Z-Jones

Zeke Jones

-- How Zeke Jones has rebuilt the culture for ASU Wrestling
-- ASU Wrestling Coach Zeke Jones Reflects on the Loss of a Promising Season
-- ASU Wrestling: How a Leap of Faith Launched the Sun Devils to New Heights
-- ASU's 50 Best Professional Athletes No. 46: Olympic Wrestler Zeke Jones
 
“I said to Ray, either we're going to have a wrestling team that's going to compete for national championships, or we're not going to have a wrestling team.  So you need to find the best person in the world to be our coach. Zeke Jones is our coach:  A multi-time world champion; NCAA champion; ASU graduate - and at the time that Ray hired him - sitting coach for the United States Olympic Team. That is the person, the personage, the kind of character that we are looking for.”
-- Dr. Michael Crow, ASU President | April 10, 2015, at the press conference to announce Bobby Hurley as head coach of Sun Devil Men’s Basketball
 
Three-time Pac-12 Coach of the Year and 1988 Sun Devil national champion Zeke Jones was hired to lead his alma mater in April 2014 and immediately turned the program into a national powerhouse while continuing the Sun Devils’ tradition of success in the conference. Jones is directly responsible for bringing six Pac-12 Championships to Tempe since his arrival - bringing ASU's total conference title count to 24. He developed a two-time national champion in Zahid Valencia, a 2024 national champion in 125-pounder Richard Figueroa, a 125 national runner-up (2021) and four-time All-Americans in Jacori Teemer, Kyle Parco, Cohlton Schultz and Brandon Courtney. In 2022, he also led heavyweight Cohlton Schultz to national runner-up honors. ASU has celebrated 33 All-Americans since Jones’ hiring, with at least four wrestlers earning All-America honors each year since 2020. He's guided the Sun Devils to a top-seven finish in each of the last four seasons. The 2022 marked the second consecutive season ASU finished fourth at the NCAA Championships - that's the first time the Sun Devils have earned back-to-back team trophies since the 1989 and 1990 seasons when ASU earned back-to-back silver medals. Jones is directly responsible for 40 individual Pac-12 titles, five NCAA top-10 finishes, four Pac-12 Most Outstanding Wrestlers, seven Pac-12 Wrestlers of the Year and three Pac-12 Freshmen/Newcomers of the year.



 

 
Jones took the helm with a resume that features accomplishments at the collegiate and international level. The Ann Arbor, Michigan, native was a three-time All-American, three-time Pac-10 champion, and national runner-up at 118 lbs with the Sun Devils from 1987-1990 before going on to earn the 1991 52kg World Champion title. He followed his world title with a silver medal-finish (52kg freestyle) while representing the U.S at Barcelona 1992. He finished his professional career with four World-Cup titles before shifting over to coaching, guiding U.S. Olympians at the 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2012 Games. His accomplishments earned him an induction into the Arizona State Athletics Hall of Fame in 2004.
 
The 2020-21 season was one for the record books, despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. No. 6 ASU earned five titles at the conference championships to post 138 total points en route to earning its 20th title in the Pac-10/12 era. Brandon Courtney (125), Jacori Teemer (157), Anthony Valencia (165), Kordell Norfleet (197) and Cohlton Schultz (HWT) brought home gold, and nine total trophies were earned in Corvallis, Oregon. Jones’ athletes went on to collect five All-America nods at the NCAA Championships, with No. 3 Courtney taking silver in 125. The year was capped off with Cohlton Schultz earning a spot on Team USA with his second-place finish at the Olympic Trials, Anthony Valencia earning CoSIDA Academic All-America status, and Cade Belshay earning a Pac-12 Postgraduate Scholarship.
 
Jones earned his third Pac-12 Coach of the Year honor in four years in 2020 after leading the Sun Devils to their highest conference tournament point total (141.5) since 1993 while winning the program's 19th Pac-10/12 title. He became the first ASU wrestling head coach to win the conference award three times since Thom Ortiz did so in 2003, 2005 and 2006.
 
As an Olympic head coach, Jones’ athletes earned two gold medals and one bronze at the London Games in 2012. His athletes in the 2004 Athens Games, where he was the freestyle coach, earned a gold and two silvers.
 
