Sam Jones, Olympian and basketball All-American, awarded The Order of the Long Leaf Pine

Leora “Sam” Jones was just having fun playing backyard basketball with her childhood friends growing up in Mount Olive.

At the time, she and her friends didn’t realize they were practicing as well — practicing that for Jones would pave the way for her development into a high school and college basketball phenom, earning All-American honors before going on to becoming a three-time U.S. Olympian in team handball.

Jones returned to her alma mater, Southern Wayne High School, Wednesday night where she was presented The Order of the Long Leaf Pine — fittingly during halftime of the girls basketball game.

According to The Order of the Long Leaf Pine website, “Since 1963, North Carolina’s governors have reserved their highest honor, The Order of the Long Leaf Pine award, for persons who have made significant contributions to the state and their communities through their exemplary service and exceptional accomplishments.’

Jones’ longtime friend and Mount Olive Major Jerome Newton presented the award.

Newton said it was a pleasure to be able to present the award to Jones, a friend and neighbor he had known for many years.

He read the certificate signed by Gov. Roy Cooper and dated Nov. 9, 2024.

Local historian, Gunnery Sgt. Milton D. Whitfield Sr., United States Marine Corps Retired, nominated Jones for the honor. Whitfield is a Mount Olive area native now living in Dudley.

“I just wanted to say I have got to give all praise to God for putting me in the position to have the talent and the work and the family and the people all around me along the way to be in a situation like I am here today,” Jones said.

“And for those of you who don’t know, North Carolina has inducted me into North Carolina Hall of Fame. I thank them for that award, too.

Jones told a childhood story about how she and her neighborhood friends played together many, many years ago.

“We got together, took our father’s ax, hammers nails and everything; went in the woods; chopped down a tree; brought that tree back; dug a hole, put it in the hole; and put up our first basketball goal on dirt in the backyard,” Jones said. “From that day forward, we played every day.

“Little did we know, little did we know, that we were preparing for our future to play sports. Little did I know that all that playing during that time was helping kids to make teams. Even the ones who didn’t make the teams had a ball in the neighborhood. We played together. We were practicing, but we didn’t know it — we were just having fun.”

They weren’t practicing on the Xbox or phone, but practicing to make their craft better, Jones said.

From that point on the children had people in the neighborhood keeping them in line, she added.

Now, people don’t know their neighbors or only some, Jones said.

“We had a village that kept us in line,” she said turning to look at the girls basketball team and coaches. “There wasn’t getting into trouble because someone knew where we were at all times.

“It is going to take a village to keep doing that for these kids here and your kids there and even some of us as adults.”

It was while she was in junior high that the tree was chopped down.

Jones said she was pretty good at basketball by the time she reached Southern Wayne as were several others who also made the team.

They were all good friends and they got to meet players from other areas, she added.

“We were all coming to play for the same school, and we were all friends,” she continued. “We had some of our best times ever here at the old gym at Southern Wayne.

“I wanted to thank my new friends, my old friends from Southern Wayne. But I also wanted to thank coach (Doyle) Whitfield, who, when I went away to college, I felt like I couldn’t make it. I want to thank coach Whitfield because he told me I couldn’t quit. ‘You can’t quit. You have got to go back.’”

That Jones said, is what she means by a village.

Different people, teachers, had a lot to do with what she is today and where other people would be today, if they listened Jones said.

“I couldn’t have done any of this by myself, and I want to thank everybody who had something to do with it in my life” she said. “I also want to thank my family for being there and putting up with me.”

She also thanked Milton Whitfield of Dudley, who nominated her for the award.

Jones thanked Newton for returning to Mount Olive following his time in the military.

“It is important that when you leave home, no matter what you do, whether you are successful or not, when you come back please give back and help the kids,” she said. “Even if you are an adult, help the adults that are with you.

“We have got to come together and give back to this community.”

Southern Wayne High School Athletic Director David Lee’s introduction of Jones was greeted by cheers when he called Jones a special lady and graduate of Southern Wayne High School.

Jones started out at Brogden Middle School in Dudley and was a basketball most valuable player, he said.

At Southern Wayne, she played multiple sports and was basketball MVP multiple times, he added.

“During Sam’s career she was all All-American from 1976 to 1978,” Lee said. “At Louisburg College, she was the most valuable player. At East Carolina University, she was the most valuable player and an All-American.

“Sam Jones was a three-time Olympian for the United States of America. She was Player of the Year multiple times in team handball, and she was a professional handball player in the countries of Austria and Germany.”

