Reply To: Junior / CIS / NCAA / ACHA/ ACAC

[hockeygod]

Popeye and son: Former NBA forward's offspring, teenager Seth Jones, shows his strength is in hockey
U.S. U-18 captain-defenseman prepares to play for WHL Portland Winterhawks

Kerry Eggers, The Portland Tribune, May 20 2012

Despite what you might guess, Popeye Jones can ice skate. A little.

“I have a custom-made pair of size-15 skates,” the father of the newest Portland Winterhawks defenseman, Seth Jones, says. “It’s a long way for me to fall, though, and the ice is hard.

“I could never learn to stop, so I can’t go that fast. It gives you a whole new perspective and appreciation for the game of hockey.”

Popeye Jones is a lug of a man who is 6-8 and was listed at 265 pounds at the end of his 11-year run as an NBA power forward. The middle of his three sons is good-sized for a young hockey player, 6-4 and about 200 as he nears his 18th birthday this October.

Seth Jones — whose Western Hockey League rights were acquired by Portland from Everett this season — is one of the top junior prospects in the country. The captain of the under-18 team with the National Hockey Development Program, he would have been one of the top 10 picks in this year’s NHL draft, though he was too young to be eligible.

Jones is good enough that he could go No. 1 in the 2013 draft.

For at least a season, though, he’ll be patrolling the back end for the Winterhawks, who want to kick down the door after knocking at it while reaching the WHL finals the past two years.

Papa Jones has become very knowledgeable about the sport all three of his sons have chosen to play.

“I remember laying in the bedroom with the kids and watching Brett Hull (of the Dallas Stars) score a controversial goal to beat Buffalo in the 1999 Stanley Cup finals,” says Jones, now an assistant coach for the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets.

When Popeye was playing for the Dallas Mavericks, Stars center Mike Modano invited the Jones gang to a game.

“We didn’t know what we were watching,” the senior Jones says, “but had a really good time going to the game as our family. The Stars became our team.”

In 1996, Jones was traded to Toronto, “and you know how hockey is up there,” he says. “If you’re going to watch sports in Toronto, you watch (The Sports Network) and Hockey Night in Canada.”

By the time Jones was dealt to Denver in 1999, the oldest son — Justin, now 21 — had decided he wanted to play hockey.

“Seth tagged along when we went to the hockey shop for gear,” Popeye says. “He wanted hockey skates and roller blades.”

About that time, Jones ran into Colorado Avalanche standout Joe Sakic.

“I said, ‘Joe, my kids want to play hockey; what do I need to do?’ " Jones says. “He said, ‘They’re going to be huge. Just make sure they know how to skate.’ "

At 5, Seth took lessons from a female figuring skating coach for a year before entering into a youth hockey program. He continued working with her for years.

“He enjoyed skating as much as playing hockey, at least at first,” Jones says. “She taught him strides and edges and how to skate backward and to do forward and backward crossovers. She would always comment on how quickly he picked things up.”

Few blacks play or have much interest in hockey.

“That worried me a little bit when the kids were young,” says Jones, 41. “But we know the reason why is because of the cost of the sport. It’s very expensive, which makes it tough for a lot of African-Americans to be able to afford to play.”

As an NBA player, Jones was a rebounder — he twice averaged more than 10 boards a game for the Mavericks — and a defender. It may have rubbed off on Seth, who always preferred playing defense in hockey.

“I always said, ‘Defense wins championships,’ " the elder Jones says. “Seth wasn’t a great puckhandler as a little boy. He was always nimble and light on his feet, though. He’d lose the puck off his stick, and skate a few more strides before realizing he didn’t have it.

“He just liked defense. The forwards would get in the scrum and fight over the puck. He never wanted to do that. He wanted to stay back.”

At 15, Seth left the family and moved to Ann Arbor, Mich., to become part of the National Hockey Development Program, providing a wealth of national and international experience.

