GREENSBORO, N.C. - UNC Greensboro alumnus Scott Jones was among 34 players selected this past week by College Soccer News to the Website's All-Decade squad.
A third-team selection, Jones was a midfielder for the Spartans the from 2003-06, three of those seasons resulting in trips to the NCAA Tournament's Round of 16. As a standout in the classroom as well, he was an Academic All-America candidate each of his last three years at UNCG. Yet, the Dallas, Texas native amazingly only earned second-team All-District honors on CoSIDA's teams despite being an All-America selection on the field.
Jones was UNCG's first-ever four-time first-team all-conference honoree. He was the Southern Conference's Freshman of the Year in 2003 and most likely could have continued on to several Player of the Year honors had it not been for his teammate Randi Patterson winning that award twice.
Jones earned All-American honors twice and was a candidate for the Hermann Trophy in his junior and senior season. Jones finished his career fifth all-time at UNCG in assists with 41. He also had 25 goals in his collegiate career to give him 91 points.
Jones was a member of UNCG's No. 1 ranked team in 2004 and a great part of a great dealo of Spartan success. His legacy, however, may be best remembered for the way he went out as a Spartan.
He scored the first goal just 10 minutes into UNCG's 3-0 win over Georgia Southern in the SoCon title match, setting the tone for the day as the Spartans repeated as SoCon Tourney champions. But that was only the beginning of his thrilling postseason.
A week later at UNCG Soccer Stadium, Jones was a late match hero. With just 34 seconds remaining in regulation time, Virginia Tech fouled a Spartan just outside the 18-yard box to give the Spartans a free kick. Jones lined the ball up quickly for UNCG and blasted a shot to the lower left corner, which caught the unprepared Hokie defense by surprise and produced the game-winner for the Spartans.
"In soccer, you organize them, train them and coach them. But in the end, it's about the players' decisions. That (goal) is just soccer smarts," said then-head coach Michael Parker on the Spartans' final goal after the contest. The goal knocked the Hokies out of the tournament.
But Jones wasn't quite done. Four nights later on a cold, rainy night in Morgantown, W. Va, he did it again. With 6:31 to play in the second overtime, Jones scored on a feed from Mike Richardson to shock sixth-seeded West Virginia, 2-1, and send the Spartans to the Round of 16 for the third consecutive year.
Jones later became the 28th overall pick in the 2007 MLS Superdraft and joined FC Dallas, where he spent the 2007 season as a member of his hometown team's reserve squad. He has spent the last two seasons with the Puerto Rico Islanders in the USL's First Division.
AGATE
College Soccer News' All-Decade team
All Decade - First Team
Marcus Tracy - Forward - Wake Forest
Alecko Eskandarian - Forward - Virginia
Jason Garey - Forward - Maryland
O'Brian White - Forward - Connecticut
Luchi Gonzalez - Forward - SMU
Danny O'Rourke - Midfielder - Indiana
Kyle Martino - Midfielder - Virginia
Corben Bone - Midfielder - Wake Forest
Chris Gbandi - Defender - Connecticut
Chris Wingert - Defender - St. John's
Andy Iro - Defender - UC Santa Barbara
Chris Sawyer - Goalkeeper - Notre Dame
All Decade - Second Team
Joseph Ngwenya - Forward - Coastal Carolina
Pat Noonan - Forward - Indiana
John Barry Nusum - Forward - Furman
Joe Lapira - Forward - Notre Dame
Sumed Ibrahim - Midfielder - Maryland
Diego Walsh - Midfielder - SMU
Mehdi Ballouchy - Midfielder - Santa Clara
C.J. Klaas - Midfielder - Washington
Julius James - Defender - Connecticut
Danny Jackson - - Defender - North Carolina
William Hesmer - Goalkeeper - Wake Forest
All Decade - Third Team
Ryan Pore - Forward - Tulsa
Charlie Davies - Forward - Boston College
Andre Akpan - Forward - Harvard
Alejandro Bedoya - Midfielder - Boston College
Ryan Mack - Midfielder - Indiana
Adolfo Gregorio - Midfielder - UCLA
Scott Jones - Midfielder - UNC Greensboro
Todd Dunivant - Defender - Stanford
Ike Opara - Defender - Wake Forest
Andrew Boyens - Defender - New Mexico
Jovan Bubonja - Goalkeeper - UIC
- UNCG -
