Jones Hopes Record Is Just the Beginning

Did you ever notice that record-breakers don’t get trophies?

If they’re lucky, they get the ball in use at the time. Other than that, their award is just a name and a number typed into a book.

And hugs. Michael Jones got hugs from his mother after he broke the Orange County prep football career rushing record last weekend. He got hugs from his friends and his uncle too.

He posed for pictures with former Valencia running back Ray Pallares, whose record Jones had just broken on a 77-yard touchdown run.

And then . . . Jones’ Laguna Hills team lined up for the extra point.

The games go on, life goes on.

“There’s a lot of work to be done, right Mike?” his coach, Steve Bresnahan, said in his office on a recent afternoon.

“We’ve still got eight games left,” Jones replied, already factoring in the postseason.

When you’re 17, last weekend is ancient history. So much lies ahead that there isn’t time to think about what just happened. There’s a game against University tonight. His 18th birthday is Nov. 18. The playoffs.

And then . . .

That’s where it gets tricky.

“Michael’s the best football player that I’ve ever worked with, coaching-wise,” Bresnahan said. “If he can get the academic part squared away, he’ll be a Division I football player, somewhere. It’s just a matter of him getting that part of his life squared away.”

It’s hard to believe someone could set the rushing record one year and not play football the next year. That’s the way it looks like it will go for Jones, who won’t have enough “core” classes to meet the NCAA’s initial eligibility requirements next year.

So he plans to attend a community college, sit out to avoid injury, then head to a four-year school the next year.

There’s no way to tell how it will end up. He and Bresnahan certainly didn’t set out to set any records. It simply developed as an offshoot of Jones’ ability. As a 10th grader, Jones showed he could get stronger as the game wore on, bowling over seniors in the fourth quarter.

“We never thought of any records,” Bresnahan said. “We never thought, ‘Hey, is he going to carry the ball enough to break a record?’ It was something that happened through the intent to win football games.”

The strategy was to simply put the ball in Jones’ hands. The Hawks don’t do much to disguise it, setting up in a one-back formation most of the time. Usually they face eight- or nine-man fronts. Jones doesn’t mind all of the defenders coming his way.

“I like the contact, the physical part of it,” Jones said. “And I test myself against other people.

“I like when it’s a tough game, when there’s people trying to hit me, trying to stop me. The tougher the game, the better it is.”

When it gets easy, he usually finds himself on the bench. Bresnahan recently went back and counted the number of quarters Jones sat out because Laguna Hills was blowing out an opponent. He missed 11 quarters his sophomore year and 12 last year for a total of 23.

That’s almost six games’ worth. Yet he still broke Pallares’ record with four games to spare.

“It’s a well-deserved honor,” Bresnahan said. “It wasn’t an honor that was done on intent to run up the score. It was done to win a game. That makes it all the more special to me.”

It doesn’t seem that special to Jones.

“It’s too recent for me to think about right now,” Jones said. “After the season’s over, maybe I’ll think about it.”

It has been 12 years since Pallares set the record, giving him plenty of time to mull it over. Jones spoke with him recently.

“He told me as I get older, you’ll look back and it will mean a lot to you,” Jones said.

In the meantime, it’s a tag that will follow him around. Michael Jones, the county’s all-time rushing leader. If you’re known, you’re usually known for one thing. There’s worse labels a guy could have.

When asked what else he wishes he could be known for, he said, “Just that I’m a good person. People should know that. And I worked hard to get to where I am.”

It would be nice if media guides or rosters had a space to note that someone was a good guy. As Jones sat there, quiet and polite, there was no reason to doubt him.

But being nice usually doesn’t get you noticed. It’s just a helpful bonus.

Even being a record-holder won’t do him any good a year from now. “He knows if he doesn’t get the classroom part done, he’s not going to play a whole lot more football,” Bresnahan said.

Jones said classes are going well this year and he plans to take the Scholastic Assessment Test in the spring.

He has rushed for more than 5,500 yards--and that was the easy part. Things usually come back to classes and tests. It would be a shame if last weekend represented the high point of his life, with nothing left to look forward to.

“I think it’s going to get better,” Jones said. “As long as I keep working on it.”

We know what he has done; it’s noted in the county record book. We know there are at least four games left.

And then . . .