Jones represents USA in overseas football match in England

A Stanton youth who attends classes at Red Oak Jr./Sr. High School recently enjoyed the opportunity of a lifetime representing the USA in a special football match-up overseas.
Hayden Jones, who is attending Red Oak as a junior this year, was one of a core team of members who participated in All-American Football in England this past March. Jones started his schooling with Red Oak until the second grade, before moving to Stanton and attending the Stanton District until eight grade, and then coming back to Red Oak.
Jones and his mother, Brook Adams, both made the overseas trip. Adams said the journey began with Hayden’s participation in a Showcase Camp.
“They do these camps all over the country, there are hundreds of them. We attended one in Kansas City, Kan, basically right across the street from Kansas State University. Through that camp, the college coaches that are at these camps select players to be part of the All-American Football team, and Hayden was one of the players who were picked. It’s only the top 2 to 3% of the nation that are selected for the All-American team, because there are thousands of participants in all these camps across the country,” Adams said.
Jones said he felt honored to have his talents recognized, while admitting he wasn’t aware he was even being considered.  
“I had no idea it was even an option until one day mom yelled downstairs at me and told me I was under consideration for the team. There’s basically a three-step process. You go to the camp first, which is where you can get selected and from those initial selections they cut the numbers down even more and choose the people who actually go,” commented Jones. “I didn’t have any high hopes. I didn’t remember the camp as being a great showcase for me, performance-wise, in part because when we went to the showcase camp we didn’t know that this whole All-American thing was a thing. But then, all of the sudden, we received the notification that I had been selected for the team.”
The wait, Jones said, was a bit excruciating, as by the time he discovered he was eligible for the team, there was nothing more he could do to make sure he qualified.
“After we found out that I was being considered, we just a sit and wait. The coaches all get together and talk about the kids from the camps that they selected, and then they just cut it down to about 30 kids,” Jones stated. “It was August of last year when I found out that I had been selected for the Exact All American football, team. They gave me two options to play. I could go at the end of March or I could go sometime in June, so I chose to go in March.”
In addition to the excitement of playing for the All-American team, Jones got to experience overseas travel for the first time.
“This was my first time on a plane or anything. I’ve traveled out of state, but it’s always been by car. Mom went with me; she said I wasn’t crossing the pond without her,” said Jones.
Even though he was in an entirely different country, Jones said it wasn’t too much of a culture shock.
“England was just how you would expect it to be. It was always just kind of humid and kind of muggy out. It also rained a lot. The people there were really nice, but because of the accent if they spoke too fast, it was a little hard to understand them,” Jones commented. As for the food, it was bland. Also, they ate beans with every meal. Beans for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.”
Jones said that when he and the members of his team arrived in England, the training began in earnest.  
“We had six days to learn the plays and everything and watch some film. We played against the national champions over there in England, the SGS Pride from SGS College in Bristol. The first couple days, people’s flights were coming in at different times, and after we landed, we went back and almost immediately went into practice. That was kind of hard coming off of the plane, since we left New York at around 7 o’clock at night and got to England at 7:30 in the morning. By the time everybody got to the airport and then to he hotel it was lunchtime, so we ate, had a meeting, and everybody went to practice. We were a bit tired but we got through it, and we all crashed hard that night,” Jones stated.
In between the training, the team traveled to Bath, where they got free tickets to a Rugby game, and toured Bristol as well. The week of hard training, Jones said, paid off at the game.
“We ended up playing at the WISE Campus, SGS College, in Bristol, and the game itself was on Easter Sunday, April 5. The SGS Pride team colors kind of reminded me of Purdue, with the blue and the white, and their logo resembled Perdue. When all was said and done, we beat them 38 to nothing,” Jones said. “We went into the game with the mindset that we really didn’t have anything to lose. We were in the mentality that we’d go give it our all. Those kids have been together for six months, we had six days. So we knew that even if we didn’t beat them, there’s nothing that we can really be sad about. And in the end, we pulled off the victory.”
Jones reflected on what may have been the difference in the teams that helped secure the Exact All-Americans the win.
“Our practices were great. I don’t think we had the single bad practice. Everybody wanted to be there, and it was awesome. We practiced with them for two days. and then we played against them. They were big, but I just don’t think they had the grit that we had,” commented Jones.
