08/14/2026
🏈 TRL LEGENDS SERIES: ED JONES 🏈
From the LeRoy Blue-Jays to the Southern Coffey County Titans — 300 Wins and a Legacy Spanning Generations
There are successful coaches.
There are longtime coaches.
And then there are coaches whose names become almost inseparable from the history of a program.
Ed Jones is one of those coaches.
For generations of football players in LeRoy, Gridley and eventually Southern Coffey County, Friday nights meant Ed Jones on the sideline.
His remarkable run as a head football coach began all the way back in 1969.
A September 19, 1969 edition of The Daily Republican previewed LeRoy's season opener against Quenemo and referred to Jones as the “new coach,” noting that the game would be his first.
Jones inherited a program entering only its second season of eight-man football and had just 14 players with which to work.
Think about some of the names that were there at the very beginning.
The four returning lettermen on Jones' first LeRoy team were seniors Randy Christy, Lyle Fischer, Mike Garland and Mike Yoho. Jim Ohmie was the only junior, while Dean Brownfield, Warren Graham, Eugene McCullough and Galen Yoho represented the sophomore class. Freshmen included Mike Caddell, Donald Schmidt and Floyd Rodgers.
They couldn't possibly have known it at the time, but those young men were part of Chapter One of a coaching career that would eventually reach 300 victories.
And Jones didn't need long to turn LeRoy football into something special.
By 1978, Jones had the Blue-Jays playing for a Kansas eight-man state championship.
LeRoy made it all the way to the championship game before falling to Moscow, 69-22, finishing as the 1978 state runner-up.
We also have a wonderful piece of contemporary evidence from the following spring. In April 1979, The Daily Republican featured LeRoy senior Shane Sutherland, a 6-foot, 200-pound linebacker and tight end who had decided to play football at Emporia State.
That state championship appearance would be a career-defining accomplishment for most coaches.
For Jones, it became only one chapter in a story that continued for decades.
Year after year, class after class, the names on the jerseys changed while Jones remained on the sideline.
Eventually LeRoy and Gridley came together to form Southern Coffey County, and Jones became part of the bridge between the old Blue-Jay tradition and the new Titan identity.
And remarkably, some of his greatest success came near the very end.
The 2004 Southern Coffey County Titans went 10-1. I was unable to find much information on that team.
Then came 2005.
Jones' final Titan team rolled through the regular season unbeaten and finished 9-1, with their only loss coming in the postseason.
Just as we can look back at Christy, Fischer, Garland and Yoho standing at the beginning of the Ed Jones era in 1969, another group of young men had the privilege of standing at the other end of it 36 years later.
Senior Trent Freeman quarterbacked that final Southern Coffey County team.
Senior Justin Kraft, earned unanimous All-TRL honors on the offensive line and honorable mention recognition on the defensive line. Travis Kraft was a senior All-TRL defensive back, while Dane Birk earned honorable mention recognition at kicker.
Other players remembered from that 2005 Titan team include Ryan Gleue, Beau Beyer, Nick Yoho, L.J. Sherwood and Matt Harmon, among others.
And then came a finish almost too perfect to script.
The final football victory of Ed Jones' career was career win No. 300.
Three hundred wins.
From a 14-player LeRoy squad preparing to face Quenemo in September of 1969...
to a Southern Coffey County team completing an undefeated regular season in 2005.
From the Blue-Jays...
to the Titans.
From players named Randy Christy, Lyle Fischer, Mike Garland and Mike Yoho...
to players named Trent Freeman, Justin Kraft, Travis Kraft and Dane Birk.
Different schools.
Different uniforms.
Different generations.
The same coach.
That may be the best way to understand what Ed Jones meant to this area.
Wins tell part of the story. Three hundred of them certainly tell a pretty impressive part.
A trip to the 1978 state championship game tells another.
The outstanding teams, playoff victories and decades of Friday nights matter.
But when someone coaches long enough to have former players become parents, community leaders and eventually watch another generation of young men wear the same school colors, his legacy becomes something bigger than a career record.
Ed Jones didn't simply coach football at LeRoy and Southern Coffey County.
He became part of the history of both.
Even after his football coaching days ended, Jones continued serving Southern Coffey County athletics. Years later, district records still listed him as District Athletic Director and an assistant track and field coach.
For five decades, Ed Jones helped shape students in this corner of Coffey County.
And when his final football game was over, the number beside his name was fitting:
300 CAREER WINS.
From 1969 to 2005, few people could have had a greater impact on LeRoy and Southern Coffey County football.
That is why Coach Ed Jones belongs in the...
🏆 TRL LEGENDS SERIES 🏆
If you played for Coach Jones, coached alongside him, watched one of his great LeRoy or Southern Coffey County teams, or have pictures and memories from those years, we want to hear from you.
Especially our LeRoy and Southern Coffey County followers — help us tell the rest of this story.
Tag former Blue-Jays and Titans. Share your photos. Share your favorite Coach Jones story. Tell us about the teams, players and moments you remember.
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