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Jones enjoying 31st year as head coachBy Jimiio Colijns Staff WriterLynn Camp girls basketball coach Richard Jones has been coaching since 1977.The man who many people know as “Bird Dog has said that coaching is what he was born to do.“This is my 31st year in coaching,” Jones said. “I started coachingwhen I was 18. I startedcoaching with Coach David Mitchell. His first year out of college was my first year out of high school. I coached withhim for 19 years and learned a lot from him. He is a wise man. and I have learned a lot from him over the vears.”Jones gives praise to those around him now and to those who have helped him throughout his coaching career. He said he learned from coaches in the past and that the people who sur round him now help him continue to grow as a head coach.“1 also had the opportunity to be coach Harris’ assistant basketball coach before I took over,” Jones said. I coached the baseball team for seven years. I coached the softball team for sixyears. I coach track and cross-country.“Right now, I am the assistant in track andthe head cross-country coach,” he added. “Sometimes 1 think I am attention deficit because I have always got to bedoing something.”Coach Jones spends most of the year coaching in some form or fashion for his beloved alma mater (Lynn Camp). He doesn’t regret one single moment he has spent strolling the sidelines for the Wildcats and Lady Wildcats.“I really enjoy everything I do,” Jones said, “Sometimes people will say ‘you are a basketball coach.’ I don't consider myself a basketball coach or a football coach. I just consider myself a coach.”Jones’ family moved from Corbin to Detroit, Mich, when he was only 2 years old, but 10 years later they moved back to eastern Kentucky. When the family got back to Corbin, Jones soon became a student at Lynn Camp.“I was born here in Corbin, but we moved awav to Detroit when I4/was two and moved back down here when I was 12,” Jones said. “I have been here at Lynn Camp ever since. I graduated from Lynn Camp in 1977.”Jones said coaching at the school he graduated from brings about some unique experiences.“That is another experience I get to have as well - like Taylor Herren, her dad Jimmy Herren and I were captains on the football team my senior year, Jones said.“It is a thrill to be able to coach these kids that I went to school with their parents or who are family of mine. My daughter, I get to coach Kayla (Mason). There are justPHOTO BY DARRIN SPENCERLynn Camp Lady Wildcats head coach Richard Jones will try to lead his team to a 51st District title today.so many benefits from what I get to do. Some people act like it’s not worth it, but I love every minute of it.”A lot of people know the long time coach as Bird Dog”; a nickname he says he has had formore than 30 years. Not everyone knows where the name came from, however. Now the secretis revealed.“The nickname Bird Dog came from Clyde Dixon,” Jones said. “It is kind of a long story so Iwill shorten it up a little bit. When I first had moved back down here from Detroit his (Clyde Dixon) brother Randy and him threw a rock at-a friend of mine and it hit me in the head.“I chased them home,”he added. “I was pointing at Randy and he said I pointed like a bird dog and played basketball like a bird dog. The nickname stuck to me. That is wasin 1972 qr 1973.”
Newspaper Details
Corbin Times Tribune
Corbin, Kentucky, US
Thu, Feb 28, 2008
Page 8
Full Page
Clipped by
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AR, USA 26 Dec 2018
Other Publications Near Corbin, Kentucky
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