Football player-turned-cheerleader-and-coach helps squads get tough, win big

He’s a former Georgia Tech football player-turned-cheerleader-turned-cheer coach. And Jones says the switch wasn’t the giant leap one might think.

As he explained it, both sports require the use of strength, speed, agility and teamwork, and both can be dangerous.

Football players knock down others and throw passes to receivers to score points. Competitive cheerleaders lift up team members and throw them to score points. Cheerleading, same as football, is a leading cause of sports-related injuries for young athletes. It is the leading cause for injuries among high school and college female athletes.

Cheerleaders who train with Jones said they get the best of both worlds. They learn to be tough and stay safe, even as they fly through the air 15 feet or higher.

“He’s strict and he knows what he’s talking about,” said Jeanara Bandy, a ninth-grade cheerleader at Parkview High, where Jones coaches. “He makes sure you stretch before practice. He makes sure that you’re well-conditioned and hydrated, and that we have spotters if we are trying something new. He’s why I come to this gym.”

Jones, however, never thought he’d grow up to be a professional cheerleader. He had other plans. He was a child football star in south Florida with fans cheering his name, from the Pop Warner leagues to the high school field goal. He made the varsity football team the first time he tried out at Cooper City High. He held his own against players who made it big.

“I was small, but I hit hard,” Jones said. “I was one of those kids that was able to compete at that level. I played against Emmitt Smith at my high school all-star game. I’ve played against Michael Irvin. A lot of my friends on Facebook said, ‘We thought we would see you in the pros.' ”

Jones made it as far as Georgia Tech. Yellow Jackets coach Bill Curry gave him a full scholarship. In June 1987, Jones left home at age 17 a week after graduation to train with the team.

“It was my first time out of Miami and I didn’t know anybody,” Jones said. “I felt that Georgia heat and I was like, ‘I’ve got to get out of here!’ Playing football felt like a job. I didn’t have that same love for it that I thought I was going to have.”

Jones told his parents he was leaving Georgia but not college.

He turned up as a student at the University of Florida. That's where he found cheerleading, or cheerleading found him. A friend invited him totryouts to do some girl-watching. Jones stayed long enough to get recruited for the team.

A former break-dancer, Jones was limber enough to master the precision moves in cheering. Tumbling came easy to him. The partner work took some time.

“I had tackled big guys, caught interceptions and ran for touchdowns, but nothing was more challenging to me than the partner stunting," Jones said.

His parents were supportive of his cheerleading. Friends knew better than to question his sexuality.

“Everyone knew I wasn’t gay,” Jones said. "My dad was just happy to see his son on TV. "

Following college, Jones , who is married and has a daughter, traded his cheer uniform for a business suit. He worked in sales for Coca-Cola, but felt something was missing. He began coaching part-time for a North Georgia cheer squad. He later became a partner in Cheer Elite, a Lilburn gym with 20 students that trained competitive cheerleaders. Jones found the job fun and lucrative. He was making the same amount of money coaching for a few hours at night he was working full-time at Coca-Cola. So he quit his corporate job.

In 1994, he took over the gym and renamed it Force Training Center. Within a year, enrollment had jumped to 175 kids. Jones now has gyms in Snellville and the Gainesville area, 350 students, a dozen coaches (including former football players) and seven competition teams. Members  pay $2,500 annually for coaching, choreography, classes and competition fees. Force Elite All Stars have won more than 200 championships. They have collected so many trophies Jones has started giving some away. They won two more first place trophies Sunday.

Cheer Coach coach Ryan Minerd, who played on Parkview's championship football team, helps Jones train students to do stunts safely. Minerd also cheered at Georgia College & State University when football scholarships eluded him.

“I actually got hurt more in cheerleading than I did in football,” he said. “I broke my nose during a stunt holding a girl up in the air. She did a full double twist down. Her elbow hit my nose. The adrenaline took over so I could finish.”

Jones, who also coaches the University of Georgia's competition cheer squad, requires his staff to  be certified by the American Association of Cheerleading Coaches & Administrators, which sets industry safety standards. Unlike football, competition cheerleading is a year-round sport, which increases risk of injury.

Cheerleading injuries nationwide have spiked from 5,000 in 1980 to nearly 28,000 in recent years as the difficulty of the sport increased, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission. The National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research said cheerleading accounts for 65 to 70 percent of serious injuries in either high school or college females. Between 1982 and 2008, there were at least two deaths related to the sport.

Even for those used to a little pain, the move from football to cheerleading is not widely promoted. Jones said it should be.

“There is still a stigma for a guy to cheer,” Jones said. “I always tell parents,  if your child does not have UGA knocking down the door to give him a football scholarship, give him a chance at cheerleading. There is a lot of scholarship money out there for kids that know how to cheer. Free school is free school.”