BASEBALL

Retiring from basketball Kim Jones ready for next chapter and to focus on family

Roy Fuoco
The Ledger
Santa Fe Catholic girls basketball coach Kim Jones is retiring after more than 30 years as a head coach or assistant coach.

Kim Jones is calling it quits. She announced last week that she is not simply stepping down as the girls basketball coach at Santa Fe Catholic High School, she is retiring as a coach.

You can't blame her. If anyone is needing a break, it's Jones.

A Lake Gibson graduate, Jones' coaching career began in 1986. Ronald Reagan was president, Cheers was more than a greeting, Michael Jordan wasn't yet the GOAT, and MTV still played music. You likely would have gotten funny looks if you said you were going to google something, and a few raised eyebrows if you said you were going to tweet. 

For her part, Jones still was in college at Florida Southern and she coached Crystal Lake Junior High School.

For another perspective on how long ago this was, Jones coached Krissy Hammerberg, the daughter of Ed Hammerberg, a former boys basketball coach in the county. At Santa Fe, it came full circle when she coached Krissy's daughter, Shea.

"I actually had a good team," Jones recalled. She chose that job over an offer to coach at Santa Fe when Keith DeMyer was at Santa Fe as athletic director and football coach.

Jones' last coaching job, of course, was at Santa Fe Catholic, where she had perhaps her second proudest moment when the Crimson Hawks defeated rival Seffner Christian to give them their first district title in girls basketball. It was made even more sweeter because she was coaching her daughter, Kassidy.

In between her first and last head coaching jobs, she also was an assistant at Lake Gibson under Glenn Higgins, had two head coaching stints at Lake Gibson and had another middle school head coaching job.

During that time, she's seen a growth in girls basketball in the county, especially the skill level of players.

Along the way, she and her husband, Ken, raised six children – four boys and the two girls, Kourtney and Kassidy.

Ken has been a partner in Jones' coaching career as a scorekeeper, film guy and bus driver. She also credited the help of longtime assistant coach Viandra McCormick-Pryce.

Jones thought her coaching career was over after her second stint at Lake Gibson. However, Kourtney told her that Santa Fe athletic director David Saliba wanted to talk to her because the school needed a girls basketball coach. Kourtney made her an offer she couldn't refuse. If Jones would coach, Kourtney said she would play basketball.

"This is the daughter that never played basketball," Jones said. "She played volleyball and softball, and she actually turned out to be a pretty good post player for me. So the rest is history."

Remember her second proudest moment. That likely could have been No. 1 except that for Jones, her proudest recollection as a basketball coach was coaching her two daughters.

"Not every coach can say they coached both of their daughters," she said. For one of those years, Kourtney and Kassidy were teammates and she got to coach both of them together.

"I've had the greatest athletes, the greatest kids," she said. "I look back all those years and kids that I've coached at Crystal Lake, I'm now friends with those kids today. It's been a lifelong friendship with so many of them. I'm going to miss it. But as a wife and a mom, it's time to concentrate on family. We want to be able to watch Kassidy at Mercer. And with my husband's health issues right now, those are all my priorities."

Jones also has two grand-daughters with another on the way.

"So I'm moving on to that next chapter," she said.

Jones doesn't rule out coaching again, perhaps even coaching her granddaughters at some level.

"I'm just looking forward to the next four years and enjoying life," she said. "I really feel like after 30-plus years, I've done a lot of good for girls basketball."

Roy Fuoco can be reached at roy.fuoco@theledger.com. Follow him on Twitter: @RoyFuoco.

Roy Fuoco