Jones staying close to home
?Derek Jones has been playing basketball since the age of five and has been a member of the Brownsville High School basketball team for the past four years. While he plans on continuing his career on the basketball court, he won’t be going far away to do so for at least the next several years.
Jones will attend classes at Penn State Fayette, The Eberly Campus, next year, where he will also play basketball for the men’s program that is coached by Mark A. John. At Fayette, Jones will begin studies in the field of Civil Engineering.
As a student at Brownsville, Jones has also been a member of the track team and the French Honor Society, while maintaining a class rank of 17 out of 110 members of the class of 2011. He has also been selected as the male scholar/athlete from Brownsville, joining other honorees from Fayette County’s seven high schools and two more from Penn State Fayette.
He is the son of Ron and Nadine Jones of Grindstone and has an older brother, Ronnie.
Jones said his parents have had the biggest influence on his life and his father especially gave him the pushes he needed to be successful. Jones also credited his former Biddy League coach, Scott Rohror and AAU coach Mick McCormick for providing a solid foundation in basketball.
Jones said, “I cherished every moment” when looking at his best memories of playing basketball at Brownsville. His biggest challenge came during is senior season when he strained his knee in a game against Greensburg Central Catholic. “I played hurt for the next five games and we won all five,” he said.
In basketball, the Falcons made the WPIAL playoffs for the second time in Jones’s four-year career. After the season, he joined the track team for the fist time in order to help him stay in condition for basketball. He competed in the 400, 300 intermediate hurdles and high jump.
Leaving high school has provided some sad moments for Jones. “I won’t miss the schoolwork. I’m not sad about leaving that behind,” he said, “It’s all about sports and friendships ending.”
The advice he offers to fellow students on succeeding in high school is, “Be yourself and do what you feel like you can handle. Don’t step out of your own boundaries.”
The 14 Fayette County scholar/athletes represent the county’s seven high schools, and are to be honored, along with two Penn State Fayette students, during the third annual Fayette County Sports Hall of Fame Induction Banquet on Saturday, June 25, at Penn State Fayette, The Eberly Campus.