Jones named Coach of the Year

After guiding the New Brockton football team to seven wins and a playoff appearance, NBHS coach Justin Jones has been named The Southeast Sun/Daleville Sun-Courier Coach of the Year.

The 2014 season was Jones’ first as coach at New Brockton.

“For us, it was a lot about just establishing who we are, establishing our identity. I think our (players) are starting to buy into some of that. We’re still a relatively young team, but it started with a group of our seniors buying into what we’re about,” he said. “That helped out tremendously. Those seniors are the ones (who) we depended on in helping us start changing the culture. We’re nowhere (near) where we want to be, of course, but it was a good start with those guys and a coaching staff willing to do anything to help us be successful.”

The coach credited his staff for the players’ development and building the program’s vision.

“I appreciate them,” Jones said. “This award is not really a personal award. It only happens because we’ve got a staff that has the same vision we’ve all got for the program, and a bunch of (players) starting to believe in what we’re doing. We only hope this is just a small bright spot of the big (goal) we want to get to.”

The leadership of the senior class is something Jones hopes will help the underclassmen continue to build the program.

“I hope this is just the beginning of an identity we want to have of being a very tough, work-minded football team and total program,” he said. “We work with a lunch-pail-type atmosphere. We come to put (work) in every day, and want to achieve the ultimate goal. It’s got to start somewhere — being able to produce a winning season for this community, get back in the playoffs and get this thing started the way it needs to start.”

The Gamecocks are off to a good start in Jones’ tenure.

New Brockton won its first two games, and reeled off four wins in a row for the first time since the 1998 season.

The Gamecocks also beat Providence 22-7 on Sept. 26 for their first win in the series, but their coach said the biggest accomplishment of the 2014 team is its ability to deal with adversity.

“The whole atmosphere of showing up every day and (trying to) get better — ‘Let’s just strive every day to be better than (we were) yesterday’ — it started to click as the year went on,” Jones said. “A lot of the younger (players) we played most of the year started growing up.”

New Brockton also made its way into the Class 2A state playoffs after a one-year absence.

“We felt like we earned the right to be in the playoffs,” Jones said. “That came from us growing from a really young football team to a team that grew up as the year went on. Hopefully we grow quicker, because they’ve had a year of playing. Those guys have already played a year and been in the playoff game.”

There are other goals for the Gamecocks to accomplish in the future, but Jones is proud of the season and its 7-4 record.

“This was the best record I’ve had as a head coach,” he said. “I’m proud of that. Just to be in a program that wants to consider (itself) a contender in a playoff mode, to be at a place where being in the playoffs is something we ought to do but we want to have more. Does that bring some pressure to it? It does, but to me that’s good pressure. That’s good pressure that you’ve got an administration that wants to see this place be really special. For me, that makes it fun.”