JONES COLLEGE - Key Persons
Addie Ashton, who played collegiately at UT Arlington and Southern Miss as an outside hitter, joined the Jones volleyball staff in May 2023.
Serving as the associate head coach the past seven seasons and working primarily with pitchers, Herrington will transition to a new role in 2022 where he'll be tutoring catchers in addition to day-to-day softball duties. Herrington also serves as the Bobcats' Assistant AD for Event Management.
Under Herrington's watch, the JC pitching staff has boasted one of the nation's Top 15 earned run averages in eight straight seasons, including a 1.30 ERA and 19 shutouts during the Bobcats' 2018 national championship season.
Connolly was named the Bobcats' head coach prior to the start of the 2016 season, taking over for Oleg Baleyev after 10 seasons.
Connolly is 64-32-4 in six seasons, with 50 combined wins over the previous four years. He's guided JC to five postseason appearances. He led the team to three straight MACCC championships and the program's first-ever NJCAA Division II Tournament appearance in Wichita, Kansas, during the spring 2021 season.
Job Titles:
- Coach of the Jones
- Head Coach Men's / Women 's Tennis
Buffington is a two-time MACJC Women's Coach of the Year selection and was also named the 2018 NJCAA Region 23, Mississippi Assocation of Coaches, ITA Region III and USPTA Mssissippi Coach of the Year.
Chris Laird brings over 25 years of volleyball experience to Ellisville and Jones College.
The Tylertown native spent the past eight seasons as the head coach at Pensacola State College where he led the Pirates to 133 wins and was a five-time conference coach of the year selection.
Prior to Pensacola State, Laird was the head coach at Nicholls State from 2005-10, an assistant coach at South Alabama from 2003-05 and spent one season at Alabama-Huntsville.
Laird got his start at Southern Miss as a student assistant in 1994. He received both his bachelor's and master's degrees from USM.
Laird has started four USA juniors volleyball clubs and will be starting one in the Ellisville area for boys and girls.
Outside of coaching, Laird is currently an NCAA, NAIA and USA Volleyball indoor and beach volleyball official.
Alongside head coach Chris Robinson, the JC staff has twice been named the NFCA-NJCAA Division II Coaching Staff of the Year in 2016 and 2018.
Job Titles:
- Coach
- Girls Camp Director
Dolores Deasley enters her 15th season as head coach of the Jones College women's soccer program where she continues to take the program to new heights.
Deasley has compiled a fantastic 180-47-5 record during her tenure and has guided Jones to six MACCC/Region 23 championships. JC has been a mainstay in the national polls as well, ranked as high as second in the NJCAA.
Deasley has led Jones to back-to-back NJCAA Division II National Tournament appearances, the first two in program history.
In the 2021 fall season, she led the Bobcats to a 14-2-1 mark, No. 2 final ranking and the MACCC/Region 23 championship. It was their sixth region title in nine years. The Bobcats outscored their opponents 64-8 and had 11 shutouts.
Deasley, along with assistant coach Tori Brook and volunteer assistant Adrian Cabado, were named the United Soccer Coaches Junior College Division II Women's Soccer National Staff of the Year. She also earned NJCAA Region 23 Coach of the Year honors for the sixth time.
She guided the Bobcats to their first-ever NJCAA Division II National Tournament appearance in the 2021 spring season in Evans, Georgia, and two wins shy of a national title. Jones knocked off back-to-back Top 10 teams in Lake County and CCBC Essex to reach the national championship semifinals before falling to eventual national champion, Phoenix College.
John Dussouy (pronounced dew-SOY) was introduced as Jones College's first-ever volleyball coach on March 29, 2023.
The New Orleans native, who goes by the nickname "Deuce", comes to Ellisville after spending the 2010-22 seasons as an assistant coach/recruiter at Coastal Alabama-South in Bay Minette, Alabama.
Dussouy helped the Sun Chiefs to 11 straight winning seasons, seven 20-win seasons and four ACCC runner-up finishes. He coached 43 all-region players and helped 36 student-athletes transfer to four-year programs during that time.
In addition to his work with Coastal Alabama-South, Dussouy has been a head coach for Eastern Shore Volleyball Club for the past eight years where he has won 14 club championships and posted a .700 win percentage. He also coached for the Gulf Coast Region High Performance team, which has played other regions in the United States and teams from various countries.
Parker spent the past two seasons at Mississippi Gulf Coast to start his coaching career.
Parron joined the Bobcats after spending the 2020 season as a graduate assistant at Belhaven University where he coached goalkeepers.
Parron started both seasons at MGCCC where he was named All-MACCC, an MACCC All-Star and helped the Bulldogs reach the 2014 NJCAA Region 23 Championship game. He started six matches his junior year at IUPUI before an injury ended his season.
Kayla Hankins begins her 10th year as the Jones College cheerleading coach and second as the assistant athletic director for compliance and eligibility this fall.
The Bobcats are a competitive squad that cheers at all football games, home basketball games, pep rallies and other events in the community. They travel with teams to playoff games, tournaments and also compete in Orlando annually in the UCA College National Championships.
