(Photo: Marlee Smith/WCSN)
Zeke Jones is hoping to win his fourth PAC-12 title in his first seven seasons as the head coach of the Arizona State wrestling team as the Sun Devils head to Corvallis, Oregon for the PAC-12 Championships on Sunday. Since joining the team back in 2015, Jones’ squad has only suffered two losing seasons.
Jones rebuilt a struggling program back to elite status within his first two seasons. Upon his arrival, Arizona State had just finished a disappointing 4-5 season. Now the team is looking to repeat as PAC-12 champions.
According to junior 197-pounder Kordell Norfleet, the Sun Devils are “the premier team in the PAC-12.” Such dominance can surely be attributed to the team’s head coach Zeke Jones.
Apart of Jones’ success stems from his ability to recruit. ASU earned the No. 1 recruiting class in the nation back in 2015, and last season they welcomed the No. 2 recruiting class.
“On the mat specifically, it’s recruit, recruit, recruit,” Jones said. “To recruit, kids have got to have trust that you’re going to help them get to their goal. A lot of high school coaches around the country, I coached them in college and now they’re coaching and have families of their own and they are sending [their athletes] our way. You know it’s relationship building,”
Jones has been such a great recruiter in part because of the mindset he has instilled in these high school athletes.
“Kids that come here don’t just want to win a national title. They want to win World and Olympic gold medals,” said Jones.
His mentality to always strive for more has certainly attracted some of the best wrestling talent in the country to Tempe, Arizona.
“Zeke puts in for us. He gets us ready for each match,” freshman heavyweight wrestler Cohlton Schutlz said.
Jones commitment to creating an environment that never settles has proven to be extremely beneficial.
Despite his concerted effort and dedication to the team, Jones was quick to accrediting his staff for his magnificent start as the Sun Devils head coach.
“Obviously we have a great staff that is helping these kids learn. We have coaches that worked at the world and Olympic level,” Jones said. His trust in the team’s assistant coaches inevitably led to a deep reliance on them to ensure an even better program.
“I call it our success. It’s impossible to win this thing by yourself. You need a lot of people helping you,” Jones said. “Maybe for our young reporters on here, man, is meet as many people as you can, build a community around what you do, build relationships with the people that you work with. I mean it’s the same thing here.”
The Sun Devils head coach will be put to the test once more on Sunday. If ASU can win another conference title this season, it surely would be a testament to Jones’ hard work and mindset who expects to end the season with two team trophies, one from PAC-12s this weekend, and then NCAAs in the ensuing weeks to follow.
“We pretended like we won the tournament last week. We had a get together with the team, and talked about what it would feel like after the championship,” Jones said.
This is the “strive for greatness” mentality that the Sun Devils head coach has carried with him throughout his tenure at ASU, which surely can explain the already impressive season.
It should also be mentioned that when a coach puts in the effort and expects nothing less than perfection, their players will reflect that. This is the case for the Arizona State wrestling squad.
“We’re on a quest for a national championship. So I think everybody is all hands on deck. Everybody is doing everything they can to be ready.” Jones said
Under the leadership of Jones ASU could be in line for another conference title. Moving forward, the squad will try to play the role as an underdog during NCAA championships and capture their first national title since 1988.
