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Tournaments  | Story | 12/14/2020

Firm family foundation elevates Jones

Jeff Dahn
Photo: Jayson Jones (Perfect Game)

Athletics don’t necessarily define the Tim and Kim Jones family from Savannah, Texas, but sports in general – and baseball, in particular – is a good starting point to any conversation with Tim, Kim and their youngest son, the ultra-talented Jayson Jones.

Tim Jones, a righthanded pitcher, played collegiately at the University of Texas Pan American (now U. of Texas Rio Grande Valley) in Edinburg, Texas, and was an 18th round selection of the Tigers in the 1992 MLB June Amateur Draft; he played one season of minor league baseball.



Kim Jones was a multi-sport athlete in high school and went on to play D-I basketball at UTPA, where she met her future husband. Jayson has an older brother, 21-year-old Jordan Jones, who is currently a right-handed pitcher at Arkansas-Pine Bluff by way of Richland College.

“We’ve kind of had a baseball family,” Tim told PG during a telephone conversation late last week. “I’ve had baseball in my blood and as we grew up I worked with my kids. That was a way for me to stay in the game and also bond with my sons.”

The bond that developed between the parents and their sons has been especially rewarding for everyone involved, but there is no denying that the 17-year-old Jayson Jones has already taken the promise of great things to come to another level.

Jones, a third baseman previously who is transitioning to shortstop and who this summer committed to the Arkansas Razorbacks, is slotted in as the No. 5 overall prospect (No. 2 SS) in Perfect Game’s national class of 2022 prospect rankings.

He has thrived while playing for Chad Polk and Tommy Hernandez with the prestigious Dallas Tigers organization, and his PG trophy room is stocked with three MV Player awards and eight all-tournament citations.

A junior at Braswell High School in Little Elm, Texas, in the far north Dallas suburbs, Jayson took some time to speak with PG late last week after completing a workout at the high school with his Braswell Bengals teammates. They are fully expecting to play a complete spring season in 2021 after having the 2020 season cancelled by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We can’t wait, we really can’t,” Jones told PG early in the conversation. “Everybody’s excited, everybody’s tuned-up. We’re just ready for the season and we’re pushing for it big-time.”

Jones brings that same enthusiasm, exuberance and can-do attitude into every aspect of his young life, which right now centers on friends and family, athletics and academics (he carries a 4.0 GPA at Braswell).

Using their backgrounds as D-I collegiate athletes as a point of reference, Kim and Tim Jones made the decision when both of their boys were quite young to get them involved with team sports. It was a foundation that would support both Jayson and Jordan throughout their childhoods.

Jones was a three-sport athlete – baseball, basketball, football – up until recently and he excelled at all three. Tim was both of his sons’ baseball coach when they were younger and Kim proudly served as Jayson’s basketball coach.

In an interesting twist, however, all three Joneses agree that football was Jayson’s first love during his elementary and middle-school years. Both parents, in fact, initially felt like football would be his fastest route to securing a D-I scholarship.

“He just loved it; he loved the contact and the physicality of it,” Tim said. “I helped coach his football teams, as well, but I was always an assistant on the side because I’m more of a baseball guy.”

A quarterback in football, Jayson broke his wrist on his non-throwing hand during his freshman season and decided to leave the gridiron behind. “It was very tough quitting football,” he said. “It was a love that I had, too, but I just felt like baseball was my passion; it was my calling. I just knew that I gravitated to the game better and I just loved it.”

His parents emphasized early on that sports are great but everything you get by being involved with them will be a result of individual effort. If you just want to have fun with your friends and play little league and enjoy everything there is to enjoy about high school baseball, well, that’s your choice, too.

But if you want to play competitively at a very high level and work to become the best you can be – while also having the time of your life – that’s going to require an altered mental approach; a different work ethic.

“From a very young age, Jayson just always showed a different type of drive; he always showed a different type of competitiveness,” Kim Jones told PG late last week. “He was never satisfied and we never had to push him – he asked us.

“Whether it was him playing basketball or football or baseball or any of the sports he would engage in, he always had a higher level of drive and mental toughness that he put on himself.”

Jayson started playing T-ball when he was around 3 years old and picked up the pace from there. He’s just a sports-crazy kid from a sports-crazy family who loves to compete on a variety of fields of play while also keeping sports in the proper perspective.

“We just started working hard and tried to (help) him to get even better,” Tim said. “I was going to take this opportunity when you’ve got a kid that was as good as he is at an early age that wants it, to nurture that and go with it and grow and that’s kind of what he’s done.”

After T-ball, Jones moved into coach-pitch and finally into kid-pitch when he was around eight years old. It was then that he discovered just how much he enjoyed the game and that enjoyment fed his passion. At age 11, the Jones family got Jayson involved with the Dallas Tigers and under the guidance of Polk and Hernandez, the Tigers became Jayson’s second family.

