Don Jones of Rancho Bernardo High honored among legendary coaches

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The new generation of track and field athletes recognize Don Jones as the voice of sport, a man who does his homework and brings to life every event he announces.

However, Jones is so much more than a booming voice.

The head athletics coach at Rancho Bernardo High from 1991 to 2018, his teams – boys and girls – set a 355-45-5 dual meet record.

They won 39 championship titles and 15 CIF championships – 14 in track, one in cross-country.

Jones is one of five named San Diego High School Coaching Legends by the San Diego Sports Association. Four more were named Bob Breitbard Meritorious Achievement Award winners.

A banquet in honor of the nine coaches was scheduled for November but has been postponed for a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It’s an extraordinary honor,” said Jones. “I’ve enjoyed almost every minute of my career.

“I was fortunate to have well-known mentors, assistant coaches and administrators – people like Ron Vavra, Bob Larsen, Dan Schaitel, Peggy Brose, Terry Dockery, Tom Martin, Robbie Bowers and many more,” he said. “The core of the workforce at RB was together for 15 years.”

In addition to team honors, Jones trained 264 individual league champions, 696 San Diego CIF Division I finalists, 477 San Diego CIF Division I medalists, 90 San Diego CIF Division I champions, 224 California State qualifiers, 43 California State medalists, five California state champions, three record holders of the San Diego Section, two California state record holders and one NFHS record holder.

“We never looked for children on campus and rarely made transfers,” said Jones. “I feel good about that. High school track is still pure. There are no clubs.

“I’m proud that we won with local children, with children we found in physical education, with children we found on our campus. It’s so rewarding, ”he said. “We had great relationships with our soccer coaches, so we got sprinters and throwers from the soccer team. When we offered pole vault as a sport lesson, 70 children had registered. “

The size of RB’s track and field teams ranged from 180 to 310.

Top RB performers during Jones’s day included: Brian Fell, UCLA two-time Pac-12 400 hurdler; Kathleen Donoghue, an All-American pole vaulter with the NCAA at Stanford; and Nia Adkins, the NCAA Division I runner-up in the 800 at Penn.

As a local product, Jones was born and raised in Lakeside, played soccer, basketball and ran the El Capitan running track, where he graduated in 1974.

He was an all-conference performer at Grossmont College. He graduated from San Diego State with a BS in Sports and earned a Masters from Azusa Pacific.

He taught or coached at Mission Bay High, Grossmont College, Monte Vista High, and Poway before being appointed director of Rancho Bernardo.

“I loved coaching kids, I loved doing dual and CIF meetings,” said Jones. “I loved the game of chess, which took place in dual encounters. The goal has always been to win the league and qualify as many children as possible for the CIF meeting.

“The philosophy was to send an army to the CIF finals.”

Retired Jones is a USA Track Official and the on-field announcer for the county’s top meetings. He also names the prestigious Arcadia Invitational.

“Now that I’m retired, I can say that,” said Jones. “I was very fortunate to get paid for a job I loved. I might have paid her for the work. “

Other trainer legends:

Margaret Mauro, who had a 41-year career coaching softball at San Diego High and later at Catholic Cathedral.

Jerry Fleischhaker, a successful soccer and tennis coach and chairman of the history department at La Jolla Country Day for 20 years.

Connie Halfaker, a 20-year-old girl’s volleyball coach at Ramona High School who took a team last and won five straight championship titles.

Ron Peet, who had a 39-year career coaching boys and girls at San Pasqual High and 21 league championships.

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