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Basketball Coach of the Year Uses Sport
to Teach Players About Success On and Off Court
Ioana Patringenaru | April 2, 2007
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| Coach Janell Jones |
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Tritons senior guard Leora Juster remembers well one interview to find a new coach for UCSD's women's basketball team. Janell Jones, one of the candidates, was talking about a practice when she put her players through a series of tough runs, called “suicides.” She said she couldn’t bear to watch. Team members were like her children, she explained. All of a sudden, you could see Jones possessed special qualities that most people don’t have, said Juster. “You saw her passion and her emotions jump out,” she said.
That passion helped Jones land the job. Almost two years later, it also helped her lead the Tritons to their first-ever regional championship March 12. Then the team went all the way up to the semifinals in the NCAA’s Division II national championships in Kearney, Neb. The Tritons lost to Southern Connecticut State University, the team that went on to win the championship. Jones’ fellow coaches also voted her California Collegiate Athletic Association Coach of the Year. But she remains modest.
“Anything that I receive as an individual honor is a reflection of the team’s hard work,” she said.
Jones works hard and has an obvious passion for the game, said Tim La Kose, who coaches the women’s basketball team at California State University, Bakersfield. UCSD students are well prepared and play well as a team, he added. On the court, Jones knows how to place her players in the best position to succeed, La Kose also said. “It was fun to see the success they had,” he said. “She represents her team, her university and her conference well.”
Jones’ players are obviously comfortable around her, said UCSD softball coach Patti Gerckens. “The girls really respect her and I think that’s key,” she said. With her down-to-earth personality, Jones brought a lot of energy and knowledge to UCSD’s women’s basketball program, Gerckens added. “She made players believe that change would be good,” she said.
Jones said she believes a coach must earn the team’s trust. “Foremost, you have to genuinely care about your players,” she said -- and not just on the basketball court. As much coaching gets done outside of the court as on the court, she added. Her door is always open to students. “Sometimes, we have candy in here and that helps,” she said, pointing to a box in her office. Jones also hosts a Christmas dinner at her house. Team members often get together for cook-outs and volleyball at the beach. They dress up for Halloween. They also put in 16 hours of practice and four hours of weight-lifting a week.
Helping students grow – and winning – are the rewards for all this hard work, Jones said. Two victories last season particularly come to mind, she said. “Last season, we were such underdogs,” she explained. The Tritons defeated rival California State University, Chico at home and Cal State Bakersfield at Bakersfield. “Being in the locker room after these victories, it’s priceless,” the coach said. Then there’s this year’s regional CCAA championship win. The Tritons defeated Chico State, 80-63. “To see the expression on their faces, it’s like watching your friend win the lottery,” Jones said.
Before Jones, the Tritons were a team that enjoyed each other’s company and competed, said Juster, a senior who has been with the program for four years. They’re now a team running at full speed and working together toward a goal, she said. Juster added that Jones pushed her and allowed her to grow. “No one had ever done that before,” she said. Jones has high expectations, the senior guard said, but she also has a great sense of humor. “She has an inner child and it makes working hard a lot easier,” Juster said. By the way, Jones also is known for her outfits, which have a lot of personality. “She’s a Southern comfort mama,” is how Juster put it.
Jones is originally from Oklahoma. She played basketball in high school and college. Before she became a full-time coach, she taught honors chemistry in high school. “Coaching and teaching was my niche,” she said. “That’s what I love.” Leaving high school classrooms to coach full time was hard, Jones said. But students can learn from athletics too, she soon realized. “Athletics teach you a lot about the real world,” she said, including a good work ethic and team spirit. Also, as a coach, she still got to be around students, which had always made her happy, she said.
Jones became assistant coach at Oral Roberts University in Tulsa in 1996, then moved on to a similar position at Oklahoma City University in 1998. She became head coach in 2000. Her team went on to win two national titles and three runner-up titles. Jones earned two Coach of the Year titles in a row for her efforts.
Oklahoma City University runs a program fully funded with scholarships, but it’s a small campus of about 4,000 students. Jones was looking for a different challenge when she interviewed for the head coach position at UCSD. At first glance, Jones didn’t look like a coach, Juster said. She wasn’t the only one who at first got the wrong impression during Jones’ interview. The coach remembers being taken aback when UCSD officials introduced Juster as the team’s best player. She walked in wearing shorts, carrying a skateboard and her hair flying in all directions. “And I thought, oh my gosh, this is my best player,” Jones recalls. “I had no idea.” Later, Jones saw Juster play and immediately realized how talented she was.
UCSD’s women’s basketball program came with a set of challenges, including the lack of scholarships and coaches’ salaries that weren’t competitive, Jones said. But it also offered great rewards. Living in San Diego is great, she said. Jones added she likes coaching true student athletes. UCSD students are already competitive and self-motivated in their studies, she explained. The coach’s job is to help them use these same qualities while they’re playing basketball. Students who care equally about academics and sports are hard to find, Jones points out. “When you find that, you feel you’ve hit a gold mine,” she said. Her team has a 3.2 grade-point average, and includes eight pre-med, two pre-law and three math education majors. She now is back to recruiting and planning for next season.
“The bar has been raised,” she said. |