In the four World Championships the U.S. competed in with Jones on the coaching staff, Team USA placed seventh in 2009, third in the 2011, and fifth in 2013. He also led the U.S. to five individual World-Champion medals, with Jordan Burroughs earning two World Champion crowns.
 
The United States competed in three Freestyle World Cups during the Jones era, placing third in 2012 and 2013. With Jones at the charge, the U.S. won eight Junior World medals, five University World medals and four Cadet World medals.
 
Jones came to USA Wrestling after coaching at the University of Pennsylvania from 2005-07, where he amassed a record of 33-17-1. Following the 2006 campaign that saw an NCAA Champion, two All-Americans, two Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association (EIWA) champions, and a third-place finish at the EIWA Championships, Amateur Wrestling News named Jones the Rookie Head Coach of the Year.
 
Zeke Jones Coaching History:
Bloomsburg: 1990-92
Arizona State (Assistant): 1993-98
West Virginia: 1998-05
Penn: 2005-08
USA Wrestling: 2008-14
Arizona State (head coach): 2014-Current
 
Jones has either led or been on the staff of teams that reached the NCAA Final Four twice, placed in the national top-10 six times, and who won seven team conference championships. Since he started coaching, Jones’ wrestlers have won seven NCAA titles and 46 individual conference titles. He’s overseen 10 NCAA finalists, 38 All-Americans, 90 NCAA Qualifiers, and 11 wrestlers who competed in the NWCA All Star Meet.
 
Jones is a Distinguished Member of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame, member of the Arizona State University Hall of Fame, and Michigan Wrestling Hall of Fame. He and his wife, Renee, have four children: Jessica, David, Rebecca, and Jacob.
 

ASU NCAA Championship Finishes Under Zeke Jones
2024 - 6th
2023 - 7th
2022 - 4th
2021 - 4th
2020 - Canceled, COVID-19 pandemic
2019 - 12th
2018 - 10th
2017 - 14th
2016 - 36th
2015 - 29th





Coaching Accomplishments
  • 2017, 2018, 2020 Pac-12 Coach of the Year
  • Head Coach, United States Freestyle Wrestling Team
  • Head Coach, 2004 US Olympic Freestyle Wrestling Team
  • Head Coach, 2003 Pan-American Games Team
  • 2001 National Freestyle Coach of the Year, USA Wrestling
  • Head Coach, 2001 World Championship Team
  • Head Coach, 2000 World Cup Team
  • Assistant Coach, 2001 World Cup Team
  • Coaching Staff, 1996 and 2000 Olympic Games
  • Coach, 2000 Pan-American Championships
  • Head Coach, 2000 NCAA International All-Star Team
  • Assistant Coach, 1999 NCAA International All-Star Team
  • Head Coach, 1998 World Cup Team Champions
 
Wrestling and Leadership Accomplishments
  • Winner of FILA’s “World’s Most Technical Wrestler” – 1 of 3 Americans to win the award (also: John Smith and Chris Campbell)
  • 1991 World Champion
  • 1992 Olympic Silver Medalist
  • Four-time World Cup Champion
  • Six-time National Champion
  • Pan-American Games Gold Medalist
  • Goodwill Games Gold Medalist
  • 1995 World Bronze Medalist
  • NCAA Division I National Team Champions member, 1988
  • NCAA Division I National Team Runner-Up member, 1989, 1990
  • World Championships Team Champions member, 1993, 1995
  • Eight-time World and Olympic Team member
  • Espoir National Champion and Outstanding Wrestler
  • Espoir World Silver Medalist
  • NCAA Finalist and three-time NCAA All-American
  • Three-time Pac-10 champion
  • Midlands Champion
  • Pac-10 Tournament Grand Marshall
  • Distinguished Member, National Wrestling Hall of Fame
  • Arizona State University Hall of Fame
  • Michigan Wrestling Hall of Fame
  • Runner-up, Man of the Year, Amateur Wrestling News
  • USOC Board of Directors
  • USA Wrestling Board of Directors
  • Chairman, Athlete Advisory Council, USA Wrestling