Jones honored as "Coach of the Year"

Gatesville High School tennis coach Wendell Jones was recently named Class 4A Boys Coach of the Year in Region 8 by the Texas High School Coaches Association.

“I just found out about this award last Friday. I don’t know how they announced it or anything. I was closing out my computer and I saw this message and I opened it and found out. The Texas High School Coaches Association has eight regions – the state is divided into eight different regions – and they are competitive regions. I was chosen for 4A Boys in Region 8,” Jones said.

The Texas High School Coaches Association is the largest coaches association in America, with over 27,000 members. They help and serve the high school coaches as they work to help and serve student athletes. Their motto is “Helping Coaches to Help Kids.”

GISD Athletic Director, Rickey Phillips, said, “This was such a great honor for Coach Jones…and a well-deserved one. Wendell has put in a lot of time into this program since taking it over again several years ago. He’s led his teams to three district championships in the fall team season and qualified five individuals for the state tournament in the last four seasons.”

This will be the 15^th year Jones has served as head tennis coach at GISD. He was assistant tennis coach at Copperas Cove for 10 years.

“The only other award that I have received twice, and it’s one that I hold very near and dear to me, is when I received an award from the National Honor Society. The NHS students here in Gatesville get to select the teacher of the year and they also got to select which was your favorite teacher, and I’ve been awarded that twice.

In speaking of the award he just received, Jones said, “This award is an honor and very unexpected. I was amazed to win this award – pleased, but amazed and shocked.”