When Benedictine head basketball coach Frank Williams saw Caleb Jones play as an 8-year-old, he knew right away that this young man had a bright future on the court. Only thing is, at the time Williams had no idea Caleb would be playing for him.
Caleb’s older sister, Kayla, played for Savannah Christian Preparatory School, and Williams happened to attending a game when, during halftime, Caleb jumped onto the court.
“Before I began coaching, I would watch a lot of basketball around the Savannah area, and I went to a game Kayla was playing in,” Williams explained. “[Caleb] must have only been 7 or 8 years old, but there was something about him.”
A few years later, a friend of Williams who was a local coach asked him to help scout some younger kids.
“I wasn’t coaching at the time, but I would go to games with my coaching friends and help them scout the younger players, and just keep up with their development,” he said.
And there was Caleb, this time as a middle school-age player. Williams’ reaction was the same as watching him years earlier, and now he could see the evolution of the youngster’s basketball skills.
“The thing I noticed was how his mind worked – the mental part of his game,” Williams remembered. “He could manipulate and control the game, and he was just able to engineer wins with both his mental and physical approach to the game.”
Pretty heady stuff for a middle school player. But Wiliams was right about Caleb, and now he gets to see those gifts night in and night out with Jones an integral part of the Benedictine basketball program.
Caleb Jones is his third season at Benedictine, having arrived at the Savannah school as a freshman. Jones played football and basketball that first year at Benedictine, and while he eventually decided to stick to just basketball, his short time on the gridiron made an impression on Cadets football coach Danny Britt. If you listen to Britt describe Jones’ talents and skills, it’s much more than just how fast he could run or how well he could tackle – in fact, Britt’s comments are similar to how Williams describes his star player.
“Caleb is a very fluid athlete with a tremendous understanding of angles and movement,” Britt said. “He is also a fine young man who is a joy to coach.”
“Caleb isn’t jumping out of the gym, and he isn’t the best shooter on the court, but it’s his ability to score that sets him apart, and he does that by knowing the strengths and weaknesses of those opponents guarding him,” Williams said, adding that teams are still trying to figure out the best way to try to stop the talented guard. “Our opponents keep throwing different defensive looks at Caleb every night to try to stop him, but Caleb is so smart, he just finds a way around it.”
Caleb was an All-Region selection as a freshman, and he was selected as both All-Region and All-State as a sophomore last year. Heading into the 2023-24 basketball season for Benedictine, Jones was preseason All-State pick, and he has not disappointed. Through the Cadets’ first 11 games, Jones is averaging just over 26 points per contest. His career average is right at 20 points per game. Williams says he has continued to improve each season, and he doesn’t expect anything different with Caleb’s game the rest of this year and into next season and beyond.
“We are continuing to build Caleb’s game at both ends of the court, because we want to prepare him for the player we expect him to be in college,” Williams said.
Right now, Williams said Caleb is best at the two [shooting)] guard, but the plan is to move him to point guard next season, where the coach expects him to play in college.
“Caleb can score like crazy, but with his basketball smarts and abilities to see the floor, he needs to learn to also guard his position,” Williams explained. “And he has all the tools to do that.”
