Congratulations to the 24-25 Wyandotte High School Head Coach of the Year, Mr. Eddie Jones!
Coach Eddie Jones has been named Head Coach of the Year at Wyandotte High School for his exceptional leadership and dedication to the basketball program. Under his guidance, the team has not only shown remarkable improvement on the court but has also embraced a culture of discipline, teamwork, and hard work. Coach Jones’ commitment to developing both the athletes' skills and their character has earned him well-deserved recognition, highlighting his significant impact on the school’s sports community.
🖤Coach Jones is a great example and guiding influence on students. He exemplifies the very best!
🖤I may be a little biased since I work with Eddie, but he is a heck of a coach. Last year they were 13-13 and now this year they are a 20+ win team with multiple upset wins against top teams in the state, wins against larger schools than us, and tournament championship games on multiple occasions. All while managing a young group of boys all below the age of 16. Coach Jones deserves Coach of the Year in my eyes.
🖤Coach Jones has shown compassion and passion for Wyandotte High School.
🖤When Eddie Jones took over the basketball program in the 21/22 school year, the boys' basketball program had been in a frustrating limbo. There had been 5 head boys coaches in 4 years, despite having abundant talent come through the program during that time. Coach Jones took the program and provided a sense of stability and credibility while at the same time being a universally respected coach who was excellent at developing relationships with his student athletes and the parents who were stakeholders in the program. As a basketball tactician, he was strong and constantly growing to make sure our boys were in the best position they could be given the strengths of any given team.
🖤Coach Eddie Jones is a mentor. He is a mentor to his student athletes and to the other coaches. I have watched Coach Jones build relationships with his athletes on the court and in his classroom. He inspires, he leads, and he loves. He has passion. Students who have had Coach Jones in their lives are better because of it.
🖤Coach Jones is always a supporter of the players & students in his classroom. He always has words of encouragement when talking to the players & students. A coach's job is a rough one, especially when you have to deal with parents & other patrons who attend the games. He takes it all in & still encourages & supports the students. Coach Jones will always ask if he can help in any situation.
This year, he approached this season with a genuinely brilliant approach that wasn't easy to implement. He worked to build a schedule that was going to be grueling and difficult from start to finish. We played tough teams, and based on our record the previous year, most would look at our schedule and expect us to win 12 games and be eliminated at some point during the regional tournament. These boys won a district championship, a regional consolation championship, and went to the area tournament with a sense of purpose, surprising everyone by making it to the area consolation championship game, falling one game short of the state tournament.
Coach Jones would be the first to tell you, though, that this is because of the special group of boys playing on this team. This team is deep and has crazy talent through the 3rd string to come off of the bench. It was difficult for any parent of a player who didn't see a large amount of playing time to sit there knowing that any one of these kids would start on just about any team in the area. These coaches had to make hard decisions that weren't always popular. They had more success than anyone thought they would this year and still faced intense criticism from start to finish. Every player on the team contributed in ways that an outsider wouldn't know because of the intensity of their practice regimen. When a good team has great players to practice against every day, they can't help but grow.
Add to this, what I think is the most special thing I watched this year: Coach Jones has invested in his assistants, Aaron Posey and Shane Friend, to a degree I've never seen at the high school level. You can watch every game as Coach Jones guides the process and Coach Posey and Coach Friend call the offense and defense and make adjustments. The chemistry that the three of them showed was genuinely special and lends itself to the growth of a culture that should continue for years to come. That's a lot to ask of someone who has had to endure everything he's endured while accomplishing all of this. That's a great coach.
Help us congratulate our Wyandotte High School Head Coach of the Year, Eddie Jones!