Brentwood Names Jones as New Girls Basketball Coach

Brentwood High School recently announced that alumnus Chris Jones will be the new girls varsity basketball coach.

Jones played for Brentwood and Webster University and has most recently coached the Brentwood boys junior varsity basketball team. Previously, he was head boys basketball coach for St. Thomas Aquinas Mercy high School.

He said he knows some of the girls, and is looking forward to team camps over the summer to get to know the all of the players better. They've had one meeting so far.

"We expect to do well," he said of the upcoming season. "We're going to put in a lot of hard work, and see where it takes us. I hope to be the top one or two teams in the conference. I think that's very realistic."

He said 20-to-22 girls signed up for the JV and varsity teams. He said he's looking for a high level of commitment from the girls.

Jones said he's getting much of the team back from last year. Standout junior Sammi Merlotti, who tore an ACL playing soccer in April, had surgery to repair the injury on June 1. "Hopefully she'll be able to do rehab and be back in time for basketball. I would think," he said.

Jones graduated from BHS in 1985, and was co-captain of the basketball team with Byron McNair. He said he learned his work ethic from Brentwood coach Sam Davis.

"He was very hard on us," he said, "so that was a little rough sometimes, but we learned a lot. So being a captain, he gave us more responsibilities and he made sure that he expected more out of us. That was always carried on throughout college, and my coaching career.

"Sam Davis was always fair to all his players and that's just something he taught me," he added.

He played for Dennis Beckett at Webster, where he said his knowledge of the game really took off. Beckett runs the St. Louis Basketball Academy, where Jones coaches with him.

"It's a neat deal, you get to go out and collaborate with other coaches, and learn drills and other things that you like, and you're always picking each other's brains," Jones said. "It's basically a skill camp for coaches."

Jones explained his basketball philosophy. "You're dealt your hand of cards, those are your players. Each year it's going to change, you may have some tall ones, you may have some real fast ones, so you change accordingly.

"I like to work hard and win," Jones said.