In team sports such as football, being prepared to play is critical regardless if one is not the starter or featured player. Take as an example, the Philadelphia Eagles quarterback situation the last two years. Long time starter Donovan McNabb was traded after last season with their quarterback of the future Kevin Kolb waiting with an experienced Michael Vick as a reliable backup. Early in this season, Kolb went down with an injury that paved the way for Vick to step up. Other such examples can include the Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers situation in Green Bay last decade to the Lou Gehrig and Wally Pipp situation last century in New York.
This anecdote was illustrated two weeks ago for the Valley Christian Warriors as they played Serra High in a CCS playoff game. The Warriors were without their normal running back, Byron Marshall, due to a suspension. In this critical first round game, the Warriors were able to turn to Darelle Jones who had 16 rushes for 102 yards with one touchdown in the 31-20 win.
At 5-foot-10 and 185 pounds, Jones has been playing football for eight years and has been a varsity starter for two years. This Warrior can run 4.49 seconds in the 40-yard dash, has a shuttle time of 4.23 seconds, can bench press 285 pounds, squat 495 pounds, and has a vertical of 34 inches. He models his game after former USC Trojan Stafon Johnson because he is a very solid runner who never fails to hit the hole at full speed but knows how to be patient at the same time. Although, he is not flashy with his moves, he still has "big play" potential.
This Warrior considers his football strengths to be his spin move to elude would be tacklers and his stiff-arm to keep would be tacklers at a distance from him. Valley Christian runs the veer offense, which basically is an option style offense that features multiple running backs. This offense allows the skill position players to utilize their skills in the open field especially against the secondary. It also helps the offense to gain tough yardage in specific scenarios of the game. Even though Marshall and Jones started in this offense, Marshall was the featured back as evidenced by his statistics. So, when Marshall was out of the Serra playoff game, Jones more than held his own as the featured back in that game. For this current season, Jones has 94 rushes for 750 yards with five touchdowns.
Valley Christian High Coach Mike Machado says, "Darelle is a hard working football player, a great teammate, and leader for our team. He has a great personality and sense of humor off the field but is very focused in whatever he does. His performance in the Serra game was huge but no surprise to us. He has been a great asset to our team and a guy we can always count on."
During his past summers, Jones attended summer camps that included Vanderbilt, UC Davis, and San Jose State. He also worked on his jump cuts, which is a maneuver that makes it easier to feel the hole rather than running in blindly. With great vision, jump cuts allow for quicker transitions instead of having to turn one's hips.
With his size and speed, Jones is expecting to play running back in college. Jones lived in California up until the 7th grade when he moved to Georgia and attended Woodward Academy in College Park. He played football, basketball, and ran track in Georgia. He then moved back to San Jose to attend Valley Christian during the summer of his sophomore year. In basketball, he was a forward while he ran the 60m, 100m, and 200m in track. As a result, his recruiting process spans both sides of the country. He favors the west coast because he is more familiar with the west coast atmosphere.
This Warrior has received contact from Louisiana Tech; San Jose State, Vanderbilt, and Washington State. He plans to make his decision sometime in late January. His early favorites are the west coast based schools of Oregon State and Washington State as they produce good backs and not only have a strong emphasis on athletics but academics as well.
Jones wants to attend a school that is competitive in Division I and provides a legitimate chance to play as a true freshman but he would consider taking a redshirt year. He is flexible in the offensive schemes that he would play in as he can play in the backfield as a running back but also has experience running routes as a slot receiver. He would prefer the college to have at least 10,000 students. Academically, Jones has a 3.00 GPA with a 1490 SAT. He would like to major in Psychology as his best subject is English while his favorite subject is Forensics. As a result, the college must have a solid academic reputation.
Young Money, what his teammates call him, works on graphic designs for non-profit contests during his spare time. Expect a big performance from Jones if Valley Christian is to win the CCS Championship game against Palo Alto this week at the San Jose City College. Thereafter, expect Jones to be making his mark on the college gridiron in 2011.
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