Adams agreed, saying it was an exciting game to watch as a spectator.
“The opponents had been together for a long time, and they’re the reigning champs from over there. I remember hearing Hayden and the other boys as they were going into it saying, ‘we can do this, let’s just put it all out on the field,’ and it showed,” stated Adams.
While he was unable to remember everything, Jones said he remembered a couple highlights from play.
“I didn’t play defense too much because they had to rotate everybody in. So, I played defense for about a drive, and then I played a couple other plays. But I was on offense for every play. I got a few tackles, I had one up the middle, which was good. If I recall correctly, their defensive ends weren’t the best. They had one good defensive end, but he wasn’t too much to handle,” Jones stated.
Jones also reflected on what he most enjoyed about his experience playing football in England.
“My favorite part of the experience is how easy it was to play the game when everybody wanted to be there. Sometimes when you play, not everyone does, but over there, everybody wanted to play and to win, and we did,” commented Jones. “It’s something I’ll remember for the rest of my life.”
Adams agreed, saying it was her favorite game to watch Hayden play in so far.
“He didn’t have to have the stress of encouraging others to step up. They were all in it, they all had their mindsets, and were all after the same goal. It was such a wonderful feeling to see Hayden get to play for the love of the game,” commented Adams.
Since the experience was such a memorable one, Jones said he’d be open to a return, it it’s possible.
“As this point, now that I’ve participated once, I don’t know if you can go back and play again, or if that was it. I think that might just be it. If I got another opportunity to play for the team again, I definitely would. I made a lot of great friends, and I’m definitely missing them a lot. It was fun over there with them. We all kind of started as strangers in the airport terminal and then over the course of those six days, and we become the best of friends. We’re still keeping in touch on social media,” Jones said.
Adams said while she was in the stands, she got a taste of how small the world can be sometimes.
“We recently went up to South Dakota to see Hayden’s older sister who lives up there, and one of the friends from England also lived up there, too. We met them in England and found out that they only live half an hour from where my daughter lives. It was super exciting because we got super close with them. We were asking where each other was from, and she goes, you’ve probably never heard of it, and she said, Scotland, South Dakota. I was like, I have. I’ve seen that sign when I drive to Corsica. It was funny. Hayden went and spent some time with them when we went up to see his sister,” commented Adams.
Hayden plays for Red Oak as #77, the number his grandfather wore when he played. Jones recalled that when he was assigned the number he kept it a secret from his grandfather, and other members of the family gave no indication Jones would be wearing 77. When he finally came out wearing the number, Jones recalled it was an emotional moment for his grandfather and his family.
When he was invited to play in England, he was allowed to choose his number, and selected 77. Things were going smoothly until the day of the game, when they discovered there was a snafu.
“I had asked for, and was approved to have number 77, and then on the day of the game, we found out that someone else had been assigned 77, even though they hadn’t asked for it. They brought tape out before the game, while were in full pads and everything, and were going to tape my numbers since we couldn’t have two 77s in the game. I said I didn’t want to change my number, since my grandfather was at home watching the game online. They streamed the game for people back in the USA, and it was streamed at 6 a.m. Thankfully, the other player was really nice and willing to change,” Jones said. “During media day, I had talked to him and told him about the significance of the number and why I had it, so he didn’t mind wearing the tape.”
Now that summer has wound to a close, Jones said he’s looking forward to the upcoming season.
“I definitely feel a lot better, performance-wise, than I did last year. I just feel more ready, I know I’m a lot better than last year, so that definitely helps. I’m definitely ready. I think that it might be a fight, but I know we can win some games,” Jones said.
For Jones, there are a number of things he enjoys about the game of football.
“I’d say teammates. We hit and tackle each other at practice and then lift each other up and nobody gets mad, we’re just having a good time. I like playing and watching it,” Jones said.
While he still has a ways to go in his high school career, Jones said he’d like to continue playing football after graduation.
“I’d love to go to Michigan. Michigan would be great. Recently, Iowa’s been looking good and the recruiting would be close. I met Kirk Ferentz at the camp, and we were talking, and Logan Jones was the center. He came from Lewis Central, and he’s playing for the Chicago Bears now. He was the best center in the country this past year. He won Gatorade Player of the Year a couple years ago in college. I’d love to go to just a big school just to play Division I football,” commented Jones.