Donald Jones has been involved in wrestling in some form or another since he was in elementary school.
It started in, of all places, Fairbanks, Alaska. When his family moved back to Waynesboro a few years later, Jones returned to the mat and has been there ever since.
Most recently, Jones – a 1981 Waynesboro Area Senior High School graduate – won the US Open Masters E Division in Las Vegas. Jones, wrestling at 70 kilograms (154.3 pounds), won his first bout 8-0. He won his next match 10-0 and secured the championship with a pin in the finals of the Greco-Roman and Freestyle National Championships.
His next stop will be in the Veterans World Championship in Latrouki, Greece in October.
“Last year I went out and placed second,” Jones said. “This year there were eight guys in my bracket. The guy who beat me last year I beat in the first round 8-0.”
The event was no doubt a highlight for the 59-year-old, who lives in Cincinnati, Ohio. He moved there while he was working in the hotel and restaurant business but has since left the industry and has been on the sales force of a multi-million-dollar company that sells logo-imprinted apparel and “anything a company can put its logo on,” Jones said. “I’m enjoying it. I was kind of burned out. I was working tons of hours.”
Jones earned his bachelor’s degree in hospitality management at East Stroudsburg University. He immediately took on a job in New York City, where he worked for three years. His job also took him to Chicago, Baltimore, the Grand Caymans, Washington, D.C. and finally, Cincinnati, Ohio.
Jones made his final stop in Ohio, where he involved himself in youth wrestling and as a participant.
Jones saw a Who’s Who of people in wrestling, including Penn State University head coach Cael Sanderson, Olympic and world champion Jordan Burroughs, Penn State’s Aaron Brooks, who lives close by in Hagerstown, Maryland and is a three-time national champion, among others.
“There were 2,000 wrestlers and 33 mats,” said Jones. “Aaron won the US Senior Open. They had Greco-Roman, freestyle, the best female wrestlers, and high school and college wrestlers.”
While he’s waiting to make the trip to Greece, Jones will be keeping up with his training and competing in tournaments.
“I’ll be wrestling in open tournaments,” he said. “After last year’s US Open, I went up to the Ohio State Fair and wrestled in a 35-plus division at the end of July. I also competed in beach wrestling. It was only 20 minutes from my house.”
Jones broke into the starting lineup with the Indians as a junior. He was 18-3 in his junior season and 26-2 as a senior. He wrestled two years at Keystone Junior College and two more at East Stroudsburg University.
“I enjoy (wrestling),” said Jones, who runs Team Jones Wrestling in Cincinnati. “I enjoy the physical challenge. For me, it’s fun to do. I’m pretty good at it, and at my age I can beat most high school kids and hang with college kids. Over the years, I’ve been able to maintain my body.”
Jones moved to Cincinnati when his son and daughter were four years old. That’s when he started coaching youth wrestling. Jones wanted to sign up his son, but he was too young. He was asked if he would be interested in coaching. The rest is history. He served as an assistant coach the first year and was a head coach the next year.
“My niche is perfecting the basics, helping beginners in their first and second years in the sport,” Jones said. “Once they get experience, I send them to Prodigy Wrestling Academy. It’s been an awesome fit for me. We have 30 to 40 kids during the season.”
Jones, who represented Team Jones Wrestling at the US Open, has reaped the benefits of wrestling, especially the life-long friendships that come with it. He keeps in contact with teammates from long ago, and he plans to attend his class reunion in June.
“He’s always been involved with wrestling,” said Dave Weber, who coached Jones in high school. “He got into wrestling gear and clothing lines and made a pretty good living with it. He’s always been in wrestling. He’s in pretty good shape.”
Jones’s son, Sidney, died in 2015 from an overdose. His daughter, Ashley, lives close by him in Cincinnati.
“Ashley was 10 months younger than Sid,” Jones said. “They were like twins. It was life changing. You never want to lose a son.”
Jones keeps his son’s memory alive by including a small picture of Sidney on the Team Jones Wrestling apparel.
