Jimmy Jones

Jimmy Jones was born on October 1, 1958, in Albertville to James and Martha Jones.  James worked for the Blount County road department and owned his own business as a surveyor.  Martha was a homemaker, then became the secretary at Oneonta High School.  Jimmy has three older siblings, sister Donna Heath and brothers Allen Jones and Steve Jones, and a younger brother Mike Jones.

Jimmy played youth football, basketball, and baseball in Oneonta.  He was a four-sport athlete at Oneonta High School, participating in basketball, baseball, track, and cross-country.  As a two-year starter on the basketball team, Jimmy led the Redskins to the Blount County Championship two consecutive seasons.  He qualified for the A.H.S.A.A. State Track & Field Meet all four years of high school, finishing as the state runner-up in the high jump in 1976.  In the fall of 1975, Jimmy and the Oneonta cross-country team won the A.S.H.A.A. Class A-2A State Championship.  He is a 1976 graduate of O.H.S.

Following graduation, Jimmy signed a track & field scholarship with Jacksonville State University.  His specialty was the high jump, in which he went undefeated his first two seasons.  He finished in the top 5 in the Gulf South Conference Track & Field Championships all four years as a Gamecock.  His senior year, he finished 2nd, and he still holds the Jax State high jump record with a height of 7 feet.  He graduated with a bachelor’s degree from J.S.U. in 1980, then went on and got his master’s degree and educational specialist’s degree.

Jimmy was hired as a teacher and coach at his alma mater Oneonta High School for the 1983-84 school year.  He was a junior high and varsity assistant football coach, coached J.V. boys’ basketball, and led the jr. high girls’ basketball team to an undefeated season.  He also coached the track & field teams, where several of his athletes were state champions.

The next year, 2019 Marshall County Sports Hall of Fame inductee Joe Teal hired Jimmy to teach English and P.E. at Kate Duncan Smith Daughters of the American Revolution High School in Grant.  Jimmy coached junior high boys’ basketball, winning four straight Marshall County Championships.  In 1989, Coach Jones moved up to coach the D.A.R. J.V. boys’ basketball squad, adding two more county titles to his résumé in 1992 and ’93.  He won 250 games on the junior high and J.V. level.

Jimmy also coached cross-country and track & field for the Patriots.  He coached cross-country from 1985-99, had 7 All-State runners, and the team finished 3rd in the state cross-country meet in 1995.  He also coached the D.A.R. track & field team from 1984-1999, where he coached five state champions.  In 1988, the Patriots won the Class A-2A sectional track & field meet. After the spring of ‘99, he stepped away from cross-country and track and field because he was named the head girls’ basketball coach at D.A.R. beginning with the 1999-2000 season.

Coach Jones’s tenure as the Lady Patriots’ head coach was prolific.  For the next 17 seasons, he would lead the Lady Patriots to 356 wins, 11 Area Championships, 11 Northeast Regional Tournament appearances, and 9 Northeast Regional finals, winning 5.  D.A.R. made five A.S.H.A.A. Final Four Appearances in 2000, 2004, 2007, 2008, and 2010.  The Lady Patriots won at least 23 games in 11 of his 17 seasons as head coach.  They also won the Marshall County Championship in 2009 and 2011.  Eighteen Lady Patriots had the opportunity to play at the collegiate level, including his daughter Emily, who played at Snead State and UAH, and 2022 inductee Bridget Largen Moorefield, who played at West Alabama.  In 2006 Jimmy was selected to coach the North All-Stars in the A.H.S.A.A. North-South All-Star Basketball Game.  He was named Marshall County Coach of the Year on three occasions.

After the 2015-2016 school year, Coach Jones transferred to Asbury High School as their head girls’ basketball coach.  He has just finished his eighth year as head coach and is the winningest girls’ coach in Asbury history.  Combining his win totals as a junior high, J.V., and varsity head coach, Coach Jones’s teams have won over 700 games, and he continues to coach the Lady Rams.  He has clinched more regional tournament and Final Four berths than any other coach, boys or girls, in the history of Marshall County basketball.

On August 3, 1985, Jimmy married the former Carol Pace of Oxford.  Carol is retired after 36 years of teaching.  She is currently substitute teaching at the Shepherd’s Place at First Baptist Church, Boaz.  They have four children.  Their daughter Emily teaches at Asbury and is currently taking time off to raise her babies.  She formerly coached the J.V. girls’ team at Asbury.  She is married to Jim Nelson, who is an assistant football and baseball coach at Albertville High School.  Son Riley is an English teacher at Piedmont High School and is the assistant girls’ varsity basketball coach.  He is a former head coach at Munford, giving the Jones family three head varsity basketball coaches in the family.  Riley is married to the former Chandler Burgess.  Son Eli teaches P.E. at Asbury High School and is the head boys’ varsity basketball coach for the Rams.  Son Jay is a student at Jacksonville State pursuing a degree in dietetics and nutrition and works at F45 training center in Oxford.  He played college basketball at Snead State.  Jimmy and Carol have four grandchildren: Jonesie and Jimmer Nelson and Pace and Mary Hollis Jones.  Jimmy and Carol are long-time members of First Baptist Church, Boaz, where they have taught elementary Sunday school for 23 years and have served on mission trips to Montana with their church.