Principal Kelly Carter thanked everyone for attending and helping to honor “this wonderful woman in our community.”

“I just got to meet her today, and this is my first year at Southern Wayne, but my gosh do we not have a ton of talent in our school and in our school’s history — former graduates,” she said. “I mean we are going to be doing more and more of this if I have anything to do with it.

“I appreciate this woman being a legacy, a mentor, an icon in this community, and the mayor is a graduate of Southern Wayne, too. I tell you we have a good something going on.”

In his letter of recommendation, Whitfield said it was with great enthusiasm that he recommends Jones for The Order of the Long Leaf Pine.

“She was a standout all through Southern Wayne High School in Dudley, North Carolina in three different sports, basketball, softball and tennis,” Whitfield wrote. “She was MVP in basketball her junior and senior year in high school in 1977 and 1978.

“Sam Jones went on to play basketball at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina, averaging 16 points/game during her career for the Pirates. She then became an assistant coach for East Carolina when she was invited to U.S. team handball tryouts.”

The letter continues, “Between the 1984 and 1988 Olympics, Jones played in Europe, with Hypobank in Austria in 1985 and with Bayer Leverkusen in Germany, helping them win the German Championship in 1986. Jones also competed at the Pan American Games in 1987, winning a gold medal. During her career, Jones was voted U.S. Team Handball Federation Player of the Year three times.

“She has dedicated her whole life to representing her state in sports and still to to this day is a mentor to many young kids about life and making good choices. She is respected around the world for her work ethic and talent in the sport arena. We/I and proud to call her a fellow North Carolinian.”

In his letter in support of the recommendation, Newton called it “an absolute pleasure to recommend my long-admired and esteemed neighbor.”

“For more than 50 years I have witnessed her dedication and commitment to her family and community,” he wrote. “I have been fortunate to observe ‘Sam’, as her father Earnest ‘Red’ Jones nicknamed her, as she participated in Sunday school, her prowess on the basketball court and throughout her early academic years.

“During her high school years, she excelled in three sports — basketball, softball and tennis — earning MVP in basketball in her junior and senior years in 1977 and 1978. Her success was especially significant because she surpassed challenges encountered within the community in which she was reared.”

Newton’s letter continues, “I am of the opinion that Sam’s high school athleticism served as a precursor to her crowning achievement as a three-time Olympian in handball in 1984, 1988 and 1992. While attending East Carolina University, she averaged 16 points per game, precipitating her entrance into the East Carolina University Hall of Fame in 1993 and the Louisburg College Hall of Fame in 2013.”

Newton also said in his letter that Jones demonstrates outstanding community engagement skills through speaking engagements, mentoring, teaching, assisting at the Boys and Girls Club and Parks and Recreation centers.

Currently, she added the teaching pickle ball to her agenda of skills, he said.

“I have personally witnessed her humility and strong advocacy for the community,” Newton said in the letter. “The Mount Olive community is especially proud that she continues to live and thrive within her hometown.

“I believe that a life of commitment, achievement and community involvement demonstrated be Leora Jones, qualifies her as a candidate for The Order of the Long Leaf Pine award.”

Because of school district lines, Jones, a Mount Olive native and daughter of the late Ruthie and Ernest “Red” Jones, attended Brogden Middle School at Dudley where she started playing basketball.

She went on to a standout basketball career at Southern Wayne High School and then Louisburg Junior College and ECU and earning All-American honors at both.

At ECU, Jones signed up for racquetball — a sport she tackled with the same determination as she did for all the goals she set for herself.

Her abilities prompted a coach to ask if she wanted to try out for handball.

Jones said her first thought was that it was U.S. handball where players use their hand to hit a small ball off a wall.

However, what she was being asked to play was team handball, sport better known in Europe where the game is played on a basketball-type court with a soccer-type goal on each end. The ball is somewhat smaller than a soccer ball.

The tryouts were held at ECU.

That tryout eventually led to the U.S. national team and three Summer Olympic Games — 1984 in Los Angeles; 1988 in Seoul, South Korea; and 1992 in Barcelona, Spain.

Jones was an assistant coach for the U.S. National Team until 1995.

By then her parents were growing older, and Jones decided to return to North Carolina where she began a 20-year career with UPS.

She lived in Raleigh, but moved back to her childhood home in 2016 to take care of her mother. Also by that time Jones had undergone three back surgeries.

Jones said she tries to remain active and enjoys playing pickleball at the Carver Cultural Center gym.