Jones spared for a reason

The dream should have ended before it was conceived.

The car accident was so horrendous that the driver’s mother was told, later, that paramedics were calling in a “DOA” (dead on arrival).

Without the driver, there would be no magical 2007 football season. No Heisman-finalist quarterback. No perfect regular season and accompanying invitation to the Sugar Bowl. No bipartisan partying over the feel-good story of the holiday season.

But it wasn’t June Jones’ time.

All indications are the University of Hawaii football coach fell asleep at the steering wheel, not wearing a seat belt. The crash would leave him in a coma. But he was alive. Barely.

“I didn’t have that near-death experience that everybody talks about,” Jones said. “I didn’t see or hear anything.”

A week later, he awakened from the coma. He then began the slow journey to his previous way of life.

But his body ached. His scratch-golf game, which could be competitive on the Senior Tour, had lost its easiness. And most frustrating, he developed a memory murmur. Sometimes he could not match a name to a face. Sometimes he lost a topic in mid-sentence.

“I think about the accident,” Jones said. “I always wonder why God chose to let me live, and somebody else wasn’t so lucky. I always think about that.”

Then a few years ago he overheard one of Norman Nakanishi’s sermons. Every Sunday night, Pastor Norm transforms a local community college lecture hall into Grace Bible Church.

They became friends. Then Jones asked Pastor Norm to serve as the Warriors’ chaplain.

“The crash woke him up to why he’s on Earth,” Pastor Norm said. “It brought him back to realizing his purpose. He’s here to change young people’s lives, which he can do better at the college level than pro level. It recalibrated his life and his priorities. He understood that ‘this is why God put me here and why God made me like this.’ “

If this were a eulogy, Jones’ life would be retold in chronological order:

Growing up in Portland, the second of four children. Quarterback at three colleges in six years, including two seasons at UH. NFL career as a player, and then coach, and then, twice, as head coach. Triumphant return to Hawaii in 1999.

But the crash was not the final chapter.

He credits the Warriors’ success to the love each player has for his teammates.

“Look at history,” he said, “the greatest fighters had that. That’s the difference between being a good team and being a great team.”

His own understanding of love comes from his parents’ unspoken deeds.

“My mother made me breakfast and lunch every day until I got out of high school,” Jones said.

His father never missed one of his games, magnificently juggling his schedule to follow his four active children. Since the day he went away to college, Jones and his father have spoken almost daily by telephone.

Before and after each game, Jones leads the team in prayer. It is that love – God’s love – that seized his soul when he was a teenager.

“I made a decision that affected my whole life at that time,” Jones said. “God’s blessed me. I don’t have any anxiety about anything. God’s blessed me with a peace.”

It is that calm, he said, that boosted the Warriors to three comeback road victories this season. The team’s mantra is: Believe.

Jones has offered second chances to several players who had legal problems.

He gave a scholarship to running back James Fenderson, who was living in his car.

He refused to release a player from his scholarship because he feared for the player’s safety if he returned to his crime-infested neighborhood.

Four years ago, he was riding on his Harley when, by chance, he stopped at an event for HUGS, a not-for-profit organization that helps families who have a child with a life-threatening illness or fragile medical condition. Soon after, he created his foundation. In three years, the foundation has raised $250,000 in grants for several charities, including HUGS.

Kevin Kaplan, executive director of the June Jones Foundation, said: “If there is a better person out there, I have not met him or her. He is so kind and generous. He has so much humility.”