Jun 1, 2024
Ben Jones takes over as the boys soccer coach at Parkersburg High School. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)
By JAY W. BENNETT
Sports Writer
PARKERSBURG – It’s go time for new Parkersburg High School head boys soccer coach Ben Jones and the Big Reds.
Set to be assisted by last year’s head man Derek Manner as well as Colin Cummings, the 1998 PHS graduate Jones was a member of Don Fosselman’s back-to-back Class AAA state title teams in 1996-97.
“My sophomore year we got runner-up and it was the first Big Red team to make it past regionals to the state tournament. Then the next two years we won. That was part of it,” Jones replied when asked why he tossed his hat in the ring. “I’ve got a lot of history with PHS and PHS soccer. I mean I was a ball boy when I was 10 years old for multiple years and that grew my love for soccer.
“Playing there and now I’ve been coaching younger kids for the last 10 years, and so that’s also part of it. Seeing the good group of kids we got coming up as well as the kids that are currently there, just wanting them to have somebody, you know, that’s a PHS guy that really cares.”
The Big Reds are still competing in Class AAA, Region IV, Section 2 along with Parkersburg South and Hurricane, but Ripley was switched to the same region and section in Class AA/A with Winfield taking the Vikings’ spot.
“Last summer I coached a group of PHS kids through RVSC travel,” Jones noted. “I coached them over the summer. We went to the Adidas Warrior Classic in Dayton and we won that tournament. I got to work with them all summer. It wasn’t all the kids obviously. Like the freshmen that were there last year weren’t part of it. Some of the other kids who don’t do a lot of travel stuff weren’t, but a core group of the team coming back was on that team.
“I already had a summer of working with them. There’s some talent out there. That’s for sure. We lost a lot of really great players and that’s something I kind of dealt with my senior year. My junior and senior year I think we had eight and seven first team all-staters. We lost seven first team all-staters my junior year going into my senior year. I think Fosselman said we kind of ruined that after having so many they kind of limited it.”
The new head coach admitted “it’s too early to tell” how the roster will come together and that includes the newcomers.
“I know a few of the freshmen up and coming have been really busy with track and stuff. We are filling our goalie position,” Jones said. “I do have at least two freshmen coming up who are goalies and they will have that opportunity to prove themselves. Honestly, as like a youth coach and doing travel and rec for a long time, it’s kind of a down year for soccer players, like this class coming in.
“I don’t know what it is. There just wasn’t a bunch of 2010 and 2009 players doing travel and the extra stuff. I’m sure I will get some kids that have done rec a lot I haven’t seen in years since I had to kind of stop doing the rec thing. The next couple years following that we have so many kids that have really dedicated to soccer, but there are a couple I got my eye on. I’m not sure who’s coming out yet.”
When asked about his philosophy on the pitch Jones offered his thoughts.
“It’s kind of a mix,” he said. “You have to kind of take the group of players that you have and you got to kind of combine that with the style of play you are going to need to compete and beat the Hurricanes and GWs of the state. That’s always kind of a challenge. Besides that, my philosophy when I played and my philosophy for all of these kids in any sport, endeavor that they do is attitude and effort.
“You got to have a really good attitude and you got to out work everybody. That’s what we are going to preach the most is outworking everybody. Like I tell the boys, all the hard work doesn’t mean you’ll win every game, but it usually means that team doesn’t want to play you again. That’s kind of what we want. We want to push the effort, the attitude and good things come along with that.”
Basically a month on the job, Jones and his staff are now able to join the rest of the Mountain State and begin using their 32 flex days.
“We had a three-week summer period,” Jones recalled during his playing days. “We’re planning on using most of the 32, but I also want to keep a little flexibility so we can get the ball out again this time next year a few times. Those flex days run through the whole year.”
As far as the red and white schedule, Jones said everything is set except for hopefully adding one more game at Stadium Field.
“Super exciting,” Jones admitted of the opportunity at hand. “Really just couldn’t wait to get to practicing. Going through all the other stuff is new to me obviously, but well worth it all, It really comes back to this group of kids that are coming back to the team to the young kids coming up.
“I want to try and put PHS back on the map where we used to be. I was super excited. I talked to (Chris) Way in my interview. I told him it’s a dream job for me to be here and coach this team, and if you find somebody better I will support them and I’ll go right back to coaching up the kids who are coming here anyway. I’m a part of it regardless.”
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