Greg Jones inspires softball players to follow in his coaching footsteps
Early this season, Greg Jones notched his 500th career win as Winona State University’s head softball coach. It seems as if Jones and his team have done nothing but win during the 2014 season. At one point, the Warriors were undefeated for 20-straight games before streaking to the NSIC Tournament championship and the top seed (and host) of the NCAA Division II Central Region Tournament.
Jones might say his most important – and lasting – victories may have come off the field, in the number of former Warriors players he has inspired to pursue their own careers in coaching.
Not every Warriors player has been ready to keep the spikes on after graduating, but it takes Jones only seconds to begin naming a dozen or more former standouts who are coaching at high schools, colleges, and universities around the Midwest.
Many of them are coaching at NSIC schools that Jones faces regularly: Britt Stewart ’13 and Dallas Schmacker ’11 at Southwest Minnesota State University, Mollie Bjelland ’11 at Minnesota State University Mankato, and Kathy Crudo ’12 at the University of Minnesota-Duluth.
One player he might meet at the Division II Super Regional later this spring is Callie Givens ’12, a two-time All-NSIC shortstop and NSIC All-Academic Team selection. She’s now in her second year as a graduate assistant coach at the University of Indianapolis, a program that has been highly successful over the past few years.
While Givens originally had no clear plan to play softball in college, she says she was convinced to join the Warriors by the energy and excitement radiating from Jones. The education major gradually decided to get into coaching over her four years at WSU.
“Coach Jones had everything to do with that,” says Givens. “His passion and pride for the game and his players rubs off. You begin to love softball even more than you thought you did.”
Within minutes of meeting Jones, it’s easy to feel the same as Givens. While he clearly knows the game of softball, his positive attitude and enthusiasm are contagious. Jones builds the culture by spending the last 10 minutes of every practice talking to his players about the game, reviewing what went right that day, and recognizing the extraordinary abilities he sees in his players.
That energy convinced Brittany Roy ’05 to stay in the game. Another Warriors shortstop, Roy grew up playing softball and always had an idea that she would coach. After earning her education degree from WSU, she coached for two years at Dunlap High School, north of Peoria, Illinois, before taking a break to raise her family. Jones gave her the push she needed.
“My love for the game combined with his passion convinced me I needed to get into coaching,” says Roy. “Coach Jones made me want to inspire others, too.
Jones takes pride in all of the players he’s coached over his 10 seasons at Winona State. And he’s especially happy to guide many of them into the profession he loves. “I want to help them see the big picture, to be so passionate that they can’t imagine life without softball,” says Jones.
