Ragsdale Football

Here's a great article on Neil from the News and Record.

Neil Jones: A brick wall with a blue collar
Friday, November 27, 2009

By Tom Keller
Staff Writer

[Image accompanying article]
Nelson Kepley

Photo Caption: Ragsdale High School's Neil Jones.

JAMESTOWN -- Ragsdale defensive lineman Neil Jones talks about protecting his linebackers the way an offensive lineman talks about protecting his quarterback, a comparison he probably wouldn't like hearing because he credits the extensive rips in his practice jersey to "offensive linemen holding all the time."

Jones is Ragsdale's 12th leading tackler, but there may not be a more integral part of the Tigers' airtight defense than this lane-opening nose guard who clears the way for his teammates like a defensive fullback.

"It doesn't really matter to me if people can see what I do," Jones said. "I do what I have to do to get a win."

A 5-foot-10, 250-pounder, Jones is one of six third-year starters on the Ragsdale defense and, like many of them, he relies on brains where brawn can't take him. The Tigers, far from the most athletic team in the field, are allowing a classification-best seven points per game, and they held Dudley to its lowest scoring output of the season in an 18-8 win Aug. 28.

Jones didn't record a tackle that night, but linebackers Walt Sparks and Billy Stone combined for 15. Jones has 22 tackles for the year; Stone and Sparks combined for 20 last week alone. That's all by design.

"I make the play without making the play," Jones said. "I take all the blows so they can run around."

"Kids listen to and respect him because of how hard he works all the time," Ragsdale head coach Tommy Norwood said. "He just kind of represents what I think our football program represents -- blue collar, bring your lunchbox and hard hat and go to work every week."

The irony, of course, is that despite that earlier victory over the Panthers, Ragsdale will be the road team tonight after the NCHSAA dropped an endowment game from each team's record and Dudley won a coin flip. Norwood said he hasn't discussed it with his team all week.

"We play where we've got to play," he said. "All we do is control the things we can control. We can't control things outside of us."

If you can't be in attendance tonight, stop by Zeko's Restaurant on High Point Road around 11 o'clock and you'll know immediately how it went.

It's owned by Jones' mom and stepdad, Lovie and Koory Abdelaal, and Jones spends most of his summers working there as a waiter, cook, delivery driver -- "whatever I need to do," he said.

On most Friday nights, the eatery becomes Ragsdale's after party spillover, with as many as 50 players watching the highlight reel, devouring whatever's put in front of them and hoping their number gets pulled from a hat for a free meal. The place closes at midnight, "but we're always there until 12:30 or 1 just goofing around," Jones said.

The lone exception the last two seasons came after the third round of the 2008 playoffs, when Ragsdale's perfect season came crashing to the ground with a 26-10 loss to the eventual state champion Panthers. A handful of players showed up to the restaurant afterward but sat in silence with shrunken appetites, a feeling Jones and his teammates have been working all season to avoid.