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State champion coach has ties to Austintown
By Greg Gulas
LOUSIVILLE
When Eldon Jones was a member of former head coach Mike Garcia’s Austintown Fitch back-to-back state championship cross country teams, he called those years “life defining as to what I now do as a career and the fact that I’m a cross country coach.”
In his 23rd year at St. Thomas Aquinas High School where he first coached the boys program, added the girls program and now just coaches the girls, Jones’ Knights captured the Division III girls state championship on Nov. 7 in Hebron to garner the school’s first girls cross country title.
In the process, they became just the second team from Stark County (Canton GlenOak was the first team champion, winning the 1988 Division I championship) to win a girls state cross country title.
The Knights’ championship helped Jones recall many fond memories about the Falcons’ championship run.
But more importantly, it conjured up thoughts about the lessons that he learned from Garcia as he applied them to his own team.
“I’ve been touched by a lot of great people during my competitive and coaching careers and it has always been my dream to pass on to my kids, what Coach [Garcia] passed on to me,” Jones said. “He told us that winning state would be a life changing experience and he was absolutely right.
“Now, our girls have experienced something, which until now, was somewhat elusive. Next fall they will have the opportunity to repeat, much like we did at Fitch back in 1971 and 1972.”
Jones, a 1973 Fitch graduate, was the sixth runner for the Falcons as a junior and its third runner as a senior, placing 15th overall at state.
He added that the Falcons were a deep squad back then and while he has taken seven previous Knights teams to state, the difference with this year’s team was a freshman who stepped up over the course of the season.
“We were ranked in the top three all season long, alongside Minster and defending state champion McDonald,” Jones said. “We had good teams, but were always short a runner in order to make a run.
“That changed this year as won district, regional and then state. Our top runner, Athena Welsh, is our only senior and she was the overall individual champion with a personal best 17:58.”
In addition to Welsh, who inked a national letter of intent Wednesday to attend the University of Toledo, Hannah Ohman was the freshman who stepped up for Jones while twins Kalee and Kacee Soehnlen — as well as little sister Hannah — rounded out the title team.
“It sounds clich , but Mike Garcia was a father figure to me and I remain eternally indebted for how he influenced my life,” he said.
Retired Fitch track coach Rich Kempe was Jones’ teammate.
“We have all stayed pretty close over the years and are proud of Jonesy’s coaching accomplishments, especially this state title,” Kempe said. “We were all pulling for him and his team this season.”
Upon graduation, Jones went on to run at Walsh College where he was the top runner all four seasons.
He played under Olympian Dave Wottle his last two years and during Wottle’s first year, post-Olympic coaching with the team qualifying for the NAIA national cross country championships his senior year.
“Coach Wottle was genuine, a good guy who like coach Garcia, reinforced our work ethic,” Jones said. “He was a very humble Olympic champion.”