If, two years ago, someone had asked Anthony Jones if he would have expected to be wrestling in the Class 2A state meet, his likely response would have been bewilderment. If that same question had been posed last fall, he would have said absolutely.
That's how far the Minneapolis Henry heavyweight has come in a short period of time.
Jones, a senior, never had considered becoming a wrestler until fall of his junior year.
"It was after our last football game and someone said I should be a wrestler," Jones said. "I never thought about it before."
Growing up on Minneapolis' North Side, Jones has battled many of the problems that plague inner-city youth. It's been because of sports, both football and wrestling, that he's found a safe haven from those problems.
"The first time I wrestled in a meet, I hated it. I lost all five matches and I wanted to quit," Jones said. "But my coach told me I had potential and should stick with it."
His coach, Mark Simmonds, grew up in northeast Minneapolis and wrestled for Edison before going on to become a two-time All-America wrestler at Augsburg and an alternate for Team USA in the Beijing Olympics. He is accustomed to the difficulties of the city and saw possibilities in Jones. Simmonds is Jones' practice partner and helped turn him into a force to be reckoned with.
"He wants to learn," Simmonds said. "He's one of those kids that will do whatever you tell him to do and he'd keep doing it until he hurts himself. I told him he could get this far."
