Dameon Jones Steps Down As Hallandale Head Coach

SFHSSports: Twitter | Facebook

Damon Jones leaves a legacy at his alma mater

He understood the culture of Hallandale football like no other coach before him. And he took his alma mater from a washed up basketball school – which enjoyed early success – to the No. 1 football program in the state of Florida.

On Monday morning SFHSSports learned that the winningest head coach in the Chargers' history, "retired" after the most successful year the Chargers had ever had, reaching the third round of the Class 5A state playoffs.

The 1997 graduate of Hallandale felt that it was time to leave a position where he came in and changed the culture of the football program and the student body – and how everyone across the country took notice of that.

"It's time," he said. "With the way that this senior class finished off, it was the perfect time to move on to the next chapter."

At 36 years old, Jones admits that he is really not ready to keep up with the changes that have gone on in high school football. He doesn't want to worry that if he isn't taking his players to a February or July camp or 7-on-7, that he will lose them. That's not what he envisioned as an athlete on those same football fields.

For the past seven of eight years, the Chargers had become relevant on the football field, attracting some of the elite players that had not been in place in the past. After taking over the position for three years (2007-2009), Jones stepped down in 2010 and returned to take a winless team to new heights, when he returned in 2011.

"This is a program that never had any real football identity," Jones said. "Coaches like Prince Pearson, Chris Hipsley and Bob Wood brought them to a certain level, but getting to that next step, was never being achieved."

What Jones did was fight for his players, although many accused him of getting athletes from other areas, he always insisted that all he was doing was "getting his own kids back", and he turned out to be right.

Former Hallandale wrestling and football coach Allen Held, who Jones served under as Offensive Coordinator at South Broward, agrees that getting those elite prospects was always tough – even if they belonged to Hallandale.

"Hallandale has always had athletes – as far back as I can remember," Held said. "Remember, this is a program that had Butch Rolle (Michigan State and Buffalo Bills), Darryl Darling (Missouri), Darius Frazier (Miami), Johnny Shivers (Virginia), Greg Taplin (Michigan State) and Davin Joseph (Oklahoma, Tampa Bay Bucs and St. Louis Rams), who were top-flight prospects. It was just tough convincing several kids that this could be a football school, too."

Jones came back to his alma mater to win. His first year saw Frankie Hammond (Kansas City Chiefs) head to the University of Florida. Then, things began to pick up to a point where the past two seasons saw schools such as Georgia, FSU, Utah, LSU, West Virginia and a number of nationally-rated schools visit Hallandale as part of that elite rotation.

This success – like last year when they beat Miami Northwestern and lost to the eventual state champion – Miami Central, continued this season when they went to the third round and lost a heartbreaker to eventual state champion Orlando Bishop Moore.

The talent has been unreal – with Army All-Americans and Under Armour all-stars, which this school never had before. This year certainly backed that up - with the school's all-time leading passer and one of the best to ever wear that Charger uniform, Tyler Huntley, being named Gatorade State Player of the Year and heading off to Utah with teammates Demari Simpkins and Zack Moss.

"The talent level was unreal on this team, and after playing St. Thomas Aquinas down to the wire, and beating Plantation American Heritage, there was no question that if Tyler (Huntley) was healthy, we would have won it all," Jones pointed out.

This was a gifted program over the past few years, and since his return to the school in 2007, Jones had helped to produce over 60 college scholarships. That is simply something that had never been done – not in the Dan Harris (top running back) regime or any other in the past.

This 2015 team was all about athletes – such as Josh Hammond, who is spending this week in Orlando at the Under Armour game – before heading off to the University of Florida next week.

The offseason, which tested Jones and his staff to be a part of everything, was also a place where athletes such as Jaelyn Faulk, Neru N'Shaka, Chris Cotto, Lyndal Sutherland and Deion Jackson had the opportunity to shine and make a huge impact.

Jones leaves Hallandale football with a positive reputation. A winning reputation – and in the end – that's the only thing that matters to him and those who made so many sacrifices to make that happen.