The turf field at Jones’ athletic complex in the South Loop is lined for multiple sports, but it never has been used for football games.
That will change when the Eagles launch the Public League’s newest program this month.
By CPS policy, Jones will begin play as a junior-varsity program, with its debut set for Aug. 22 at Hersey. The Eagles will play Ridgewood’s varsity in Week 2, followed by seven more JV games against Public League foes.
Until now, Jones — with an enrollment of 1,912 — was the largest Public League school without football.
That has changed because of Frank Dickerson, the school’s head of security and the first head coach of the program.
Dickerson played football at now-closed Hope in Englewood before walking on at Illinois State. He got into coaching at Hope more than 15 years ago and worked with current Payton coach Calvin Clark there, as well as at Sullivan and Payton. He also coached in the Denver area before returning to Chicago in 2020.
When he got to Jones, Dickerson asked why the Eagles didn’t have a program. He was told school officials were open to the idea but didn’t want to have a coach use the job simply to pad a résumé and move on.
‘‘I’m like, ‘Well, I’m embedded in here,’ and I had the ears of the students, staff and faculty,’’ he said.
He was asked to submit a four-year plan for the program. Two weeks later, he did that one better by producing a five-year plan, ‘‘just to let them know I was very serious about what I was doing.’’
During summer workouts, the Eagles had almost 40 players. Dickerson expects that number to rise when school starts and more freshmen join the team.
One challenge now: Fewer than 10 players have previous football experience. But Dickerson isn’t fazed.
‘‘I think another reason I got the job [is] I’m a developer,’’ he said. ‘‘Everywhere I’ve gone, it’s been an OK [or] subpar team or nonexistent, almost. I’ve gone in there, and we had great success because it’s about patience and understanding that you’re going to go through trials and tribulation. But your patience is
going to be rewarded by their play, eventually.’’
While Dickerson takes the long view, the future is now for a lot of his players. The junior class is the biggest on the roster, but there also are more than a dozen seniors who won’t be around when the Eagles move to a full varsity schedule.
That doesn’t bother senior running back/linebacker Jaylen Trice.
‘‘We’re leaving a legacy,’’ he said. ‘‘And even though it is a JV schedule, our names are going to be written down in history. This is the first year for a lot of us. So the way I look at it is, we are walking so the [next] people out there can run.’’
Shawn Slaughter, another senior running back/linebacker, expects this experience to help prepare him for life after high school.
‘‘The main reason I wanted to play football was to see what that mindset is like to try to build a tougher mentality, something I can carry throughout the rest of my life, being able to persevere and push through,’’ he said.
Senior tight end/lineman TJ Dumas wanted to play football ‘‘to give myself some structure. . . . This program has definitely helped me, making sure I can be at a certain place every time, every day, making sure I eat right.
‘‘Also, I’ve always liked football since I was young, and I was waiting for Jones to get a football team. And it finally came.’’