance of assistant coaches:

“The one thing Bennett Jones learned at Clayton is how lucky I’ve been. In my 23, 24, however many years it’s been, I’ve always surround myself with good assistants. When you talk about a program, the head coach gets a lot of accolades, but any program, wherever it is, look at the assistant coaches. ... Your assistant coaches are going to make or break you.”

West senior Mallie Umphrey on the Wildcats’ prospects for an undefeated season:

“I’ve never been undefeated in my life. That would be a big accomplishment for West Johnston. People are probably still looking down on us. But we’re going to show them what we can do.”