Hobart senior Vontrell Jones isn’t ready for the ride to stop.
Jones, a 5-foot-10, 190-pound linebacker who began playing football when he was a freshman, doesn’t want his career to end anytime soon.
“I’m just getting started,” he said. “Hopefully I keep going for a long time.
“I want to play in college, but that’s not guaranteed for everybody. You never know what happens in the season. So I’m still working, nothing concrete, but hopefully I’m good enough to play out here, go play in college, get school paid for, get an education, keep doing what I love. It has to end for all of us one day. But hopefully it’s later in life.”
Jones found football relatively late.
“I played one year in Pop Warner, but I quit halfway through the season,” he said. “I couldn’t do the practices. I was lazy. But I came back out, and now it’s what I live for.”
Jones led the Brickies in tackles last season with 113, including eight for loss, an accomplishment he couldn’t have envisioned when he started high school. He also tried wrestling as a freshman, but he said it “wasn’t really for me,” and he joined the track and field team as a sprinter and jumper during his sophomore year.
“In middle school, I didn’t really play sports,” Jones said. “I started working out late in middle school. I was a little chubbier as a kid, so I started working out. Then my friends told me, ‘You have to join football. It would probably be good for you, have something to do.’ So I joined football.
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“Freshman year, it was my first year playing football, and I didn’t know what I was doing. The first practice, I tackled some kid in the end zone. I did not know what was going on in football. But as it kept going, I kept learning, kept getting better, and it became something I really loved.”
Indeed, Jones was buried on the depth chart as a freshman. But he picked things up, absorbing whatever he could, and proved to be a quick study.
Jones turned a corner as a sophomore. He played primarily on the junior varsity team but also made 24 tackles at the varsity level.
“I came back sophomore year, just expecting to coast completely through high school, probably not play that much, just be on the team, get the little benefits,” Jones said. “But something just switched in me. It just switched in me. I started making plays in practice. Coaches started hyping me up. I was behind the two starting linebackers, but I started getting in the rotation a little bit.
“I kicked it off last year starting, won our defensive player of the year last year, and this year I’m helping lead the defense. I’m a little bit more comfortable out here this year. It’s not as big of a heart rush. It’s like, ‘OK, I’ve been here before, so act like it.’ I’m just trying to get better here every year.”
Coach Eric Schreiber Jr. said Jones has developed into a key cog for the Brickies (1-0) and their Wrecking Crew defense.
“He’s our leader on the defensive side of the ball,” Schreiber said. “He’s a kid that’s really come on. We kind of found out who he was his sophomore year, but he was playing behind a couple of guys. We knew he’d be ready his junior year, and he’s just grown from last year to this year, taking on that leadership role on defense along with a handful of other guys that are really good kids, guys that have also been there and done that.
“He’s the guy that helps get the front seven set. He does a great job week to week keeping the kids engaged. He’s an incredible kid.”
Jones grabbed his first career interception during a 33-0 win over Chesterton in the opener of what’s shaping up to be a promising season for the Brickies, who are ranked No. 8 in the Class 4A state coaches poll.
“It was exciting, but we’re in the middle of a game, so I had to next-play it,” Jones said. “But hearing all the fanfare, it was nice. Seeing it on the stat sheet, it was nice. But that was last week, and we have to move on to the next week.”
Last season, the Brickies won their first sectional title since 2020 but lost 10-7 to South Bend St. Joseph in a regional game.
“Just being a junior, watching my seniors lose in that way, it was tough,” Jones said. “It just makes you want to make sure you’re taking in all these games. I only have nine more games guaranteed, right? It’s going to come to a close fast. I’m just trying to play my hardest these nine games, have as much fun as I can while I’m doing it.
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“I feel like we can do anything we put our minds to. As long as we stay focused and keep working the way we need to work, I feel like we can do anything.”