Contact: Ava Yurchison, Sports Information Graduate Assistant, 630-637-5302

Feb. 2, 2017- The 2017 North Central College Cleo Tanner Award recipient is Pristina Jones, a decorated North Central alumna from the class of 1999. Jones was presented with the award during North Central's annual National Girls and Women in Sports Day Celebration on Thursday.
 
The Cleo Tanner Award for Outstanding Contributions to North Central College Women's Athletics was first presented in 2006 and was created to commemorate and honor an individual who has helped to shape women's athletics at the collegiate level.
 
Jones came to North Central College in the fall of 1995 as the first student-athlete to participate at the collegiate level from her family. The only child is the fourth oldest of a group of 25 close-knit first cousins who looked up to her for her athleticism. Jones had always been drawn to athletics as it brought out her competitive side.
 
As a freshman and sophomore Jones received All-American honors in the long jump and as part of the 4x100 and 4x400 relay teams. Her junior season also proved to be highly successful as she again captured All-American honors for indoor long jump and as part of the 4x400 relay.
 
As a senior, Jones dominated the long jump, winning the national championship at both the indoor and outdoor national meets. She was also part of the national indoor championship-winning 4x400-meter relay team along with Maggie Zdziarska '99, Sue DeNigris '02 Kane and Vanessa Vaughn '99. This was the first women's relay team in North Central history to earn a national title.
 
During her time at North Central, Pristina was a three-time national champion, 11-time All-American, in the long jump and 4x100 and 4x400 relays.
While Jones may have ended her athletics career at North Central in 1999 after graduating with a degree in marketing and a minor in computer science with an emphasis in communication, her relationship with athletics was far from over.
 
Post-graduation, Jones entered corporate America though, after a few years, Jones became bored and found herself drawn back to athletics. In 2000, she joined the Indiana Invaders, an Amateur Elite Track & Field Club, where she spent five years competing, as well as mentoring and coaching high school and college-aged student-athletes. She concluded her post-collegiate career with a personal record of 20 feet, six inches in the long jump. It was during this time that Jones accepted her first major coaching offer as the assistant track and field coach at Jacksonville State University.
 
Jones was first offered the position at Jacksonville State when her former coach from North Central Marcia Thurwachter at coach passed along the word that Jones was looking to go into coaching. Immediately, people started to reach out to Jones to get her to work with their programs.
 
One of those people was Steve  from Carthage College. He reached out to Jones via email and said, "'Pristina, I have seen you and you have been kicking my team's butt since you were a freshman in college and you're post collegiate and you're claiming you're hurt and you're still kicking our butts. How would you like to be on the same team? I am about to go and be the head coach at this Division I program at Jacksonville State University in Jacksonville, Alabama. You need to come out and work for me,'" Jones remembers.
 
Jones was apprehensive about the idea of moving to Alabama but agreed to visit and see if it was the right fit for her. She had planned a trip to Florida and diverted her flight home to stop in Alabama so she could visit Jacksonville State and then drive back to Indiana.
 
Her flight left and landed on time, and her luggage was readily available when she got to the baggage carousel in Birmingham. Upon going to pick up her rental car, Jones was informed that something went wrong with her registration and that the car company had no reservation made and that their selections of cars was slim. They offered Jones a minivan, to which she declined.
 
Jones tried calling four other car companies in the area and much to her surprise, none of them had available vehicles. With no other options as Wright was tied up two hours away in Baton Rouge, Jones figured she would spend the night in Birmingham. Though, she faced similar difficulties when trying to book a hotel room being told there was nothing available due to two large conventions going on.
 
Stuck in an unknown, new place, Jones was lost.
 
She called home and talked to her mother who suggested she take a flight from Birmingham to Chicago and then her mom would take her back to Indiana. Jones tried to book the flight and again faced adversity.
 
The airline called Jones before her flight was to leave for Chicago and informed her that something had been messed up on their end. Jones was confused and saw this as a bad omen but then, the airline offered her a courtesy flight straight to Indiana.
 
Upon returning home and spending some time thinking, Jones was reluctant to consider going back to Alabama. Yet, Wright was persistent and continued to invite Jones down for another visit.
 
Eventually, after reflection, Jones realized that if she was going to take a chance on Jacksonville State. "I am young enough, I don't have any kids. Let me just step-out on faith; if it works, that will be awesome. If it doesn't work I can always come back to corporate America," said Jones.
 
"That was the best leap of faith that I ever took," Jones smiles and says. "I would not take it back for anything because here I am today. That was the best thing that I have ever done in my life. I don't regret it at all, taking that leap of faith."
 
During her time at Jacksonville State, Jones aided in winning Jacksonville State's first indoor meet in school history as well as the team placing second at the 2006 Ohio Valley Conference Outdoor Championships.
 
After one year, Jones left Jacksonville State and took the position as the head coach at Chicago State. Jones was a Cougar for three years and helped to rebuild their athletic program. Jones then took her coaching abilities to the high school level, coaching and mentoring female students at Warren Central High School in Indianapolis while working toward her master's degree in Applied Management from Indiana Wesleyan University.
 
Jones re-entered the world of collegiate coaching when she took the position of head coach at Jackson State University. Jones remained at Jackson State until 2011 when she took the position as the assistant coach for sprints at Notre Dame University. Jones has been a member of the fighting Irish since.
 
She hopes to work with the NCAA to establish a women's graduate assistant program which will "mentor young women in coaching and helping them to understand the balance of life and coaching as a female, and help them matriculate through and get mentored as much as possible from different aspects."

Jones wants a program where females can learn to accept who they are and know that they are of value no matter their physical or sexual hindrances, and that there is a place for them in athletics.