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Longtime youth wrestling coach hangs it up |
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Wednesday, 07 May 2008 |
Monty Ray Jones recuperates from hip surgery
and thinks about life without wrestling
BY CHRIS COWBROUGH
S-E Sports Editor
After leading The Colville Basement Boys to a ninth place finish in last weekend’s USA State Freestyle Champi¬onships at East Valley High School in Spokane, their long¬time coach, Monty Jones, has decided to call it quits.
Jones made the same an¬nouncement a couple of years ago. This time, the longtime youth soccer and wrestling coach says he isn’t kidding. Honest.
It’s time—time to turn over a thriving and successful youth wrestling program that has been a verdant source of wrestling talent for the high school program…to other dads.
“It has been a great run, but it’s time to put my wrestling shoes out to pasture,” Jones said before going in for hip replacement surgery on Monday.
Yes, call it wear and tear from too much mat time with the kids over the years and odometer miles.
Appreciates all the support from local businesses
“All fun and good things must come to an end…so it is for my coaching in Stevens County,” added Jones, who has been coaching young peo¬ple for the past 29 years. “It has been a joy working with all the different businesses that support youth so well in Colville. Without them, there would not be any club sports.”
Jones says he has always appreciated the opportunity to live in such a supportive, sports-oriented community.
“This is a great town to raise your kids—it’s just a great sports town,” the former Colville High School wrestling coach added. “Now, instead of putting out dollars for a week¬end in a gym full of young men wrestling, I think we will save up and go on a vacation.”
Jones said that he and his wife Shelley, the erstwhile “Princess DeSales,” have only been on one vacation in the past 26 years.
Jones said that his wife has been “the backbone” of the program—and to him.
“I can’t thank her enough…she has followed me around to so many gyms…state to state. She has never com¬plained. What a woman.
“Shelley is a true coaches wife—and she takes pretty good pictures too (photogra¬pher for the Statesman-Exam¬iner). Without her, there would be no club team, nor a coach spending three nights a week working with the youth on the mats and spending 13 to 15 weekends in a gym a year.”
‘It’s time to let Shel¬ley pick where to go on a weekend.’
Jones says it’s time—well past time—to do something for his wife besides drag her to all those sweaty gyms.
“It’s time to let Shelley pick where to go on a weekend,” Jones said. “Maybe a cruise would be nice.”
Jones wasn’t talking about a cruise to Kettle Falls and back either.
“No, I’m not talking about a cruise in our Tahoe, driving back from another tournament,” the longtime coach quipped.
“If there was an award for Woman of the Year, Shelley would win it hands down. She has been a second mom to thousands of kids in the last 29 years, making sure that no one goes without.”
Jones says it’s his fervent hope and wish that The Basement Boys can sustain itself and carry on.
“I hope and pray that the dads who have been helping me the last several years will continue to run The Basement Boys Wrestling Club,” he said. “I have all the faith in the world that they can do it and do a better job.
“Thanks again, Colville. I will miss coaching very badly…more than you can believe. But it’s time.”
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 14 May 2008 )
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