Middletown North’s Ed Jones Steps Down As Girls Basketball Coach

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By Jim Hintelmann |
After over 40 years of coaching girls basketball, in which he won 459 games with three different teams, Middletown North’s Ed Jones announced his retirement from coaching recently.
Jones, a 1971 Red Bank Catholic graduate, was head girls basketball coach at Middletown North from 1985 to this year before stepping down.
“After 40 years I felt that it was time,” said Jones. “However, I’ll still teach at North for the next few years. Justin McGhee, my assistant, will succeed me and he will do a good job. He’ll have three returning starters.”
After being an assistant girls basketball coach for several schools in Indiana, Jones moved back to the Shore in 1981 and was an assistant boys basketball coach for Jerry Matthews at Rumson-Fair Haven Regional.
In 1984, however, he became head girls basketball coach at RBC where he had three successful seasons.
“My big win was in 1985 when we upset Long Branch,” Jones recalled. “They were ranked No. 1 in the state at the time. We always took pride in our defense.”
In 1985, Jones left RBC to take over as girls basketball coach at Middletown North. “A teaching job opened up at North and I was fortunate to be hired,” he said. “I had a family to take care of and the salary there was very good.
“We won a couple of ‘A’ North titles at North and I was fortunate to have some great players with good attitudes. In my first two years at North we upset Neptune when they were No. 1 at the Shore.
“One of my favorite players was this year when I coached Hailee Hallard,” said Jones “She was the all time overall basketball scoring leader (boys and girls) at North.
“This was special to me because I coached her mother when she was at North,” said Jones. “I also was an assistant football coach when her father played there. Two of my other top players were Jessie Chalmers and Maureen Marz. Both were 1,000-point scorers.”
“Even though I retired, I’ll still be watching a lot of games,” he said. “I’ve been very lucky to have some great assistants and a lot of good players.”

This article was first published in the July 13-20, 2017 print edition of The Two River Times.