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If there’s one thing Omaha Westside High School linebacker Christian Jones reinforced to himself through all his recruiting trips in June as one of the best college football prospects in the state, it’s about how much he values his opportunity to sleep.
It was never more evident than the morning after Omaha Westside captured the 2022 Class A state football championship. Physically drained and sore all over from the previous night’s contest that ended, as time ran out, on a title-clinching field goal in the Warriors’ 43-41 heart-stopping victory, Jones wasn’t quite prepared for the next day’s wakeup call.
The team’s reporting time for the celebratory pep rally was at 8 am.
“Couldn’t even sleep in, so we were all half-asleep with eye black still on,” said Jones, now a senior and two years later still in disbelief over the timeline.
He recalled and imitated the muttered drawl that he and his teammates asked in plaintive unison the following morning, “Why are we here?”
Despite limited shut-eye that night, the chain of instantaneous events triggered by the kick, the game’s final buzzer, the pandemonium in the dog-pile celebration, and finally ensued by the alarm clock the next morning remain as Jones’ best football memory.
It was quite the way for Paul Limongi to break in his first season as the Westside Warriors’ head coach. From his previous head coaching stint at Omaha Burke High School, Limongi knew Jones as an eighth-grader.
“We knew then that he was a kid that was going to be very special,” said Limongi. “Not so much athletically. He had the tools to be a great athlete, a great football player, but he was just mature beyond his age.”
Last summer, when Jones walked off the Westside football field one day after a steamy informal workout, the chiseled 6-foot-4, 225-pounder also toted a book called “Discipline is Destiny: The Power of Self-Control” by Ryan Holiday. The Warriors read it as an off-season team assignment.
But Jones didn’t stop there and has even suggested some titles for Limongi, too, such as “The Inner Game of Tennis” by W. Timothy Gallwey.
“He loves books on motivation, how to improve, and elite mindset,” Limongi said. “He’s always looking for that edge mentally where he can be just a little bit better in his preparation than everybody else.”
Beyond football, Jones kept three things in mind during his recruiting sojourns for what he seeks as a college student-athlete next year: culture, education, and development.
“At Westside, we have a very, very strong culture and brotherhood here and I believe that it wins games,” Jones said. “It improves your life in every aspect, and people don’t understand the power behind it.”
Jones is also practical and will be prepared for the day his football career ends. He foresees himself working toward a business degree, which doesn’t surprise Limongi.
“He has the characteristics to be a successful man and that’s what we’re about,” said Limongi. “He’s diligent, he does the little things, he has attention to detail, he tries to outwork people. He does the things where greatness is required.”
But Jones also recognizes that in college football his teammates and opponents will be not only built comparably to his size, but also five-star athletes from their respective hometowns and told how great they’re expected to be.
Jones says he’s ready to meet the challenges his opponents will pose.
“I’m up for it, but I will beat them because I will have an elite mindset better than theirs,” he said.
His father, Dave Jones, was listed at 6-foot-4 and 250 pounds as a senior defensive tackle for the Huskers at the University of Nebraska in 1997. But there were others like Jason Peter, a 1998 first-round draft choice by the NFL’s Carolina Panthers, listed ahead of him. As a result, the Osmond, Nebraska, native was further down the Huskers’ depth chart.
Though Christian is comparable in size to his father, their paths to college is worlds apart.
Christian Jones has caught the attention of coaches from the most elite college football programs since he was a high-school freshman. But he has remained grounded through the process of everyone else telling him about his potential.
“I’ve been very blessed to have that ability to travel to all those amazing schools,” said Jones. “I’m very grateful for everything.”
Follow the Westside Warriors’ football team at facebook.com/WestsideWarriorFootball/.
This article originally appeared in the October 2024 issue of Omaha Magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.
