SAN JOSE (KRON) – At Archbishop Mitty High School in San Jose, banners adorn the gym, depicting alumni who are now pro athletes: Brandi Chastain, Kerry Walsh-Jennings, and maybe one day, Haley Jones.
“I see her playing in the WNBA, I see her setting all kinds of records, not just in high school but in college, because she can do so much. There’s nothing she can’t do. We literally play her positions 1 through 5,” says coach Sue Phillips.
“I think I came in as a versatile player, but being here, being able to be coached by coach Phillips, I just improved, basically every aspect of my game and continued. I wasn’t ever tied down to play one position,” says Haley Jones.
Thanks to that versatility, Haley is the nation’s number one recruit for 2019, a distinction the high school senior has taken in stride since first learning she was in the top spot.
“One of my friends texted me and she was like, ‘oh did you see ESPN,’ and I was like ‘no, I didn’t look at ESPN this morning, like I don’t generally do that.’ And so I checked and I saw it, and then I told my parents, and I mean it’s a great honor, but I don’t think it’s anything that I walk around with or hold myself in special type of way because of that ranking,” Jones tells us.
After all, Jones is used to seeing her name at the top of the list.
She owns several Archbishop Mitty records, most recently, she passed Walsh-Jennings to become the school’s all-time scoring leader, a record that had stood for 22 years.
“She hit 1000 rebounds. She’s near the 500 assists club, and a gazillion blocks. I mean, you can go on and on about the statistics, but more important she’s a great teammate and an incredible competitor, and those things you don’t find on paper,” says Phillips.
What is on the paper are the recruiting letters Jones has been receiving since seventh grade.
After offers from Notre Dame, University of Connecticut, and others, she picked the school closest to home, Stanford.
“That education is gonna be able to take me to more places than I’ve ever been able to think of, and then the basketball, getting to play for a Hall of Fame coach, and getting to play with other top players in the nation, and getting to compete in one of the best leagues in the Pac-12 is gonna be great,” says Jones.
Jones will head to Stanford this summer after graduating from Archbishop Mitty, but like many teenagers, she has aspirations that go beyond the dorm.
“The dream would be to play in the WNBA, and then I got experience with USA basketball this past summer, being on the U-17 team that went and won gold, so being able to play in the Olympics, I think would be a huge dream of most people’s, so probably WNBA and the Olympics would be the big dreams,” Jones explains.
Dreams big enough to possibly earn Jones a banner of her own in her high school gym.