Posted December 17, 2009

Posted by Chad Konecky

It’s gotta be pretty cool to be seated next to the American League MVP in front of a crowd and it’s you that gets the standing O. That’s exactly what happened to Oaks Christian School (Calif.) senior Malcolm Jones the other day when he was named the 2009-10 National Gatorade Player of the Year.

Naturally, the fans and media assembled at the press conference announcing Jones as the award program’s 25th football winner since 1985 were awfully enthusiastic about Minnesota Twins catcher Joe Mauer too. Mauer is inarguably one of most likeable, down-to-earth pros in recent memory. He deliberately hung back to encourage Jones to enjoy his moment in the spotlight, but stayed intensely engaged throughout the four or five hours he spent on campus.

Mauer, a three-sport star at Minnesota’s Cretin-Derham High, won Gatorade’s football POY trophy back in 2000-01. The three-time batting champ was charmingly touchy about the elapsed time since he received the honor, stressing multiple times that it was nine years ago, not a decade. Of course, standing next to high school kids, Mauer, 26, still looks young enough to need a hall pass.

After surprising Jones during his fourth-period Bible class with camera crews in tow, Mauer playfully defended Jones’s choice of a loud argyle sweater when coeds questioned the teen’s fashion sense as cameras rolled. When Jones was later informed he’d be Gatorade’s guest at next summer’s ESPY Awards in July, Mauer reversed field and kidded the newly crowned king of high school football: ‘Just don’t wear that sweater to the ESPYs, man,’ Mauer whispered.

Jones may not end up as one of the best ever to play his position at the pro level, as Mauer is — mind you, don’t be surprised if the UCLA recruit ends up playing on Sundays — but the two are a lot alike.

When a Gatorade sports marketing representative told the assembled crowd at Jones’s press conference that Mauer possessed ‘the sweetest swing in baseball,’ I leaned over and mouthed, ‘True?’ Mauer smiled and theatrically raised his brow. Moments later, when Jones’s head coach, the venerable and entertaining Bill Riddell, misspoke in mentioning Malcolm’s 65-yard interception return for a touchdown in a postseason game ‘as a freshman five years ago,’ I turned to Jones and hissed, ‘True?! Are you 22 years old or something?’ Jones made a comically demonstrative denial.

You get the feeling that conveying his respect for others is supremely important to Malcolm Jones. He was first awed, then deeply appreciative by Mauer’s presence. When his strength coach Jonathan Williams offhandedly informs him he’ll only get a few days off after having his wisdom teeth pulled in a few weeks, Jones assures the fitness guru that he won’t disappoint. When his stern but devoted dad, Marshall Sr., gives him a hard time about his headshot in the press release announcing Jones as the winner (dad is not pleased about the scruff evident on his chin), Jones absorbs the chiding in stride. And as his mom, Angie, reminds Jones that when he and his older brother, Marshall, a junior defensive back at USC, face each other next year, they are ‘not allowed to hurt each other,’ Jones nods dutifully.

In just a few hours of hanging out with both Mauer and Malcolm Jones, one gets the sense that they are in many ways cut from the same cloth. Besides, Jones really is the most deserving among the nation’s 1.1 million high school football players this year. Just to be sure, I sent texts from the press conference to 2008-09 football POY Garrett Gilbert, who’s busy practicing with teammates in preparation for the BCS title game, and 2007-08 football POY Matt Barkley, who became the first freshman signal-caller in USC history this fall. Their answers were short, decisive and identical: “Great choice!”

Source