High School Football: Jones welcomes workload

Jason Jones’ football schedule has been busy. He is glad that he has a little more time on his hands since he graduated from Estancia High a week ago.

During the week, Jones has been making two commutes for two different teams and for two different reasons. The first stop is in the afternoon at Santa Ana College, where he spends a couple of hours getting ready for the start of next week’s summer football practices. Then he heads off to Laguna Hills High to practice at night with a bunch of recent high school graduates playing for the South in the 57th edition of the Brea Lions Club Orange County North-South Prep All-Star Football Game at Orange Coast College on Friday.

Jones always shows up to Santa Ana or Laguna Hills wearing an “E” across his shirt and or on his shorts. The letter drew a response at first.

“What does the E stand for?” Jones said is what teammates on both teams asked him, some believing it might be for Edison, but Edison has lightning bolts on its helmet.

Jones almost went to Edison for high school, but he corrects the players, telling them the “E” is for Estancia. Jones is the lone player from Estancia participating in this year’s OC All-Star Game.

Getting ready to play in the game is something Jones said is surreal.

“I couldn’t never really see myself being on this team, but it happened,” Jones said. “It’s an honor to be there with all the best people from the county. Not only being the only person from my school, but also being the only person from my [Orange Coast League] is just a huge honor.”

Jones has stood out so far, much of it because of the defensive end’s frame. He is 6-foot-4 and 205 pounds, on the thinner side.

The plan for Jones is to add 15 pounds in time for Santa Ana’s season in the fall. During practice with the South All-Stars, he has been going up against wider and future junior college offensive linemen like Huntington Beach’s Kristian Crabb, a 6-2, 320-pounder who is heading to Saddleback College.

“He’s a big load to handle,” Jones said. “He’ll pull on the other side of the line and my job is to stop him. The laws of physics don’t really work in my favor.”

Almost two weeks of practicing with the South has shown up on Jones’ arms. Bruises are everywhere, but he is not one to shy away from contact.

Jones is the same player who said he fractured his third metacarpal in his right hand in the second quarter against Godinez during his junior year. He stayed in the game and the visiting Eagles won, remaining perfect in league.

The injury forced Jones to miss the next two contests, the final ones of the season, a road win against Saddleback that clinched the Eagles’ third undefeated league title since 2010 and the home loss to Santiago in the first round of the CIF Southern Section Southern Division playoffs.

Three games into his senior year, in a game at Irvine, Jones went down again. This time, he hurt his right wrist and he wasn’t going to continue playing in the game.

“I tackled someone and we swung around, and then another Irvine player’s helmet hit my wrist and I rolled it back. I could have swore I broke my wrist,” Jones said. “I made the tackle. That’s the one good thing. I dropped and I was screaming. Coaches knew that something was up.”

Jones said he went to Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian right after he suffered the injury in the first quarter. When he left the hospital late that night, he went back to Estancia.

“Just seeing all the looks on my coaches’ faces, I knew [had we lost],” Jones said.

Estancia didn’t lose Jones for the season, though.

Jones said he put a brace on the wrist, taped it up, wore a glove over it, and had it wrapped up. He did all of this because he wanted another chance at playing in a playoff game.

“It [felt] like I had a baseball mitt on almost,” Jones said.

The week after he hurt his wrist, Jones returned. He started both ways, at right tackle on offense, keeping the Eagles in contention to finish third and earn the league’s final postseason berth.

Injuries caught up to Estancia in the regular-season finale that determined third place. The quarterback Jones protected, Connor Brown, dislocated his non-throwing shoulder in practice, and without Brown, the Eagles lost to Saddleback, 17-10, at Santa Ana Stadium.

The venue is where Jones’ junior college team plays its home games. Before he starts competing on that field with the Dons, Jones is looking forward to playing one last time while representing Estancia.

“It’s great for our school,” Estancia Coach Mike Bargas said of having Jones in the game. “I think it gives our program some legitimacy and some credibility that we can play with those guys.”