Bill Jones has been in this gym before.
Where he now paces up and down the sideline, sweating and screaming and gripping his towel to prevent emotions from drawing technical fouls, he once sat — first to watch, then to play.
He used to scurry into the North Harford High School gym as a teenager in the early 1980s. As an eighth grader set to attend the school the following year, he hardly missed a varsity boys basketball game. The bleachers quickly filled around him. Even standing room only sections reached capacity before the junior varsity game ended.
If you weren’t in by then, you wouldn’t have a seat to watch the captivating varsity squad.
Said Jones: “I’m trying to bring that back.”
Jones, a 1987 North Harford graduate, has strong local roots. But while his coaching journey took him throughout the region, North Harford’s once proud boys basketball program deteriorated.
He’s back at his alma mater as the program’s head coach, looking to restore the program to the heights that ignited a love affair. With a unique style of play and unabashed passion for his school, he has a plan for refilling the gym he now calls his own.
“I bleed green and gold,” Jones said. “This is where I’m supposed to be. This is where I want to finish my career.”
Jones was primarily a baseball player in high school and only started playing basketball as a senior. It short time, he said he “fell in love” with coaching the sport he’d only recently picked up but had long watched.
Coaching took Jones first to North Harford’s junior varsity head position, then Harford Tech’s varsity coach for 13 seasons and Aberdeen for six with a brief stint at a small Pennsylvania high school in between. He was hired this offseason as a varsity assistant at North Harford, but took over the lead role when Nick Panos stepped down one month before the 2024 campaign began.
The Hawks won just 10 games total from 2021 to 2023. Jones has turned every program he’s led into a perennial contender, most recently taking Aberdeen to a state semifinal two years ago.
“He’s definitely brought a winning mentality to our program,” senior captain Zach Alexander said.
“They’ve struggled for a while,” Jones said, not as a slight to previous North Harford coaching staffs but recognizing its athletes haven’t always been drawn to basketball. “I want the whole community to get back involved with North Harford boys basketball. Hopefully we can change the minds of the players that, maybe in the past, didn’t want to play because they didn’t have success.
“I was told the middle school team two years ago had four or five kids go to private schools to play basketball. That’s unacceptable. I’ve got to work to keep them home.”
To do that, Jones is leaning on the only way he knows how to play.
It’s a fast-paced style that relies on its players’ athleticism to make up for gaps in skill. The Hawks have a target score to reach — between 70 and 80 points per game — and utilize unique presses on defense and a speedy full-court offense to achieve that. It’s both aggressive and relaxing, Alexander said, a juxtaposition to most but sensical to Jones’ players.
North Harford is 2-3 on the season, including a win over Bel Air, a 42-point victory against Baltimore County’s Patapsco and two losses by single digits. Jones’ team is averaging nearly 62 points per contest, just below the mark the coach aims for but much improved from their 44-points-per-game mark last season.
They’re one victory away from matching their win total from all of last season through just five games.
“We’re trying to run as much as we can,” Jones said. “I was told over the years that you can’t play that way at North Harford. I don’t believe it. I know there’s athletes. I know they can run. From the very first minute of tryouts, I said ‘I only know how to coach one way.’ Now we joke that we’re the ‘Running Hawks.’ They’re loving it. I think I’m changing their attitude. They’re starting to believe.”
Still, the heart of the turnaround Jones hopes to inspire is built on his undeniable love for the school. That feeling presents itself in unique ways. It can be best seen while the coach paces up and down his team’s bench during games.
His handy towel that’s always nearby has an assortment of uses. It dampens perspiration that builds over a 40 minute game and gets clenched to relieve stress that comes from unnecessary fouls or lapses in play. His booming voice fills the gym when games reach their apex.
“Part of that is so the kids, for once, know there’s someone that cares about them,” Jones said. “Hopefully that passion I have is transferring to them.”
Jones’ energy is palpable. His attitude is visible. Together, he hopes they revive North Harford.
Have a news tip? Contact Taylor Lyons at tlyons@baltsun.com, 410-332-6200 and x.com/TaylorJLyons.
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