By By BRIAN HAINES, Sports Writer
This summer the newly formed South Creek Cougars have named Jeremy Jones the first football coach in the school’s history.
South Creek, which was spawned when Roanoke recently merged with Bear Grass, lost its would-be coach when former Redskins’ skipper Brian Paschal left for D.H. Conley.
Jones, a former East Carolina University place kicker, has had a career arc that patterns after one of his booming field goals. The 27-year old has quickly ascended through the prep ranks, and split the uprights when he landed his first head coaching job with the Cougars.
Jones, a Northern Nash graduate, worked for two years as an offensive line and special teams coach at Nash Central before he accepted a position as the Southside Seahawks offensive coordinator/offensive line coach in 2008. After one year with the Seahawks Jones landed in South Central, where he coached the O-line in 2009 and helped the team go 8-4.
Jones, who lives in Pitt County with his wife Lindsay, said that the location of the school along with the opportunity to work with a roster comprised of two merging schools made the Cougars’ job very appealing.
“My wife and I live in Greenville. I knew I wanted to be a head coach one day, but I didn’t want to just go anywhere,” Jones said via telephone. “When I first heard about the merger that kind of intrigued me because the population of the school was going to grow a little bit.
“But the thing that kind of intrigued me most is that Roanoke has had a good football tradition, they have always been competitive. Even in their down years they have still been pretty good.”
Jones said that an added perk was the strong support that has been shown at Bear Grass athletic events.
“One of the things I know about Bear Grass is that they have a lot of community support,” Jones said. “A friend of mine from the area said that if you want to go watch a Bear Grass basketball game you better show up during the JV girls’ game or else you won’t get a seat in the gym.”
Helping foster that Roanoke football tradition was the recently departed Paschal, who led the program for six years.
Jones credited Paschal for helping the athletes during the offseason by leading workouts while both coaches where going through their own transitions.
Jones added that taking over a program coached by Paschal will make his life a little easier because the athletes have learned from a good teacher.
“I think the big thing is that they were coached by a guy who really knew what he was doing,” Jones said. “Our offensive philosophies may be different but they were coached the right way.”
While Paschal ran the wing-T for the past six seasons, Jones will bring a new style to South Creek
“We are going to run a triple-option offense; we’ll run it out of shotgun and under center,” Jones said. “Everything is going to be option based, we will throw the ball when we can or necessary, whatever we have to do to get a first down.”
Jones said one of his biggest influences is North Carolina native Paul Johnson, who used to run the triple option at Navy and currently runs it at Georgia Tech.
On the other side of the ball, Jones credited South Central coach Walt Davis as someone who has helped him form his defensive identity.
“Defensively, we are going to run a 3-4 with multiple coverages behind it,” Jones said. “As far as defensive philosophies, I had a chance to work with Walt Davis at South Central and he is about as good as they come. He coached the East-West all-star game this year and has coached the Shrine Bowl in the past; he is really well respected.”