After dominating youth baseball, Dugan Jones traded in his bat for a shotgun. If it hadn’t been for Rose Bud baseball coach Taylor Cooper, Jones may have never picked up a bat again.
“I didn’t really enjoy [travel ball]. Well, I did, but there were some experiences that weren’t very good,” Jones said.
After playing three years of travel baseball, Jones gave it up to join the trap-shooting team at Rose Bud. When Cooper came to Rose Bud to coach in Jones’ seventh-grade year, he eventually began playing again and didn’t miss a beat.
Jones’ renewed love of the game spelled bad news for Rose Bud opponents. The senior third baseman/pitcher led the state with 8 home runs last year, while hitting .463 with 36 RBIs. He also finished 7-1 on the mound and struck out 104 batters with a 2.46 ERA.
He earned Arkansas All-Prep first-team honors and is the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Three Rivers Edition 2020 Player to Watch.
“It’s definitely a lot harder for a kid from a smaller school to get seen, compared to a player at a bigger school like Cabot,” said Jones, a 6-3, 220-pounder. “It was a huge honor. I put in a lot of hard work with teammates and made sacrifices. I think that shows I could play at a bigger school.”
Jones seemed on his way to baseball stardom growing up. He began playing baseball at age 5 at Rose Bud. He starred for a 6U team, then moved up to the 8U team and played for three years. In his final year, he said, he hit “four or five home runs” over the fence.
Word traveled about his diamond prowess, and Jones began playing travel baseball for the Rawlings Arkansas Prospects 9U team in Sherwood. However, three years in that program soured Jones on baseball, and he gave it up for trap shooting.
Cooper, a Concord native, came to Rose Bud when Jones was a seventh-grader. Cooper began a baseball conversation with Jones then and convinced the former star to play for a 14-year-old team the coach organized during Jones’ eighth-grade year. Jones picked up where he left off and was a freshman starter on Cooper’s varsity squad a year later. Several of those players from the 14-year-old team are now seniors on a team that hopes to make its first state-tournament appearance in 20 years.
“We’ve all played for [Cooper] since eighth grade, and that has really helped,” Jones said.
Everything came together for Jones last season as he compiled one of the great individual performances in school history.
“I didn’t really know how truly good I was until last year,” Jones said. “Going into last year, I didn’t have any college scouts looking at me. I didn’t have any offers yet. My mindset was, ‘I have two years left of high school ball. I’m just going to enjoy it.’ I just wanted to go out there and have fun and play the game the right way. My dream was still to go play college ball, but I didn’t think I’d hit eight home runs. In my eyes, that was an accident.
“My mindset going to the plate was, ‘Hit it hard every time, and run the bases.’ Most of the [home runs] were line drives. I didn’t kill it; I just hit it. I didn’t go up there saying, ‘I am going to hit this one out.’ It just happened.”
Jones played football, basketball and baseball as a freshman, then gave up football and basketball as a sophomore but played basketball again as a junior.
After his stellar baseball season, he opted not to play basketball as a senior and instead played fall baseball leading up to his senior year. As a result, more college offers rolled in.
Jones chose the University of Arkansas Rich Mountain — a two-year program in Mena. The school started its baseball program this season and hired legendary Horatio High School coach Lance Spigner to lead the team. Spigner, a former University of Central Arkansas player, led Horatio to five state championships, including his final one in 2016.
“Once I visited [Rich Mountain], it wasn’t a hard decision at all,” Jones said. “Coach Spigner is a great guy. When people found out I got an offer from there, they said I would be dumb not to go there and play for him. It didn’t matter where I went. People knew who he was and told me he would get me ready for the next level.”
Jones hopes Spigner’s tutelage will ready him for a D-I baseball career.
“I think [Jones] flies under the radar because there hasn’t been a whole lot of history here in the past, but he is one of the pieces that are changing how we are looked at,” Cooper said. “He has been working in the summers and hasn’t played until this year, so he’s flown under the radar. I think Coach Spigner got a steal.
“[Jones] is so big and athletic, and he’s gotten so much better. When I saw him, I knew he was going to be good, and he’s just kept working at it. I think the sky’s the limit with the ability he has, and as good as he is between the ears as well.”
With his letter of intent signed, Jones can concentrate on helping make history his senior season. With a large group of returning starters, the Ramblers are poised to land in the state tournament and make a run after finishing 22-9 as district runner-up and regular-season conference champion.
“Our goal is to go to the state tournament,” he said. “Everybody’s dream is to win the whole shindig. We’ve had more guys working in [the offseason program]. Last year, we only had five guys in the offseason. This year, we had 11 or 12 and doubled the group. That doesn’t seem like a lot, but for Rose Bud, it is.
“This year is the first year in three years that we’ve had 20 players. We are pretty-good-sized. We went from 14 to 22. Everybody’s gotten stronger and more confident. We just can’t wait till the season starts. We are ready to see how the hard work pays off.”