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Jones Maximized Team's Talent

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By CRISTINA LEDRA

The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 28, 2008

WESLEY CHAPEL - Cynicism is generally the overwhelming feeling whenever a coach claims the team can do better in the aftermath of losing a dominant, star player.

The "addition by subtraction" concept fails often enough that it usually only is that, a concept.

But this season, Wesley Chapel girls basketball coach Warren Jones led his players and all of the Wildcats' opponents to believe it can be done.
Wesley Chapel finished with a 24-5 record and advanced to the Class 5A region final for the first time with starters that were good but not what everyone had come to expect from the Wildcats in previous years and that has earned Jones The Tampa Tribune's Pasco County Girls Team Coach of the Year.

"He deserves it," senior guard Desiree Vizcaino said. "He works for everything he has. We grew together because the first high school team that he ever coached, I was on it. He grew as a coach and I grew as a player. He taught me everything I know and this year has been the best year."

For the duration of the high school career of former Wesley Chapel standout Sthefany Thomas, who just completed her freshman year on a basketball scholarship at Clemson, Wildcats brand basketball was allowing Thomas to blow everyone away while her four teammates on the court played their roles.

This season without Pasco County's all-time leading scorer Jones instilled the team concept in its most basic, truest form. His starting five of Ashley Carey, Caitlin Deboer, Cree McIver, Jeani Ducos and Vizcaino averaged 10.4, 8.7, 8.1, 8.1 and 7.9 points per game, respectively.

"He knows how to make everybody feel great about playing," Vizcaino said. "He pays attention to everybody on the team and makes everybody feel important no matter what it is that you do."

The Wildcats rolled through the regular season losing just one game through the first 17 and after a three-game skid in early January, won every game on their schedule until losing to powerhouse Winter Haven in the region final.

And there was evidence of Jones' self-editing as a coach. He scaled back the number of holiday tournaments Wesley Chapel participated in after scheduling nine games in 16 days last season and seeing his players get run down by the postseason.

Following this season, all of Wesley Chapel's starting five signed college scholarships; DeBoer to Montreat (N.C.) College, and Carey, McIver, Ducos and Vizcaino all to Hillsborough Community College.

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