Hokies Hoping to Strengthen Pipeline with New Ocean Lakes HC and VT Alum Joe Jones

When Joe Jones stepped in as head coach at Virginia Beach's Ocean Lakes HS, he heard from his fair share of well-wishers, but it's one missed connection that stands out above the rest.

A few days after taking over for the departed Chris Scott on Feb. 8, Jones noticed a missed call on his phone after returning home from a workout. It turns out that he'd missed the chance to chat with new Hokies head coach Justin Fuente.

"I missed a call and checked my voicemail, and it was him congratulating me on the job and wishing me the best and saying he looked forward to meeting me," Jones told The Key Play.

It's no surprise that the new head Hokie took such a keen interest in Jones so quickly. Not only is he now heading up one of the most talent-laden high schools in the 757, but he's a Hokie himself — he played tight end under Bill Dooley from 1980 to 1984, and worked as a graduate assistant for several years, including Frank Beamer's first season at Tech.

Now, as Jones takes over at a school that Beamer and his staff recruited heavily over the last few decades, the Hokies will try to build a new bond with Jones and keep the talent pipeline open.

"They want to focus on the 757, and they've done very well in the past in this area, and then it kind of slipped off the last few years according to a lot of folks," Jones said. "I think he just wants to re-emphasize it because there's so much talent in this area."

The school is currently at a bit of a crossroads following Scott's exit, considering that he led the program to a state championship and a bevy of district titles, yet also ran afoul of Virginia High School League recruiting rules. When he decided to make the jump across town to Bishop Sullivan Catholic HS in January, he took a bevy of talented players with him, including rising seniors RB Khalan Laborn and WR Tahj Capehart.

But when the Ocean Lakes administration approached Jones to fill Scott's shoes, and end his eight-year tenure as head coach at Suffolk's King's Fork HS, he found the opportunity too tempting to pass up.

"Over the last few years, I've always told our players that I thought the top three football programs in the area have been Ocean Lakes, Oscar Smith and Lake Taylor," Jones said. "My wife and I always talked about moving to the beach and making that home, and now that's just accelerated."

Now that he's made the move, he hopes to make it clear to his players that "this is the last place I want to coach" and earn their trust. That's been a key focus of his in the weeks since taking over, as he tries to avoid any further defections to Scott's new program.

"I told the kids and the parents of the ones that are leaving, I wish them the best, there's no hard feelings, I'm not getting caught up in all that drama," Jones said. "They know what they have at Ocean Lakes, and if they feel they need to go, that's their decision and I wish them well, and the door's always open if they decide not to go."

But when he wasn't busy selling his new vision for Ocean Lakes, he took some time to attend the Hokies' free coaching clinic in Chesapeake to put a face to Fuente's voicemail.

"The Chesapeake clinic was great because it was free, and we're all high school coaches, so anything we can get that's free is good," Jones said. "It was just sort of a chance for me to meet the new staff."

When given the chance to sit in on a presentation from one the new crop of assistant coaches, he chose OL coach Vance Vice, and he walked away ready to strap on his pads again after hearing his talk.

"I thought he was gonna get us all up for us to do drills before we were done, he was so excited and cranked up about it," Jones said. "He's emotional, he wants to play physical and I think Tech's the kind of place, I don't think Tech will ever be a finesse football school. It's like how I don't think Michigan's a finesse football school, and Ohio State, some of those places are just kind of synonymous with physical, grind it out, tough kids, mental toughness."

Once the clinic wrapped up, he got to meet Fuente for 15 minutes or so, and he said the main topic of discussion was how their situations taking over new programs mirrored each other in many ways.

"We really talked a lot about coaching football and both of us being in a new environment and making a change to a new school and the relationships, how important the relationships are to build with the players and the parents, and he seems like a great guy," Jones said.

Jones even said that Fuente's "sincerity" reminds him a bit of his old boss.

"He reminded me somewhat of Coach Beamer when he first came to Tech," Jones said. "I was a grad assistant Coach Beamer's first year, with Charley Wiles and John Ballein, and Coach Beamer was such a great person, and always helpful. He treated everybody equally.