Tim Jones thinks it’s kind of funny that people like to say they don’t pay attention to PG’s prospect rankings because in his mind they mean a great deal – if nothing else, kids can use them as a measuring stick and a motivational tool.

Being with the Tigers and performing on many of PG’s biggest stages provided extensive opportunities for Jayson to be exposed to the national scouting community. And the real beauty of it was the accolades poured in while he was competing in an environment that put the concept of “team” ahead of the concept of “me”.



It wasn’t so much Jayson’s physical skills – and they were formidable very early – that set him apart as much as it was his awareness. He had an innate ability to understand pivotal moments in each game and was able to react and respond to those moments almost instinctively; he continues to do that to this day.

And, man-oh-man, did he hit the ground running with his new program. Playing with basically the same Dallas Tigers Polk teams, Jones was named the MV Player at 12u, 13u and 14u PG Super25 tournaments in 2016-18, tournaments where the Tigers won championships.

“Coach Chad (Polk) with the Tigers, he’s always held us to a high standard and we were always pushing for those big Perfect Game tournaments,” Jayson said. “It’s definitely made me (want) to push myself more; just the competition is crazy. It made me a better baseball player playing in those tournaments and ultimately I had the most fun in those tournaments because it’s the highest competition.”

It’s noteworthy that nine players (including Jones) that played on the Dallas Tigers Polk team that won the championship at the 2018 PG Super25 14u North Texas Regional also played with this year’s Dallas Tigers 16u Polk team that finished the summer with a 13-4 record. Continuity counts at this level.

It’s a contingent that includes fellow top 2022s like lefthander/first baseman Trenton Shaw (No. 33, Oklahoma State), corner-infielder Walker Polk (No. 226, Baylor), first baseman/lefthander Jared Thomas (t-500, Texas), righthander/corner-infielder Joshua Hoover (t-500), middle-infielder Owen Peck (t-500), outfielder Jacob Devenny (t-1000, Rice), outfielder/middle-infielder Caleb Bergman (HF) and lefthander/first baseman Jonah McCormack.

| 2022 High School Top-500 Player Rankings |

“I know that they will 100 percent have my back because their baseball IQ is through the roof,” Jones said when asked to talk about his longtime Tigers’ teammates. “That’s what Chad (Polk) has taught us since we were very little is that you have to know the game; it’s a hard game. Our baseball IQ as a team is insane and we just really bond together...I love those guys and I want to battle with them, I really do.”

Jayson’s parents have also enjoyed becoming a part of the Dallas Tigers family. Kim Jones described the young players as a “band of brothers” and the camaraderie shared by both the players and their respective parents as unmatched. The families like to stay at Airbnb’s when they’re together at PG tournaments just to further enhance the feeling of a tight-knit community.

“PG is a blast,” Kim said. “We like PG because it takes us out of Texas, it takes us to see competition and arms and some of the better talent that we’re not going to get to see locally. When we travel that is our expectation and we get that fulfilled every year by Perfect Game. We’re never disappointed because we always get to see the best of the best...It’s a lot of fun to watch these boys just battle it out on the field; there’s a lot of respect.”

The year 2020 has been a challenge for everyone, of course, and for Jones it started out with having his sophomore season at Braswell cancelled by the COVID-19 pandemic. Disappointed but undeterred father and son went to work.

Tim told Jayson that, yes, it was a real bummer he had lost a high school season to an unexpected health crisis but it was important to remember that this too shall pass and he would be back playing ball again, hopefully sooner than later. So, his dad asked him, are you going to come out of this ahead of the curve or are you going to be bringing up the rear? Jayson chose the former.

The Joneses have a batting cage in the backyard of their home in Savannah, and there is also a field nearby. During the COVID-19 shutdown in the spring and early summer, father and son were able to put the cage and field to good use, with Tim hitting as many as 100 groundballs a day to this son in an effort to sharpen his shortstop skills.

Hours turned into days, days turned into weeks and weeks turned into months, and when Jayson was finally able to get back on the field playing with the Dallas Tigers 16u Polk at the PG 16u National Elite Championship in Hoover, Ala., in mid-June he was more than ready to show off his improvement. Next up was the PG Junior National Showcase, also held in Hoover, where he was assured a large audience of PG scouts.

“When he was able to go to the Junior showcase he was climbing up the rankings because they saw some of the plays that he was making; he had improved 100 percent,” Tim said. “So the hard work paid off.”

The 6-foot-2, 190-pound right-handed hitting Jones was impressive at the Jr. National, running a 6.80-second 60-yard-dash and throwing 87 mph across the infield while also showing an 88 mph fastball and a 96 mph exit velo off the bat.

