Daleville taps former Troy basketball star Emil Jones to lead basketball program

The Daleville City Schools Board of Education has unanimously approved the hiring of Charles Henderson assistant coach Emil Jones as the new Daleville High School head varsity basketball coach.

Jones comes to Daleville after serving as an assistant basketball and football coach at Charles Henderson High School in Troy. Jones has been at Charles Henderson since 2015 and has served as the quarterbacks coach for Charles Henderson Middle School, the quarterbacks coach for the varsity team at CHHS, the head coach for the middle school and an assistant coach for the varsity team at CHHS.

“I visited with the (Daleville) principal (Josh Robertson) and Dr. (Lisa) Stamps and just the support that I feel that I will be getting from them and the environment they have created seemed like a place I wanted to bring my family,” Jones said of his hiring at Daleville.

Before becoming a coach at Charles Henderson, Jones was a star on both the football field and hardwood at Pearl River Community College in Mississippi and a star basketball player at Troy University.

The Hattiesburg, Miss. native was a three-sport star in high school – including basketball and football – and went to PRCC to play football and was the starting quarterback there for two seasons, compiling 4,738 yards and 38 touchdowns while there. His success on the field led to him committing to play football at Memphis, but before his sophomore year at PRCC he decided to give basketball a try again.

“The basketball coach had recruited me when I was in high school and kept asking me to play basketball there,” Jones said. “So, I played football and basketball my second year in college and we actually won the state championship in basketball and I fell in love and got the basketball bug again.

“I stayed at junior college another year and just played basketball and turned down my football offers.”

He averaged 18 points and nine rebounds in his final year at PRCC before heading to Troy. Jones started 25 games in his first year at Troy and averaged 10 points, six rebounds and two steals, but truly became a star his senior season. He averaged 11 points, six rebounds, three assists, two steals and one blocked shot in 30 starts as a senior.

Jones’ signature moment came when he helped christen the newly opened Trojan Arena with a game-winning jumper to lift Troy over the SEC’s Mississippi State on Nov. 10, 2012. It was not only the first game played at the new Trojan Arena but it was the first time an SEC school had ever played in Troy.

Jones believes his success in college can help players at Daleville understand that he can help guide them to get where they want to be.

“I think it (helps). I think it makes (me) a little bit more relatable to them,” Jones said. “They know that I’ve been there and I can show them a direction to be able to have a chance to get to where they want to go.”

Jones will also be reuniting with new Daleville football coach Will Garner as the two coached together from 2015 until 2020 at Charles Henderson. Jones will be an assistant coach on the offensive side of the ball alongside Garner.

“Coach Garner and I have grown close over the last five or six years,” Jones said. “He’s one of the most trustworthy guys I know and when he brought to me the possibility to have the chance to coach with him it was a no-brainer.”

Jones didn’t waste any time getting started either as he began teaching and coaching at Daleville in April.

“I have gotten very little sleep lately,” Jones happily said after being hired. “I’m excited to hit the ground running and I can’t wait to get started and build this program up.”