North Carolina State University Athletics
Program Spotlight: Ernest Jones
9/25/2007 12:00:00 AM | Football
BY TIM PEELER
RALEIGH, N.C. - Don’t let Ernest Jones’ outward appearance fool you it’s a well-crafted faade that belies his real personality and lofty goals for the future.
Sure, he has a couple of tattoos, including one of his nickname, “Killa,” on his left arm. Sure, he writes rap music. Sure, he has a couple of diamond-encrusted, pendant-heavy necklaces that are currently on Tom O’Brien’s banned-from-wearing-in-front-of-the-media list. And, sure, he grew up on the rough side of the tracks in Henderson, N.C.
But what everyone should know about the fifth-year senior linebacker from Southern Vance High School is that the outward trappings hardly reveal the well-disciplined nature of a dedicated student who is proud to be a role model for the kids in his somewhat shaky neighborhood.
“I grew up in a rough part of town, a hostile area,” Jones said. “There’s a bullet hole in my car right now that I got on a trip home not too long ago. I could have chosen the negative path, towards, crime and drugs and violence. But I chose to go the other way.
“Every time I go back home, I see a bunch of kids who are struggling to do the right thing. I try to let them see me as an example of making a bad situation into a good situation. I tell them to go to school and try to earn a scholarship instead of staying at home, sitting on the corner and getting involved in drugs and violence.”
For Jones, keeping that firm foundation is one of the ways he remembers his late father, Ernest Jones Sr., who died of cancer when Jones was a freshman in high school. That was a crossroads in the young player’s life, a time he considered temporarily giving up sports.
But Jones realized that’s when many kids go astray giving up the things they love, dealing with an emotional catastrophe, finding new influences at an impressionable stage in life.
“He kind of taught me what I needed to know about playing football and baseball,” Jones said of his father. “I decided to stick with what he taught me to love and dedicate everything to him from then on.”
Jones’ has his father’s portrait tattooed on his right bicep, a present he gave himself for his 18th birthday. So instead of pointing to the sky or any other outward tributes, Jones just carries his late father, an aviation mechanic, with him where ever he goes.
“My dad taught me to do the right thing,” Jones said. “He taught me to choose the correct path.”
There was a maternal influence as well, of course. Jones’ mother, Mary, is a counselor at a home for at-risk youth. Her experiences led Jones to volunteer his time for the last two years at Raleigh’s Haven House Services, a private, non-profit outreach organization for troubled youth.
“I have been working there throughout the summer and on weekends for the last two years,” Jones said. “It’s a great opportunity for me to be a role model for some kids who have made some mistakes in their lives. I help transport them to community service projects, like planting trees and different things like that. I try to help them stay out of trouble, convincing them to use sports to occupy their time, as opposed to joining gangs.”
Jones obviously likes to promote football to the young people, but he is also a big baseball fan. Growing up, he adored Deion Sanders and hoped to be He also recognizes that some of the troubled youth that he counsels can’t play organized sports so he helps get them involved in Haven House’s boxing program.
Finally, he also lets them know that there are other ways to stay out of trouble. His personal outlet comes with pen and paper.
“I do like to do a little writing,” Jones said. “I like to listen to all genres of music, and that inspires me to write. It keeps me out of trouble. It keeps my mind-frame steady and it keeps me at peace.”
Jones’ counseling work goes hand-in-hand with the internship he did a few summers ago with the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation and further prepares him for a career in counseling or law enforcement, two of the options he is considering as he completes his final semester of course work for a degree in Criminology.
Jones came to NC State a semester early, after graduating in December, 2002, from Southern Vance High. He and six other December high school graduates arrived just in time to join the Wolfpack in Jacksonville, Fla., as it prepared to face Notre Dame in the 2003 Gator Bowl.
The seven enrollees including Jones, Mario Williams and Tank Tyler got a taste of the most successful football season in NC State history, watching on the sidelines as Philip Rivers dismantled the Fightin’ Irish for a 28-6 victory to cap off a school-record 11-win season. Jones, who redshirted the 2003 season after suffering an ankle injury, and fifth-year offensive lineman Yomi Ojo are the only players on the current Wolfpack roster that remain from the Gator Bowl champion squad.
“That was a great experience for me,” said highly decorated defender. “I went directly from the Shrine Bowl to the Gator Bowl. That team had a lot of senior leadership and it just felt so different from high school, as far as enthusiasm and emotion is concerned. I learned at an early age about how seriously some people take the game of football on the collegiate level.”
He took his cues from safety Terrence Holt and linebacker Dantonio Burnette, two serious-minded players that left a huge impression on the young player.
“Just before the game, they got up and spoke and they were so passionate about it,” Jones said. “I knew I wasn’t at Southern Vance any more. Now, I am trying to make that same kind of impression on our young players. Now, I am just trying to match that intensity level they had back in 2002.”
Three games into his senior season, Jones has certainly performed well on the field. Stepping into a starting role for the first time in his career, Jones had a team-high 13 tackles in the season-opener against Central Florida, then added nine against Boston College and eight against Wofford.
Jones knows his football career could end after this season. It may extend a few more years in professional football, if he keeps performing at his current level. Whenever he hangs up his pads for the last time, he knows he will be prepared.
“I have a long list of things I would like to do after football,” Jones said. “Ultimately, I would like to own and operate my own senior-citizen home.”
That’s a lofty ambition, one that was borne in the hallways of Duke University Hospital during his many trips to visit his dying father.
“Throughout the course of that time, I saw a lot of elderly people in wheelchairs being pushed around by the volunteers there,” Jones said. “I thought that was the nicest thing I ever saw someone do, caring for someone who is not even part of their family. Ever since then, I have been influenced to work with senior citizens.
“The biggest thrill for me is to have a senior citizen come up and start talking to me. It makes me feel special that they would take the time to do it.”
Don’t believe Jones’ seemingly rough exterior inside is a kind-hearted soul who is eager to reach out to those who need it most.
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
