New Brockton coach Justin Jones accepts position at Cordova

New Brockton football coach Justin Jones was approved on Thursday, Jan. 11, as the new head coach of Cordova High School in northern Alabama.

Jones departs New Brockton after five successful seasons at the helm for the Gamecock football program.

“It was five good years,” Jones said. “It was an opportunity to come into a place and kind of put your stamp on it. The administration, the community and the people there were extremely good to us. The kids and the players we’ve had are just great young men there at New Brockton High School.”

New Brockton principal Alonzo Barkley said that Jones brought a sense of stability to the football program.

“He’s meant stability to our school and program,” Barkley said of Jones. “He’s a compassionate coach and his teams have been competitive every year. He was a great community leader and mentor, and we will miss him.”

Jones took over as New Brockton’s coach in 2014 and has taken the New Brockton Gamecocks to the playoffs in each of his five seasons at the helm.

Jones went 34-22 in his five years at New Brockton and his five consecutive playoff appearances is a school record.

In 2016, New Brockton won its first playoff game since 1999 and a number of Jones’ players have gone on to play college football.

Before coming to New Brockton, Jones was an assistant coach at Enterprise in 2013. Jones’ first head coaching job was at Florala High School where he served from 2011 until 2012.

Jones, an Enterprise graduate, played college football at West Alabama and his first coaching opportunity came at New Brockton where he was an assistant coach from 2003 until 2005.

In 2005, Jones took over as an assistant coach and strength and conditioning coach at Enterprise until 2011 when he took the position at Florala.

Moving to Cordova will be a challenge for Jones but it’s one he said he’s ready for.

“Cordova is a different animal,” Jones flatly said. “It’s a bigger school in a different part of the state I’ve really never been to. It’s going to be a challenge for us.

“The expectations up there are really high. They’ve won four state championships and played in numerous others, even in the past decade. The expectations will be very high and what they expect from their program and staff is excellent. That’s what our goal is going to be.”

Barkley will be handling the job search for New Brockton and though he said there is currently no timetable for hiring a new coach, he wants to find the right person for the job.

“We want to find someone with similar attributes as (Jones),” Barkley said. “Each person is different but we believe that we know what the community of New Brockton needs and what things are important to the players and to the community.”

Barkley said he doesn’t want the job search to linger but knows that getting the right person will be very important.

“With all of the good, competitive teams in our region it’s pretty tough and we just want to do right by the team,” Barkley said. “He’s left a pretty great core of returning players here and we’re excited about this next step but are sad to see (Jones) go.

“Obviously we don’t want to let this (coaching search) go on too long but we’ll follow board policy and protocol in finding the right person.”

Jones had a simple departing message for his players and former players; thank you.

“I would like to just tell them thank you,” Jones said. “The opportunity that we have now, with this new job, only came because of the work that they put in and because their parents and the community bought into what we were about.

“I can’t stress to them enough. The opportunity that coaches get comes from the work ethic of the players.”

Jones made it clear that he wouldn’t be getting job offers from bigger schools if not for the work his players put in.

“At the end of the day you can be the best coach in the world, but if the players don’t buy in and perform for you on Friday nights you won’t get those opportunities,” Jones emphasized. “I would just like to tell each and every one of them thank you. New Brockton is a special place and great things will continue to come to them.”