I wanted to be the best I could in one sport. But me being competitive, I wanted it now. If I would have played all the time, I probably would have developed into a better offensive lineman with that extra year. “So it kind of set me back (with football). “I was all in on basketball,” Jones said. He was going to focus on basketball as a sophomore and into the future. But I knew he absolutely loved basketball, too.” “I told him he was making a mistake,” Kirschner said. At the end of the 6-5 season, Jones turned in his equipment and told Kirschner that he did not plan to play football the following year. Mike Kirschner, then the football coach at Ben Davis, brought Jones and 15-20 other freshmen up to join the varsity at the end of the 2015 season. Unlike other likely NFL Draft picks, Dawand Jones did not play football as a sophomore in high school. Dawand Jones once gave up football to focus on basketball He cares about everything he does - loves his family and his friends.” “He cares about people,” said Jarod Barnes, who graduated from Ben Davis with Jones and served as the team manager as a senior. And when he laughs, well, it’s almost impossible not to laugh, too. He asks questions with a genuine curiosity about others. He never turns down a conversation or a photo request. Four years later, the kid who left Ben Davis is now 21 years old.īut he’s the same Dawand Jones.
Jones had Division I basketball offers from Ball State, Bowling Green, Cleveland State and Kent State before the big boys in college football started making him a major priority and eventually led him to Ohio State. His footwork and hand-eye coordination for a player his size and age were elite in high school, perhaps best put on display when he caught a three-quarter court pass at the end of the third quarter in the state championship game against Carmel near the sideline, turned in one motion and made a 3-pointer to beat the buzzer. He was an immovable force in the post for the Ben Davis basketball team in high school, teaming with Jalen Windham to lead Ben Davis to the Class 4A state finals as both players earned Indiana All-Stars honors. But there is something else about Jones, too, a smile that crosses people’s face even at the mention of his name. “There’s never going to be another kid out of Indiana like Dawand,” said one of his closest friends, Cam Alford.Īlford, Jones’ former travel basketball teammate, is referencing Jones’ combination of size and athleticism when he says those words. He was 6 feet tall when he was 12 years old, well on his way to the 6-8, 375-pound frame who filled a large doorway as an offensive tackle selected by the Cleveland Browns in the fourth round of the NFL Draft on Saturday. “You keep saying this every time we come in here,” Deanna Jones remembers telling Young.Īny Dawand Jones story invariably starts with his size. Young’s finger would point to an area above and beyond the chart. Young would show Deanna Jones the chart of percentages for height and weight and compare to where her son fit. But nearly every subsequent visit, pediatrician John T. Above average, but not a necessarily large baby. An Indiana All-Star and Marion County player of the year, Jones helped lead Ben Davis to the basketball state finals as a senior.ĭawand Jones weighed 8 pounds, 1 ounce and measured 21 inches at birth.The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
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