Daily Pilot High School Male Athlete of the Week: Costa Mesa’s Jones learns from experience, others

In the fall of his first year at Costa Mesa High, Jacob Jones was playing football on the Mustangs’ freshman team.

He was not yet aware of the program that he would end up sticking with for all four years of high school. It was not football. It was wrestling that pulled him in and would not let him go.

Adam Marquez was the one to bring him in, a man with deep ties to the school and both programs. Marquez was Jones’ linebackers coach during his freshman year, and he made the pitch to him and his teammates that wrestling would be a good activity to get involved with in the offseason.

Jones said he did not know that wrestling existed, and who could blame him. Marquez, who is in his sixth season as the head coach of the Costa Mesa wrestling program, said that the team has not won a league title since 1991.

Marquez, a 2008 Costa Mesa alum who wrestled under Paul Serio, said he stuck with the program, in spite of its limited success, because he was humbled by the work that those around him put in to make the experience better. When Serio was the coach, he pushed the school district to upgrade the wrestling room, including the installation of matted walls, pegboards and climbing ropes.

“I faced a lot of tough losses, and I had a lot of resentment when I was in high school wrestling here,” Marquez said. “I had to get over that. I had to make amends with that. I had to realize that when Serio came in, he came in on very short notice and took over the program, and he did the best he could.”

There is something endearing about that story, and the current wrestlers respect the request of their coach to see the process through.

“It was tough at first,” Jones said of joining the wrestling team. “I didn’t know if I was going to like it. I was even thinking about leaving at first.

“[Marquez] told me just to stick around. I stuck around, and then I liked it so much, I didn’t even go back to football.”

Jones does not profile as the typical wrestler. He is hardly rough around the edges. Rather, he is soft-spoken, and at 6-foot-2, remarkably tall for a middle-weight.

Last year, Jones wrestled in the 152-pound weight class. He has jumped up to 160s this season, and he started the campaign strong by going undefeated in the Battle by the Bay at Corona del Mar High on Dec. 2.

Going into Saturday, Jones’ record stood at 6-0, winning all of his matches by pin in his move up to 160 this year. He has had only two matches go beyond the first period, and he has yet to surrender a takedown.

“He finds a comfort zone,” Marquez said. “He comes off as passive and really not aggressive, but that translates really well to his nerves.

“There were times where it seemed like he was getting pushed around a bit, but he would reset, he would circle, he would work on using his length, and he would force the guys to make mistakes. He would catch the head a lot.”

As Marquez stated, bitter defeat can be a great teacher. It was something that Jones recognized as what he thought was going well in practice did not necessarily turn into results on the mat.

“It was just drilling and drilling over the same basic moves,” Jones said of his beginning in wrestling. “I thought it was going to get boring, and I wasn’t getting into it.

“When you go wrestle in matches, you’re going to need that stuff. It might be really long and tedious to go over the same move over and over, but when you do that in a match and you fail, it makes you want to work at it a lot more.”

Jones benefited from seeing different styles in practice. Ray Welsher, a senior on last year’s team, was the polar opposite of the passive, gangly Jones. In regards to the 2017 graduate, Jones said Welsher made all of his moves in a quick and forceful manner, and it taught him how to wrestle more aggressive opponents.

Wrestlers find their niche with increased match experience. Jones has found that he is a far better wrestler on the ground, where he can execute leg rides and tilts. Although Jones possesses the length to fend off attacks when both wrestlers are on their feet, the shorter, stockier opponents could dive at his legs in an attempt to take him down.

“I like being on the ground more than being on my feet because I get overpowered sometimes,” Jones said. “I’ve never been stronger than most of the people that I have wrestled because I’m rather tall.

“Sometimes, at the beginning, some guy will look all big and strong. It’s kind of intimidating, but when it comes to the match, I just do what I know, and it works out.”

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Jacob Jones

Born: July 20, 1999

Hometown: Costa Mesa

Height: 6 feet 2

Weight: 154 pounds

Sport: Wrestling

Year: Senior

Coach: Adam Marquez

Favorite food: Sushi

Favorite movie: “Rambo”

Favorite athletic moment: Costa Mesa defeated Estancia in the Battle for the Bell last year. Jones defeated Kyle Nguyen, who was one of the Eagles’ top seniors that season.

Week in review: Jones went undefeated in the 160-pound weight class in the Battle by the Bay dual tournament last Saturday at Corona del Mar High. The Mustangs senior won all of his matches by pin.

andrew.turner@latimes.com

Twitter: @ProfessorTurner