money Tom Jones steps down after five seasons as Whetstone football coach
After five seasons as Whetstone's football coach, Tom Jones announced to his players at the team's postseason banquet that he was stepping down.
Jones, a 2003 Whetstone graduate, has one child who is 16 months old and another child on the way.
“I’m getting ready to have my second kid, so I’ll have two under 2, and it’s too much to manage,” Jones said. “I’ll probably be a dad for a couple years and help out here and there. I’m not in my 40s yet, but I’ve been (at Whetstone) for more than 20 years in some capacity. There’s a lot of Whetstone in me and I can still help out quite a bit. I’ve seen a lot of coaches forget their family, and I didn’t want to do that.”
Jones served as Whetstone’s wrestling coach from the 2007-08 season through 2020-21.
He also was as an assistant football coach for 10 years before taking over as head coach.
The Braves went 15-30 under Jones, including 4-3 in 2020.
This fall, they closed the season with wins over Linden-McKinley (31-30 on Oct. 13) and Centennial (31-14 on Oct. 20) to finish 3-6. The program made its only playoff appearance in 2020 when every team was eligible, losing to Licking Heights 28-9 in a Division II, Region 7 first-round game.
Jones has served as a physical education and health teacher at Whetstone for nearly a decade.
“(I’ll remember) the different kids and the different teams we had,” he said. “Honestly as long as the kids get their grades, (the program) should be in fairly decent shape. With just the returning players, you can put together an offense and a defense. It wasn’t left barren.”
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This article originally appeared on ThisWeek: Whetstone football coach Tom Jones resigns after five seasons
