+++++We spoke to Coach Jones this afternoon, and had some questions for the new Ragsdale High School AD, and you can see the questions and the answers, when you look below….+++++
from Brian Herndon, current Ragsdale High School Athletic Director:
JONES NAMED NEW RAGSDALE TIGER ATHLETIC DIRECTOR
FORMER PAGE PIRATE COACH BRINGS IMPRESSIVELY SUCCESSFUL CREDENTIALS TO TIGER NATION
It brings me tremendous honor, pride, and enthusiasm to announce the hiring of Coach Deborah Jones as Tiger Nation’s new Athletic Director! Coach Jones brings an enormous amount of vitally successful experience in both Athletics and Education. Coach Jones is a class act, and will be an incredible asset for the entire Ragsdale Tiger Community. On a personal note, I want to commend our wonderful Ragsdale Tiger Administrative team on a fantastic hire! The entire hiring process was done in a first class manner, just like everything our first class administrative team always does! You are the ABSOLUTE BEST! It has been an incredible privilege for me, TIGER NATION, to serve as your Athletic Director. Everyday we’ve shared together over these wonderful 30 years has been a gift that I will treasure forever. YOU HAVE MADE ME THE LUCKIEST AD IN THE WORLD! I am incredibly thankful to forever be a part of our Ragsdale Tiger Family, and I am enormously excited for the future of Ragsdale Tiger Athletics under the leadership of Coach Deborah Jones: Coach Jones is a winner! Tiger Nation: Please join me in welcoming Coach Deborah Jones to our Ragsdale Tiger Family!
(Below is information released yesterday, regarding Coach Jones, sent out yesterday, from our fantastic Principal, Mr. Jim Gibson)
Good Afternoon,
I know that some of you may be in Raleigh for the march to support education. I am very proud of the fact that we have teachers who are willing to take a stand in support of other teachers, students, and everyone involved in the education systems in North Carolina.
I also wanted to say that are very proud to announce we have hired the next great Athletic Director for Ragsdale High School. Our committee has selected Deborah Jones to fill the role of Brian Herndon, who is retiring at the end of the school year. Deborah Jones comes to us from Page High School where she has over 20 years of experience in education and athletics. She is a Physical Education teacher and has experience in teaching all levels and courses in that field. Her coaching experience covers a wide spectrum of sports while serving as the head coach for golf, softball, and basketball. She has also coached volleyball but her longest tenure was in women’s basketball where she led the program for 17 years. She has won numerous championships and made the playoffs in basketball for 16 straight years. She will start her official duties on July 1. Please join me in welcoming her to the Ragsdale family.
IT’S A GREAT DAY TO BE A TIGER!
+++++We had a few questions for Coach Debbie Jones, the new Athletic Director at Ragsdale High School….+++++
What got you interested in the Ragsdale AD job?
Being the interim athletic director at Page High School peaked my interest in overseeing the entire athletics program…I loved being the interim AD at Page and it was a pleasure to work with the athletes from all of the different sports and not just basketball, golf and softball, where I had worked directly with those kids, during my time at Page…
(Coach Jones coached the women’s basketball team at Page for 17 years and ended up with 305 victories.)
Did you enjoy your time spent as Interim AD at Page HS?
Loved it and learned from it…I applied to become the full-time AD at Page and was not selected, but I went right to work and took online courses to increase my education and knowledge in the field, and that really became a plus…Former Page AD Rusty Lee mentored me and encouraged me to take these classes and they really helped get me ready to go for the Ragsdale job….The extra learning helped me turn the corner…I heard about the Ragsdale opening, sought the position and was fortunate to be hired as the Ragsdale AD….
(Just a little GreenboroSports.com insight here, “When one door closes, another door may be ready to open”, and that could be the case right here.)
What will your schedule be like at Ragsdale come the start of school, in the Fall of 2019?
Coach Jones said she will have an ISS class first period and then do her Athletic Department duties, the rest of the day…Get to mentor some kids in one area in the morning, and then the rest of the day, make an impact in others ways…
Did you have any connections at Ragsdale High School?
It sort of gets interesting here…..Coach Jones, and we always call Debbie Jones, Coach Jones, since she ran and worked with the girls basketball team at Page for 17 years, and we were there for many of those games…Coach Jones told us that here family moved to the Triad area back when she was a junior in high school and her family settled in with a home near Jamestown, just 2 miles from the Ragsdale High School campus…She all ready to go to Ragsdale High School and become a Ragsdale Tiger then, but her parents soon learned that a new school had just recently sprung up and with where the Jones family was living, they were not in the Ragsdale HS district, they were actually living in the Southwest Guilford High School district….Coach Jones would not be a Ragsdale Tiger then, she would become and go on to star in girls basketball, for the Southwest Guilford Cowgirls…
(Coach Jones would not be a Ragsdale Tiger back then, but she has become a Ragsdale Tiger now(2019), as everything has come full-circle…What goes around, comes back around, and we are probably talking close to 30 years ago.)
Final Question for Coach Jones, do you see this(Ragsdale HS) as the Last Stop?
Yes, and Coach Jones feels like she has reached a very solid destination point in her teaching/coaching career….
(It may be like we just touched on in our previous question for Coach Debbie Jones, and now Ragsdale High School Athletic Director Debbine Jones, “Everything has come Full-Circle for her”).
(The thing that Coach Jones said he liked about being at and around Ragsdale High School today was, the “family atmosphere”…From the top with current AD Brian Herndon, to all of the Tiger coaches, it is all about “Family”, and they make you feel like you are a part of that “Tiger Family”, from the moment you walk in the door, said Coach Jones.)
**********Coach Debbie Jones becomes the second female Athletics Director on the high school level, in Guilford County…Cheri Sharp followed John Primm, as the AD at NEG/Northeast Guilford High School, and Coach Sharp has been on the job now for around 10 years/seasons, at NEG…
To our historical knowledge, Sue Shinn was the first-ever female AD in Guilford County…Shinn served as the High Point Andrews High School athletics director from 1993-2000…..**********
She will be a big boost for the ragsdale girls basketball program and all Tigers’ sports very quickly.
Will Coach Jones be taking over the varsity girls basketball team?
The Athletic Directors can not coach a sport…Change made a few years back…