"I was a GA from an old staff, and my allegiance was kind of to Bill Dooley because he was my head coach, and he kept his promise of paying for me until I graduated, and I owe a lot to him for that. Coach Beamer was so easy to get along with. He's the kind of guy you root for."

Indeed, Jones has no shortage of fond memories of Beamer (he can spin many a yarn about Beamer making time to talk to him and give him a hug for old time's sake, no matter what else he was doing) so he doesn't make the comparison lightly.

"Coach Fuente is a guy, he didn't give me the impression that this was a stepping stone job for him," Jones said. "He gave me the impression that this is where he wants to be, and Virginia Tech is a very special place."

At the coaches' gathering, Jones also got to reconnect with RBs coach Zohn Burden, who he's long had a "good relationship" with, after he recruited King's Fork as part of both his old role at ODU and current post at Tech.

"I think he'll do well because he gets along so well with the kids," Jones said.

But keeping Burden in Blacksburg is hardly the only move that earned high marks from Jones.

"Coach Fuente showed, I think, right from the get-go how smart he was by keeping Bud," Jones said. "I mean, why wouldn't you want to keep Bud Foster around? And Charley, that keeps some continuity with the program, because it wasn't like Coach Beamer was getting run out or fired."

That praise aside, the Hokies weren't able to secure a commitment from Jones to head to the team's next coaching clinic in Blacksburg in early April — he says he doesn't normally enjoy going to clinics, since "I end up running into a lot of coaching friends, and I end up spending more time outside the clinic talking with friends than I do inside the clinic."

Instead, he prefers going to "individual practices because then you get to really dig in," and he's made a habit of visiting Tech in the spring over the years.

"Any time I go, my wife laughs, she says 'We can never go to Tech just us, we always have to take a couple players,' and I like doing that," Jones said. "Some of the guys, especially when they're younger, they've never been around Division I football. And to see the look in their eyes the first time 'Enter Sandman' comes on and everybody's up, jumping around, that's exciting."

The last few seasons, he's made a point to take visits to Blacksburg to see his former charge at King's Fork that's turned into one of the Hokies' most valuable players in the secondary: Chuck Clark.

This year, he plans on continuing that tradition, possibly visiting for the spring game and definitely planning to "pick a day or two days to go down to Tech and watch a practice and sit in on meetings."

When he does make it down to Blacksburg, he's hoping to bring DT Eric Crosby (who's committed to staying at Ocean Lakes) along for the ride. The rising senior has made several visits to Tech over the years, most recently stopping by for the team's junior day in early February, and Jones thinks "there's a lot of attractive things for Tech to offer" him.

Joe Jones is the new head football coach at Ocean Lakes High. pic.twitter.com/Qw0EpRcjxG— Larry Rubama (@LHRubama) February 8, 2016

Indeed, based on his early experience with Crosby's athleticism, he thinks he could find similar success in Foster's defense to a player who once wowed him in his days at Tech.

"He kind of reminds me somewhat of Bruce Smith when he was that age," Jones said. "He's big, he's 285, 290 (pounds) and athletic, and I remember when I was a sophomore and Bruce came in as a freshman, I couldn't believe somebody that big could move that well."

Yet even if he believes that Crosby would look sharp in the maroon and orange, he says he's careful not to exert any undue influence on him — he's already taken Crosby to see N.C. State and he'll drive the DT down to Georgia Tech during the school's spring break later this month ahead of his decision in late April.

"I'd love to see him at Tech as a Hokie alumnus, but I'm going to be happy wherever he chooses because he's getting a chance to play Division I football for free and get an education," Jones said.

That's just the type of balance he says he's hoping to strike for all of his players, no matter his own feelings about Blacksburg.

"As much as I want to see the best athletes stay in state and go to Tech, they know all know I'm a Hokie and that I love Virginia Tech, but when it comes to my players, just like when I was at King's Fork, my allegiance is to my players," Jones said.

But if they happen to ask him about his time at Tech, his answer will be simple.

"I loved it there," Jones said. "If I had a chance to do it again, I'd be back in a heartbeat, but there's a lot of opportunities out there for kids, and it's got to be the right fit."