St. Aug in “very capable hands” with Nathaniel Jones as football coach

With dozens of supporters on hand Thursday morning for the formal introduction of Nathaniel Jones as the new head football coach at St. Augustine, school president and CEO Dr. Kenneth St. Charles stepped to the podium and cut right to the chase.

“At St. Augustine,” he said, “football is king.”

The reins of a tradition-rich program are “in very capable hands” with Jones, a former head coach at Edna Karr who was an assistant at St. Aug the last two years.

“Coach Jones possessed all the qualities necessary to move forward with our program,” principal Sean Goodwin said. “We know we’ve selected the right person.”

Jones’ goals are as much about developing football players as they are about developing people.

“My vision … is we want to build a first-class program,” he said. “We don’t want to just send out football players, we want to send out men of character.”

But, he added, “We want to win state championships – make no mistake about it, we’re here to win.”

Dr. St. Charles reiterated Jones’ dual-purposed vision following the podium speeches.

“Coach Jones hit the nail on the head,” he said. “We want to graduate academically qualified young men who can be leaders in the community, but we also want to win.

“The football program here has a tradition of winning. We look forward to a lot of great days in the future with Coach Jones and know that we run the type of program that really instills not only pride, competition and being a good citizen, but being winners, both in the classroom and on the playing field.”

With a head coach in place, Dr. St. Charles knows he needs to provide the Purple Knight program – and every other area of campus – the resources necessary to be successful.

“A lot of it starts with having the student-athletes here to want to be here and can afford to be here,” he said. “We know we have a challenge … but we believe this is the best place for them. (Jones) needs the support of the entire community to be successful.”

As St. Aug  looks to grow its student body in the future, it figures to get a boost with the construction of Good Shepherd School only four blocks down A.P. Tureaud Avenue.

For now, having a football coach in place is a solid start toward the 2018-19 school year at the place where “football is king.”