LB Poly WR talks recruiting

Long Beach Poly (Calif.) wide receiver Derrick Jones was one of several top SoCal players in attendance at this past weekends USC- UCLA game.

“I like USC a lot, they played a great game and have a great team,” Jones said. “It was fun seeing a lot of my former teammates doing well and I had a good time with them in the locker room after the game. They kept yelling at me saying, ‘are you ready to commit here.’ I just laughed and said, ‘not yet’ but I know people still have been saying I did commit. I would never commit anywhere without first talking things over with my parents, I know better than that.

“Things are basically the same for me. I have a trip set with Oregon (Jan. 9) and Florida State (Jan. 16). I’ve already been to Arizona State and I’m looking to visit Miami too but the last time I talked to Coach Johnson (Miami WR coach), which was about a week ago, we didn’t iron out a date yet so I’ll have to do that the next time we talk. I’m not sure if I’ll take an official visit to USC. It’s close enough to just take an unofficial but I’ll definitely visit there so my parents can come and see what the school is all about.”

We had a chance to watch Poly in action last Friday when the Jackrabbits took on Bellflower (Calif.) St. John Bosco in the 1st round of the playoffs and won convincingly 33-22 in a game that was not nearly as close as the score indicated. Jones took a nasty fall midway through the third quarter when he went up high for a pass, had his legs taken out from under him and landed awkwardly on the back of his neck.

“It’s really sore right now but I think I’ll be able to play this weekend,” Jones said. “It was a little scary for awhile and the trainers kept laying there for awhile as a precaution so it may have looked worse than it was but I’m all right. I’m just going to ice it and rest and I’ll be fine.”

Away from the football field, Jones received great news recently when his SAT scores came in and he scored a 960.

“I took the test over a month ago but didn’t hear back for awhile,” Jones said. “I found out later it was because they were challenging my score because I had scored an 800 the first time I took it. I wasn’t surprised because I studied hard for it and knew I was ready. It’s just a big relief to have out of the way because now I can just focus on my schoolwork and I know I’ll have no problems qualifying.”