Coach Jones: great coach, great person

I was sorry to see the story of Wilton Jones’ coaching resignation from boys varsity basketball at Mount Desert Island High School (BDN, March 10-11). I knew it was probably coming but hoped that he would coach another few years. The Mount Desert Island High School community, the coaching fraternity, and the young kids coming up through the MDI boys basketball program will miss him. He represented MDI, the boys program, his family, and his community with class.

Coach Jones was one of the first coaches I met when I started coaching at Ellsworth High School. I remember playing at MDI the second game of the season; we met each other for the first time. He welcomed me to the area and we started talking about other teams in the league, he was very familiar with all of them and I didn’t really know anything about any of them. I could tell he was genuine and he wanted my team to do well.

That night was the start of our friendship, one that has grown over the years. The last few years our friendship has consisted of calling each other for scouting reports on teams, playing summer basketball in the same league, talking to each other for advice on dealing with problems coaches go through, and exchanging phone calls to wish each other luck during tournament week. I thought of him as a friend and a terrific coach not the coach of our rival, we respected each other and athletes in our programs respected each other.

The Ellsworth-MDI games are a healthy rivalry in every sport and they are games both communities look forward to watching. The games we played against MDI were always competitive, intense, and the players always left everything on the floor. No matter how heated the games were I knew we would walk away friends.

There are certain basketball programs in Maine you look at and know they will be good each year because they have a good program and they are well coached. MDI is one of those programs. It didn’t matter how many seniors MDI had, they were going to be good the next year. Coach Jones had a lot of talent some years and less talent other years but what remained a constant was their success.

Coaching a talented team for the most part is easy, coaching a less talented team and making them competitive is when you separate great coaches from good coaches. Coach Jones has done this throughout his coaching career. His teams always played hard, played smart, could defend, were great rebounders, took good shots, and always played with purpose and poise. I always looked forward to scouting MDI games because I always learned something by watching his teams play. I feel this past season was one of his best coaching jobs, a 14-4 record that very few expected.

Coach Jones did have the opportunity of coaching his sons Ian and Kyle. They were both terrific players, your classic coach’s sons, very fundamental and smart players. They both played on some very good teams. I thought that when his youngest son Kyle graduated he would end his coaching career, but he didn’t, he kept coaching and coached with just as much enthusiasm. I think that speaks volumes of his character and his enthusiasm for basketball and Mount Desert Island High School. Coach Jones understood the “big picture” of high school athletics and he coached for the kids.

Congratulations on a terrific career, Eastern Maine will miss watching your team play. Have fun spending time with your grandson and traveling with your family.

Dan Clifford

Assistant principal/athletic director

Sumner Memorial High School

Keep Red Sox stories off the front page

The Bangor Daily News has done it again with another inappropriate placing of an article. Why was it necessary to have a large article about the Boston Red Sox spring training on the front page (BDN, March 10-11)?

Is this your definition of important news? Why not have this sports piece appear in the Sports section? The article underneath this sports article was about the homecoming of the Maine National Guard. This article should have taken center stage on the front page. Does the BDN really expect its readers to believe that the Red Sox deserve more media attention than our soldiers?

This is an insult to our brave men and women in uniform.

Sarah A. Chuba

Dixmont

WZON radio deserves support from state

I have been a supporter of WZON radio – Black Bear sports – for nine years. They do a great job. I can’t believe the University of Maine did the underhanded negotiations for money and promises.

I thought you wanted fans and business within the state to support UMaine.

Apparently not.

I hope the businesses that buy ads for all Maine sports boycott and don’t sign with this out-of- state media company. UMaine made a very bad decision.

Thank you Stephen and Tabby King for all you have done for the University of Maine and local communities. Your generosity has been much appreciated.

Let’s hear from our beloved governor.

This is the kind of greed that makes Maine sports fans and taxpayers angry!

Fran Kelly

Veazie