Jones wants to make a difference for Trojans

FAIRFIELD - When an employer creates a job so that it can make a hire, that employer must undeniably want that person to work for them.

The Fairfield school system did that so that it could hire Jeff Jones.

'I'm so fortunate to have this opportunity and I want to share my knowledge with these kids,” Jones said. 'When Fairfield went to the trouble to create this position, I thought I would take the job.”

Jones started in February and was making a lot of progress when the coronavirus came and put everything out of commission, so to work with the baseball and softball athletes was a welcome activity for all involved.

Jones is in charge of strength and conditioning and it is a field with which he has a lot of experience. He has a Bachelor's Degree in Exercise science with a focus on health promotion from Central College in Pella, when he graduated in 2002. He also has a Master's Degree in Educational Instruction Curriculum which he obtained when he worked at Boise State. When Jones was at Boise State, the football team upset Oklahoma in overtime in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl with a number of trick plays. It has been called the best finish of a bowl game in history.

'He has helped us in every way possible with attitude, effort, performance and really trains the whole athlete which is something we really needed,” Trojan head football coach Nate Weaton said.

There is more to strength and conditioning than lifting weights and running. It is about being able to have relentless effort and consistent effort in whatever activity it is in which one wishes to excel.

'Jeff has done a really nice job getting us to where we need to be by helping us train our athletes to get to that point,” Weaton said.

He has been a great addition for all the athletics, not just football. He is working with every athlete he can in the Fairfield system.

'Cross-country, volleyball, offseason athletes, swimmers, we want to train them all,” Jones said. He had planned on teaching a strength and conditioning class, but the coronavirus ruined that plan. He has still been able to make a difference. He has made everything a competition and that's really had an effect on everybody, even the coaches.

Trojan senior offensive tackle Brad Smithburg really likes what Jones brings to the team because it is an approach that he has never had before.

'I like him. He knows what he's doing,” Smithburg said. 'I think having him here will help us be more prepared for each and every game. We'll be more prepared mentally and that will make us more confident in what we can do.”

Jones has told everyone if they are not competing in every single thing they do then they are not going to be successful.

'In football, for three to four seconds a play, you have to give it your all because of the competition,” Weaton said. 'When you watch us in the weight room or watch us on the field everything is about competing.”

Jones has had each athlete keep their own folders to track everything they're doing in the weight room and in conditioning.

'Coach has just been a phenomenal addition to everything we're doing,” Weaton said. 'He is our attitude coach. He watches body language and makes sure that their attitude is where it needs to be. He has been a great addition.”

After graduating from high school at RRMR (which is Rudd-Rockford-Marble Rock), Jones became interested in athletic training performance in college. Upon graduating, he went to Louisville for an internship, then to Boise State, where he was for six years. He worked at Arkansas State when Gus Malzahn was there. Former Iowa State coach Gene Chizik was fired at Auburn, so Malzahn replaced him and Jones went with him. Jones worked at Auburn for three years.

'My wife is from Rockwell, Iowa and we wanted to get back to our home state, so I took a job at Luther College because we wanted a better quality of life and not have to work so much,” Jones said. 'The Division I world is not as sexy as everyone thinks. Yes, you make a lot of money but you sacrifice a lot.”

Jones wanted to start a family with wife Racheal, who is from Rockford and they now have a 3-year-old son named Colt. Jones has a brother that lives in Fairfield so the family goal has come to realization.

'I love working with high school kids because you can have a huge impact,” Jones said.

As an example, Jones said he has been working with Cesar Castellanos, a junior at Fairfield.

'He has never missed a day and it's crazy to see how much he has progressed,” Jones said. 'He has almost transformed himself in five weeks.”

In college, athletes he worked with also improved a lot.

'You are going to see improvement,” Jones said. 'But in high school, you can see crazy improvement and more importantly, they get into habits that can make a difference in life.”

Jones likes to teach his pupils how to think and build life habits as those are more important than improving for sports.

'Building character is a big deal to me and I think it's an important part of education,” Jones said. 'Ye, s of course, they're going to be better athletes and we are going to do good things there. But hopefully, it is the stuff that translates to life after football that makes the difference in them and makes it worth it to me to do this.”

A minuscule amount of high school athletes go on to play in college or the pros, but they all will go on to be fathers and husbands.

'I think they can be successful in life if they apply the habits and ideas they learn playing sports,” Jones said.

Although he has coached in college his whole career until now, he always wanted to coach high school kids. 'I have been loving this. It has been fun. We talk nutrition, lifestyle, habits, what are they doing sleep wise, their routine and about making themselves into what they want to be.”