Josh Jones, who led the Salem High girls to 18 success soccer seasons, is now where the boys are. Jones has been named head coach of the Glenvar High School boys’ soccer team.
Josh replaces Sam Hartman, who resigned as Glenvar coach in August. Jones was to assist Sam during the 2020 spring boys’ season, but that was cancelled due to the pandemic.
“I helped for a few days in practice,” said Jones. “We had a scrimmage against Cave Spring, then everything stopped. I also helped at the middle school.”
Josh comes to Glenvar with a terrific resume. The Salem girls’ program had much success under Jones, winning a total of eight district championships, seven region championships and three appearances in the state championship game. Salem won the state in 2003 and was runnerup in 2016 and ’17. Salem has been in the Final Four eight times under Jones, and over 30 girls from the program moved on to play in college.
After the 2019 season he made a tough decision to leave the girls’ program so he could coach boys’ soccer, hopefully at Salem. He has two sons, Jackson and Kip, who are currently in the Salem School System in sixth and third grade. When Dean Jones resigned as Salem boys’ coach he applied for that position but the Spartans hired David Atkins, Dean’s assistant.
Josh played soccer for Jeff Highfill at William Byrd High and he always wanted a chance to coach a boys’ program, and feels the time is right and Glenvar is a great place. The Highlanders have a new turf field that has yet to host a game due to the pandemic and a strong recreation program.
“They have great facilities,” he said. “Their locker room is right by the field and they’re developing a culture here.”
While at Salem Josh was instrumental in starting the Salem Sabres travel team, which has been successful in training both girls and boys from the ground up.
“We have lots of Glenvar kids in the Salem Sabres,” said Jones. “And other clubs, too.”
Josh is in the process of filling out his staff, and he’s added two coaches from the Sabres, Logan Boyd and Luke MacBrien. He retained Andy Clapper, who was with Glenvar for the past two years.
“I’m excited,” said Jones, who is a substitute teacher at Salem and Roanoke County and also works with youth at Bethel Baptist church in Salem. “Last year they had 14 seniors who didn’t get to play, but we’ll have some talent returning and I’m excited to get started. Today(Monday) is our first day of strength conditioning and we’re looking forward to a good season.”
