by Steve Bradley
Ron Jones, who coached football at Hoosick Falls Central School for 23 years, was inducted as a member of the Class of 2021 Capital Region Hall of Fame Saturday evening.
Jones coached his teams to six straight sectional titles in the 2009-2014 span, state semi-finals and state championship games. At one time, Jones had more wins on Stillwater’s turf field, where sectional football games were regularly played, than home team Stillwater did. His 2012 team won the New York State Class C title. In his 23 seasons at HFCS he won 155 games.
Jones died of a heart attack in April of 2020 at 51 years old. He left a wife, Ikuko, and a daughter, Kai. An annual golf tournament is played in his memory with the proceeds given as scholarships at HFCS.
Another inductee of interest was Josh Keyes. Chatham player Keyes was involved in many of the rivalry sectional games between Hoosick Falls and Chatham during Hoosick Falls’ sectional winning streak. He was New York State Class C Player of the Year as a senior and Co-Player of the Year as a junior. He went on to play at Boston College where he earned All-ACC honors, then was drafted by the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He played with eight different NFL teams during his NFL career.
