Published: August 05, 2008 12:08 am            

College Scene: When opportunity knocked, former Hornet Jones jumped

For most people, opportunity seldom knocks twice.

When the chance to play college tennis at the top level came along, former Huntsville Hornet Andy Jones jumped. He did not need to wait and see if that opportunity would come around again.

After high school, Jones floated between Collin County Community College and Howard Payne University while still managing to play tennis.

During the summer of his sophomore year, Jones found a job at Gleneagles Country Club and took off the next semester.

“I started working at Gleneagles and it ended up being a full-time job, which was nice,” Jones said. “I taught (tennis) maybe 10 to 11 hours a week. I also gave private lessons and ran drills for Plano West, who was ranked either No. 1 or No. 2 in the state at the time.”

What Jones didn’t know when he took time off from school was that soon, he would be playing tennis at an NCAA Division I school.

“There is not one part of missing school that I regret,” Jones said last week while spending the summer in Huntsville. “It really set me up for a great opportunity. While I was still working at Gleneagles, Michael Hunt, who used to coach Sam Houston, sent me a message on my Facebook page. I still don’t know how he found me. He asked me if I wanted to play at Western Illinois.

“So, I accepted and it’s really nice there so far. I learned that I really loved to play the game.”

Jones transferred from Howard Payne to Western Illinois in the spring of 2007 and went through a bit of a transition period, but adapted nicely.

“It gets really cold up there,” Jones said, “but as far as practices go, they get really intense. There is a lot of weight lifting and conditioning, but I managed.”

In his two years with Western Illinois, Jones saw his team come close to winning the Summit League championship twice, but the Leathernecks lost in the conference finals to Oral Roberts on both occasions.

“In 2007, we lost to ORU 4-1, and last year we lost 4-3,” Jones said, “so if we’re going to win the championship, this year is our best opportunity. I’ve been training hard this summer and I know my teammates are too. With five seniors on our team, we have a real good shot.”

In his short career at Western Illinois, Jones has compiled a 21-22 record in singles with a 4-2 record in doubles.



Making the grade

Recently, McNeese State’s Mandi Hamilton, was named by the National Golf Coaches Association to the All-America Scholar team. A Huntsville High School graduate, Hamilton was joined by Cowgirl teammates Maggie Welch, Jacy Reynolds and Randi Fischer.

To be eligible for the All-America Scholar squad, a student-athlete must have completed 50 percent of competitive rounds while maintaining a 3.5 grade point average.

The McNeese women’s golf team was also recognized as one of the top 25 All-Scholar teams for the 2007-08 season. The Cowgirls ranked ninth with an overall 3.615 team GPA.

The award recognizes women’s collegiate golf programs with the highest collective average team GPA, which includes all of the team’s student-athletes for the season.

        

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