Jones leads St. Joseph in turnaround season

St. Joseph Academy's head football coach, Brad Jones, was able to pull off what many coaches only dream of doing.

He came into a school where the football team was riding a 23-game losing streak, changed the players' attitudes, got the program winning games and made the playoffs _ all in one season.

Jones, previously on offensive coordinator in Lathrop, Missouri, accepted the job to be the head coach of St. Joseph despite visiting the valley only once(in 2000) and only watching tapes of players he would coach.

"Even on the tape you could tell that the school had talent," Jones said. "Losing is a habit, just like winning. People can accept it."

Losing had definitely been a problem at St. Joseph, where the Bloodhounds endured over two full seasons of football without a victory. Jones said that he made two promises to his players when he arrived in Brownsville.

"I told them that we would be the best conditioned team on the field," Jones said. "And I told them that myself and the rest of the coaching staff would do whatever it took to have them be the best prepared team on the field."

As soon as practices could begin in the summer, Jones and his staff got to work on both, as the Bloodhound football players began three-a-day practices to prepare for the season. The morning workout consisted of drills and practicing, the noon "Chalk Talk" session was a time for the team to study film and playbooks, and the evening session was more of the same from the morning.

However, the most important thing that Jones said he changed was making an effort to make sure his players were focused on the field and in the classroom.

"Nobody was ineligible this year," Jones proudly stated. "We focused on the whole athlete, not just the football side, but the academic side as well."

Heading into the first game, the Bloodhounds fell behind 36-14 by halftime to 2A Taft, but according to Jones that's where the season turned for the better.

"We didn't scream at them, we didn't yell at them," Jones said. "We just asked them if they had played up to their expectations, and they responded in the second half."

The team battled back to close the scoring gap to 36-29 but could not get any closer, losing by the same score. Jones said that despite the loss, the players built on the loss with the knowledge that they could play with anybody.

After a loss to Progeso, the Bloodhounds were scheduled to play La Villa on the school's Homecoming and Alumni Night in front of their biggest crowd of fans all year. After a close first quarter, Jones said his boys loosened up and steamrolled the Cardinals the rest of the way for the 32-0 victory, their first after 25 straight losses. Hugs and tears were abundant, as many players had never experienced a victory at the varsity level and were even happier to have accomplished it in front of the home crowd.

After dropping a game to Antonian, the Bloodhounds next two victories were huge accomplishments when they shut-out MMA 16-0 with a third string quarterback (Garrett Oliveira) at the helm and then capitalized on an amazing catch by Alex Downey to defeat Holy Cross 15-12 for the first time in 20 years.

Heading in to the final game of the year, the Bloodhounds knew they would have to win against St. Anthony to secure a spot in the playoffs. The Bloodhounds (4-6) responded with another late comeback and 15-12 win.

"At the end of the game, it was just like the Holy Cross game," Jones said. "Our defense was on the field and they had to hold them. I knew they could do it; every time they were in a tough situation they responded."

After learning November 9 that the team had made the playoffs, Jones was awoken at 3 in the morning to hear that one of the members of the football program, Carlos "Chiquito" Rodriguez, had died after being involved in a car accident.

"I was pretty much speechless, Chiquito's parents had treated me like family since I arrived here," Jones said. "We had a team meeting and I let them know that we were all hurting, that it affects everybody and we were going to get through this together."

Jones said his team pulled together like a family after learning of the tragedy and played hard against a much faster and stronger Dallas Bishop Lynch team and showed a lot of heart by never giving up.

Jones also stated that this is the first of many improvements he expects to see from his team.

"I expect to be back in the playoffs next year," Jones said. "And I expect to make it out of the first round."

After quickly adding that the team was young this year, Jones said the best compliments he heard all season were not of how great the football team was doing, but how much his players had changed into young men by the end of the season.

"That was our goal," Jones said. "I didn't want to see the same players that I had started the year with."