UDC's Jones Joins New Coaching Team at Norfolk State University

Black Issues in Higher Education, August 19, 1999

NORFOLK, Va. -- Quickly moving to fill the void left after four Norfolk State University coaches were sacked for misusing funds (see Black Issues, Aug. 5, 1999), the institution has announced that it has found replacements for three of them, according to The Washington Post.

Wil Jones, the athletic director and men's basketball coach at the University of the District of Columbia, was hired as Norfolk State's men's basketball coach. He had been at UDC for 20 years, compiling a 234-145 record. Jones led the Firebirds to the NCAA Division II national championship in 1983. Last season, his team was 14-12.

"I am on an emotional roller coaster," Jones told The Post. "I love UDC. I love the men who play for me. But this is an opportunity I have worked hard for, an opportunity to coach in Division I."

Jones, who was also a former assistant men's basketball coach at the University of Maryland before going to UDC, was given a four-year contract. Specifics of the contract were not disclosed.

The job reunites Jones with Orby Moss, Norfolk State's newly hired athletic director who held a similar position at UDC in 1979--when he also hired Jones as basketball coach.

"I hired Wil because we worked together and because I know of his abilities," Moss says. "He has been a winner every place he has gone."

Jones will be taking over a team that was 15-12 last season and returns all five starters. The 59-year-old coach will fill the position vacated in June by acting coach Melvin Coleman. Coleman and three other coaches resigned June 29 after an internal audit disclosed irregularities in the athletic department's travel accounts.

Norfolk State officials also named two other coaches -- head track and field coach Floyd Conley, and men's cross-country coach Kenneth Giles.