Myles Jones is intimidating on the lacrosse field. At 6 feet, 4 inches and 240 pounds, he towers over defenders and has his way with opposing defenses.
But as he runs down the field, Jones is often smiling and laughing. When it happened in high school, opponents thought he was taunting them.
“I would say to the other coach, ‘He’s not insulting anybody. He’s just having a great time out there,’” said Bob Howell, Jones’ lacrosse coach at Walt Whitman (New York) High School.
For Jones, any sport was an option, but lacrosse was his favorite. He had Division I basketball offers and the size, speed and hands to be an NFL tight end, his former coaches say. He learned lacrosse last, but his athleticism and experience in basketball and football allowed him to excel at it quickly.
Jones, a Duke midfielder, will be a key player as the Blue Devils aim to become the first team to pull off a third consecutive national championship since Princeton did in 1998.
“He has a phenomenal athletic IQ, which is a result of playing multiple sports in high school,” Duke head coach John Danowski said. “… He listens to everything, he absorbs everything and that makes him get the most out of who he is.”
Jones’ style of lacrosse is a hybrid between his basketball and football playing days. A stutter step in the open field emulates his scrambling as a quarterback. He can post up defenders in front of the net and takes either alley to the cage — strong or off hand — that defenders give him, like driving to a basketball hoop.
His lacrosse IQ comes from reading zone defenses in basketball.
Recently, Danowski tried to stage a defensive drill, but Jones knew exactly where to attack. Danowski looked at the junior midfielder and said, “Myles, come on.”
Learning Duke’s offense has never been difficult for Jones, not even on his first day with the team.
“It was just basically going back to basics, but it was stuff I was doing since I was 9 years old,” Jones said.
At 7 years old, Jones was already bigger than most kids his age and had a habit of running over smaller girls in his co-ed soccer league. His father moved him into a more suitable sport: football.
He starred in football and basketball, until a teammate’s parent told him to play lacrosse, a sport he had never heard of.
His weekends were spent playing a football game on Saturday morning on Long Island, and traveling to New Jersey and Philadelphia to play in lacrosse and basketball tournaments.
“(I) kind of just decided to get in the car and drive to all these places with my parents and teammates and have a good time,” Jones said. “… It was just my lifestyle at the time.”
On the football field, he could throw the ball, but was like a running back coming out of the pocket. On the basketball court, he could drive inside or shoot from the perimeter. On the lacrosse field, his combination of speed and size were unmatched.
In eighth grade, he made it onto the freshman basketball team and the junior varsity lacrosse team. A year later, he grew from 5 feet, 10 inches to his now 6-foot-4 frame and played varsity in all sports, drawing college coaches’ interest.
“He’s the kind of kid, no matter whatever sport he played he would be the best kid on the team,” Howell said. “It’s every coach’s dream.”
Jones made it clear to college coaches that he was going to play only lacrosse.
After committing to Duke, Jones spent a postgraduate year at Salisbury School, a preparatory school, at the recommendation of Duke’s coaches.
He refined his shooting and worked on playing with his off hand. In high school, he could dodge multiple defenders, but Salisbury coach Bobby Wynne taught Jones to play in team-style offense.
While playing basketball at Salisbury, Jones played with teammates who went on to play D-I. Coaches that came to watch Jones’ teammates saw him finish second in scoring and first in rebounds, despite coming off the bench.
“Bull in a china shop, (a) runaway train,” Jeff Ruskin, Salisbury’s head basketball coach, said. “ … He was just tough for kids to guard inside.”
D-I basketball teams offered Jones. Duke’s basketball coach, Mike Krzyzewski, was interested in Jones as a walk-on.
After talking with his dad, coaches at Salisbury and Danowski, Jones stuck with Duke and lacrosse because it was the sport he enjoyed more.
In football, there was too much wear and tear on his body. Basketball burned him out. But lacrosse offered him aspects of both, and a game he loved to play.
As a freshman at Duke, Jones scored 16 goals, including one in the national championship win over Syracuse. As a sophomore, Jones earned All-Atlantic Coast Conference and second team All-American honors accompanied by another national championship win.
This season, Jones and Duke can win its third national championship in a row, a goal that Jones thinks is possible.
But with such a young team, Jones can’t try to do it all, Danowski said. Even if his role is to shoulder the load, he needs to be the same player that seemingly mocks his opponents just by smiling at them.
Said Danowski: “He’s best when he just has fun and is loose and relaxed.”