After that performance, he returned to the field with the Tigers 16u Polk and proceeded to pick up all-tournament recognition at the PG WWBA 16u National Championship, the PG 16u National Elite Championship and the PG 16u South World Series. He was also all-tournament at the PG WWBA World Championship playing up with the Dallas Tigers 2021 Hernandez.



In 21 games played in 2020, Jones slashed .490/.552/.306 (1.348 OPS) with 10 extra-base hits sprinkled among his 24 total hits; he scored 20 runs, drove in 20 more and stole nine bases. He has hit .387 (48-for-124) in 53 games throughout his PG career with 28 doubles, five home runs, 45 runs, 47 RBI and 16 stolen bases.

“Jayson has never feared competition,” Kim said of her son. “He’s never gone into anything thinking he’s the underdog. He goes in thinking ‘I should be here’ and he has a silent confidence that we’re also very proud of because it makes him a really great leader...All those qualities make you absolutely want to root for him and cheer him on.”

Added Jayson: “I feel like whenever I get into the most high-impact situations – the more stressful the game gets – I feel like that’s the most fun that it is. That’s what I love about it.”

Jones garnered interest from a number of schools from the Power 5 conferences including Texas A&M and Texas Tech and other Lone Star State universities; Kim, for one, thought for sure he would stay in-state. Arkansas seemed like a bit of reach until the family made their visit to Fayetteville.

“I will say that the whole trip there I was a little bit in awe; it’s the most beautiful drive,” Kim said. “I kept saying, ‘I’m just not going to like it; I’m not going to like Arkansas’ but after being on campus for 15 minutes I went, 'Oh my gosh. This is not only one of the most beautiful campuses but this is a baseball school'...and I just fell in love with the campus.”

Jayson had the same reaction. The Razorbacks program had everything the young prospect was looking for and he felt an immediate kinship with head coach Dave Van Horn and assistant/recruiting coordinator Nate Thompson. But there was even more to it than that.

“I love the fans, too. There were 12,000 fans at a scrimmage and I’m like, gosh, I want the best college life for me,” Jayson said. “And I want to go to Omaha, too, and I just feel like it had everything for me.”

Academics is also a high priority in this family and is something Jayson takes very seriously (i.e. his 4.0 GPA). His mom said he has always thrived in the classroom because his competitive nature forces him to want to be the best no matter what arena he’s performing in. His study skills are excellent and he is able to apply those same skills toward becoming a better ballplayer.

“He’s very mature for his age so he took that on very early,” Kim said. “He’s realized that the classroom is where it starts and the field is where it ends each day.”

And each day, it’s been said, also brings a new beginning. While watching Jayson grow into a remarkable three-sport athlete through his middle-school years and thinking initially that football would ultimately open the most doors, Tim and Kim Jones came to realize that wouldn’t be the case after all. His true passion was incubating on a different field of dreams.

“It comes from something in him; it’s all Jayson,” Kim said. “I’d love to take some credit for it but I think we set the foundation and the structure and he built the house...He’s burst upon the scene a little but we always knew it was there; we just knew the right people needed to see him.

“We attribute that to the Dallas Tigers and Chad Polk and Tommy Hernandez putting Jayson in the right spotlight at the right time so that he could be seen and show his skillset.”

That skillset is still in its developmental stages and that fact isn’t lost on Jones. Knowing that much more lies ahead and that there really isn’t any reason to rush things along, Jones is content to take what he called “baby steps” but just working to get better on a daily basis.

“I have a long way to go with my entire game, a long way to go; I’m nowhere near where I want to be,” he said. “Try to take it step-by-step and get better every single day, that’s a big philosophy that I have.”

It’s a philosophy that has been nurtured throughout his upbringing. Jayson told PG that he wouldn’t be the athlete or the person that he is today without the parameters set down by his parents. They were his teachers and his coaches and while nothing is ever perfect, they managed to push him down the right path whenever there was a fork in the road.

“I have a great family; they will always have my back,” Jayson said. “Like I said, I wouldn’t be the player, I wouldn’t be person I am today if it wasn’t for God and my family. My brother is helping me out every single day, too; he’s helping me be a better person, a better man just the same as my parents. They’ve always held me to a higher standard and it’s definitely helped me.”

Jones has two more seasons of high school baseball in front of him before he can think about heading to Fayetteville, Ark., or possibly even going a different route if the 2022 MLB Draft beckons. Memories and friendships have already been made and there will be many more to come. It’s kind of the way this deal works, or at least the way it works for young student-athletes like Jayson Jones.

“It’s been a blast; it’s been so fun for me and so fulfilling and so much of a bond with my boys,” Tim Jones said. “I love sports and the game of baseball and it’s given so much to me that I’m going to miss it when he’s moved on. But I’ll be able to enjoy it from the dad and the fan perspective and just enjoying the fruits of what we’ve put in.”

 
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