Hankins was a member of the nationally-ranked Bobcat cheerleading squad from 2005-07 and served as captain of the co-ed squad. She continued cheering at Southern Mississippi from 2007-09.
Nixon has help develop 19 players who have signed at the four-year level, including players to Georgetown, Louisiana and Southern Mississippi.
Prior to Jones, Nixon spent the 2016-17 season as a women's basketball assistant coach at Pearl River, one season as a volunteer assistant at Heidelberg High School and then was boys' assistant coach at Quitman High School in 2015-16.
Nixon played the 2010-11 and 2011-12 seasons at JCJC and is a 2010 graduate of Heidelberg High School, where he was a four-year starter. He earned All-District Awards, was named the team's Most Valuable Player and was one of the state's top scorers as a junior, averaging 26.5 points per game.
At JCJC, he was a two-year starter, averaging 11.5 ppg as a freshman and 14.5 ppg as a sophomore. He started in the MACJC All-Star Game after his sophomore season. He then had a successful two-year stint at William Carey University.
During two years at Carey, Nixon was a key member of back-to-back NAIA National Tournament teams. As a junior, he averaged 14.9 ppg, 3.4 rebounds per game and was a starter on a national tournament team and earned All-Southern States Athletic honors.
As a senior, Nixon averaged 13.5 ppg, 3.2 rpg, 2.3 assists per game and helped the Crusaders to the SSAC championship. He earned All-SSAC honors and was named as the conference's Sixth Man of the Year.
Nixon received a bachelor's degree in Health, Physical Education and Recreation from William Carey and also obtained his Masters of Education in Interscholastic Athletic Administration in 2019.
Luke Chapman is beginning his first season as an assistant basketball coach at Jones College.
The Memphis native played for current Bobcat head coach Newton Mealer at Center Hill High School. As a senior in 2013, Chapman was named District 1-5A Most Valuable Player and led the Mustangs to their first district championship.
Mealer hired Chapman as his assistant basketball coach and head junior varsity basketball coach in 2017 at Center Hill, where he spent four seasons. He was also the head cross country coach and assistant track coach.
Former Jones College baseball graduate assistant coach Myles Gentry has returned to his old team for a second stint with the Bobcats.
"I'm humbled and honored for the opportunity to be back as the pitching coach at Jones College," Gentry said. "I have great respect for coach (Wes) Thigpen and look forward to coaching with him again. I'm really excited about the talent we have at Jones and can't wait to get to work."
Gentry has pitched in the SEC, the Cape Cod League and on the biggest stage in Omaha at the College World Series. Those experiences have created a wealth of knowledge for him to influence student-athletes in a very positive way.
Newton Mealer, who has guided Center Hill High School in Olive Branch for the past 12 seasons, was introduced as the 17th men's basketball head coach at Jones College on May 20.
"It's been a long time coming," he said. "I played basketball at the University of Southern Mississippi and I'm excited to be coming home. I've worked my whole career to get where I am today and I think my résumé speaks for itself."
Mealer served as head coach of the Memphis Raiders AAU program from 2008-14, leading them to a national championship in 2011 and a runner-up spot in 2012.
"I would like to first start off by thanking Dr. (Jesse) Smith, athletic director Joel Cain and coach (Chris) Robinson for providing me my first collegiate coaching job," Conrad said. "I am extremely excited to work and learn from such an experienced and successful staff. I am looking forward to using my softball experiences to teach and help guide our student-athletes to be the best softball players, students and young women they can be. My goals are to equip my players with a level of confidence in their ability to compete and demand the best out of themselves in everything they do on and off the field."
Conrad began her softball career at the University of Missouri and appeared in 19 games as a freshman. She pitched in 22 games her sophomore and junior seasons at Oklahoma, helping the Sooners to back-to-back Women's College World Series appearances, before ending her career at UAB.
In 126.2 career innings in the circle, Conrad was 8-7 overall with two saves and punched out 130 batters. She had 80 strikeouts in her senior year at UAB, second-most on the team, and was named to the Conference USA Commissioner's Academic Honor Roll and C-USA Pitcher of the Week.
Prior to her collegiate journey, Conrad played high school ball at Winter Park. Beginning varsity play as a freshman, she helped guide the Wildcats to a district title and earned team MVP honors as a sophomore. A year later, she averaged 15 strikeouts per game as a junior.
"We are thrilled to have someone with Parker's experience join our coaching staff," head coach Chris Robinson said. "She will bring tremendous energy to our program. The experience she brings to our program in the circle is unmatched. She has been under the tutelage of some of the best pitching coaches in the country and I look forward to her instilling that into our pitchers."
Conrad graduated with a bachelor of science in sociology from UAB this past spring.
Job Titles:
- HR Partner at Southern Miss
Former Jones College standout Tori Dew was promoted to associate head coach in August 2021 and returns for a third season in Ellisville.
Dew works primarily with hitters and infielders, and the numbers have not disappointed in her first two seasons.
Wes Thigpen returns to Jones College after a two-year hiatus, this time as the 16th head baseball coach of the Bobcats.