Though he was the youngest player, Jones was captain of the U.S. under-18 team that won gold at the 2012 world championships. He was nearly a year younger than the next youngest player invited to try out for the U.S. national junior team for players 20 and under. Jones made the team, but suffered a shoulder injury in an exhibition game against Russia and had to return home.

“The national program was wonderful for Seth,” Popeye says. “He needed to get stronger, develop his body, develop personally being away from home, fit into a group setting and train with kids who have the same goal as you at a young age.

“USA Hockey does a great job with the kids teaching them what it takes to be an elite athlete and an elite student and person. The whole experience for him was great — even the 14- to-16-hour bus rides.”

Jones has a few more long bus trips on the horizon next season with the Hawks, who sold him on a weekend recruiting visit to Portland with mother, Amy, during the playoff series with Tri-City last month.

“She had a lot of questions about billets and wanted to meet our academic advisor,” says the Hawks’ general manager and coach, Mike Johnston. “Seth had questions about hockey and our team.”

Seth had some familiarity with the Hawks, who had listed his roommate with the U.S. U-18 team — forward Quentin Shore — a year ago. Defenseman William Wrenn, Portland’s captain this season, is a former member of the national development program.

“Seth knew a little bit about how we play,” Johnston says. “We play a puck-moving, up-tempo style that is suited toward his game.”

Jones could have chosen to accept a scholarship to play for nearly any college hockey power in the country.

“It’s fine that he didn’t go the college route,” his father says. “I was happy he didn’t choose a college early, then back out. I’m glad he waited to choose between college and the Western Hockey League.”

Jones, Johnston says, “is going to fill out. He can play at 210 or 215 next season. He’s a big guy but he doesn’t look heavy. He skates really well for a defenseman. He can jump up ice with the puck and lead the rush. He handles and moves the puck very well.”

There’s no telling how good Jones will be next season, or further in the future. His father isn’t about to predict.

“We don’t look at that,” Popeye says. “The one thing you can control is how hard you work. You put in the time, you make sure you’re prepared for games and everything else falls into place. The stars align when you do those things.”

When Jones was coaching with the Mavericks after his playing days ended, he would take Seth to practice and point out the work habits of such players as Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Terry.

“Seth watched them take extra work before and after practice and shootaround, how they prepared, how they locked in to try to learn the opponents’ plays and tendencies,” Popeye says. “It helped him grow as a hockey player.”

Justin Jones is a forward who will play hockey at Division-III Wisconsin-River Falls next season. Seth’s younger brother, Caleb, who turns 15 on June 6, is a 5-11, 175-pound defenseman who was chosen in the third round (with Portland’s second pick) by the Hawks in the recent bantam draft.

“Doctors have projected him to be 6-5 or 6-6 and about 235,” Popeye says. “He is going to be a big kid. Seth will play the body when he has to, but that’s not his total game. Caleb, that’s his thing. He wants to knock you on your butt.”

The younger Jones was coached by one of the Hawks’ scouts on his Texas youth team.

“Caleb is a more physical player than Seth, with good upside,” Johnston says. “We’re excited to have both of them in our system.”

So is their father.

“Everything I’ve heard about the Winterhawks is that they are a class organization all the way,” Jones says. “It reminds me what we’re trying to do with the Nets, except the Winterhawks are ahead of us because of their success in the playoffs.

“I’ve talked to (associate coach Travis) Green and I’m looking forward to meeting Mike Johnston. I plan to come up for training camp to spend three or four days up there. I'm hoping to have Caleb take part, too.”

Caleb’s father, the youngest of five children, was christened Ronald at birth.

“But my parents asked (his siblings), ‘What should we call your new baby brother?’ " he says.

The kids were watching a Popeye cartoon at the time. “Ronald” became “Popeye,” and it stuck.

Seth Jones doesn’t have a nickname yet.

George Gervin’s “Iceman” might be appropriate.

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."