When Chris Jones entered Highland in 2021, the basketball team was in need of a change. After a combined record of 12-33 the previous two years, the administration decided the program needed new energy.
Fast forward to 2025. Coach Jones is heading into his fifth season as the head coach for the Rams. In the past four seasons, Jones has put up a combined record of 64-37, including a semifinal finish in 2023-24, and a state final finish last year.
The team has advanced farther in the playoffs each year. But this year, fresh off of losing in the championship game, the only way to progress is to get a ring.
It’s safe to say, the expectations for the Highland basketball program this season are exceedingly high.
“We really only have one goal — to win it all,” Jones said. “The guys they think they’re good enough to win it all, and I think we’re good enough to win it all, so that’s the goal.”
With a state title truly in perspective, Jones wants to make sure this team keeps progressing throughout the year to be in full form come February. The past two years have been extremely successful, but also disappointing for Highland. This team wants to be different and finish the job.
“The goal this year is to win the state championship,” senior guard Bodie Dodge said. “We tasted it last year and think we have more than enough to accomplish it this year.”
In the past two seasons, Highland has fallen short to the same team… Olympus. This year, they are prepared to beat them not only in the regular season, but when it matters up at Huntsman. Jones believes the key to this is never becoming complacent.
“We need to be the hunter still. We don’t want to be the hunted. We have to have the mentality that we’re going after everybody,” Jones said. “So just no complacency. You know, don’t mess with the game, play the right way, and do things the right way, and then you get to February, it’s about who gets hot, and who’s healthy.”
Although 2021 was Jones’ first season coaching high school basketball, he was no rookie. Jones had more than 10 years of collegiate basketball coaching experience, including time at Westminster, Utah, and Utah State, one year of professional coaching across the pond in London, and experience running his own training facility.
Jones is an all-out basketball junkie, all the way back to his playing days in college under the renowned Utes’ coach Rick Majerus. Basketball was all he knew. Since then, he has coached all basketball at a very high level. In all of Jones’ years of experience he learned what it takes to compete at a high level, and most importantly what it takes to win.
“When I first got here, there had been a couple of tough years, and they didn’t know how to win,” Jones said. “They didn’t expect to win, they didn’t know how to win, And the first rule of winning is to figure out how to not lose.”
Jones’ first focus when arriving at Highland was to clean up the little things such as no more careless fouls, better rebounding, finishing fast breaks, and making more free throws. All of these things combined can make a big difference on the scoreboard after the last buzzer. Especially on a team that had been struggling.
However, Jones quickly realized that this was going to be a process. After coaching so many college players, transitioning to high school required much more patience. Jones was used to recruiting guys from high school and getting a much more developed version of them in college. In high school, players develop rapidly within a couple of years. Some kid could come in as a freshman at 5-foot-8 and sprout all the way up to 6-foot-5 by his senior year.
“When I made the jump to come to high school I didn’t know anything about how high school programs were ran,” Jones said. “There was just a big learning curve, but I had good people helping me.”
The success for Jones didn’t come immediately. It took a couple of years in the new system for the rams to start to kick into gear. In his first two seasons, the Rams went 11-13 in back-to-back years. But it was only a matter of time. The freshman class in 2022-23 had great potential. Two of them were already seeing significant minutes in varsity games, and the freshman team that year went 20-3.
Going into the next season, the Rams had found themselves a bit more. With more size and development within the team, this new squad was looking dangerous. They had a 6-foot-10 center, along with two other strong forwards, and some shifty young guards to run the floor.
After starting the season 2-1 with two significant wins, the Rams headed north to take on a very talented Davis team. Davis was one of the 6A favorites, and Highland came in as a significant underdog.
“I think most people thought, ‘oh, Davis is just going to kick Highland’s butt.’ But we went up there and we beat them in their own building,” Jones said. “And after that moment, you could see their belief that they could win. That they could go on the road against a really good team and win. And, you know, from that game on, we just kind of boom. You know, we peaked and made it all the way to the semis and beat a lot of good teams.”
Highland finished that season 19-7 overall, getting all the way to the semifinals, making a huge turnaround compared to previous seasons. The Rams were starting to turn heads; suddenly people were afraid to play at Highland. The team became known for being tough, physical, and athletic.
The Rams carried that momentum into the next season, finishing 20-3. They brought home a region title, along with a run all the way to the state final. Jones had completely turned this program around.
And now Highland is considered a powerhouse. This is one reason, while every other team at Highland dropped to 4A, Jones asked for his team to remain in the larger and stronger 5A classification.
“That’s what the senior class wanted. They wanted to stay 5A and have another crack at it,” Jones said. “I’m all for it. At the end of the day, if you’re a competitor, you want to play against the best.”
Another factor at Highland was that success breeds interest. As Highland has become more successful, key players from other schools wanted to be a part of Highland. This has added talented depth to the Rams roster.
“t’s not like we’ve had a ton of [transfers],” Jones said, adding that most of the players have been in the program since their freshmen years. “I’m keeping 10 or 11 seniors and guys that you played with when you were a freshman, that have all developed into good players. Last year’s class was good and the year before that class was good. So it’s just been fortunate to have good players and good kids and been really fortunate to have really good parents.”
Heading into this season, the Rams are firing on all cylinders. Highland is no longer chasing wins, they’re chasing rings. Jones has pushed all of the players throughout the full offseason to be the best version of themselves for this season.
“I think we’ve put in a lot of work within practice and the continuous playing in the offseason in spring and fall league,” Senior gaurd Grady Lee said. “Coach (Jones) has pushed us to work on our own game outside of practice and given us things we need to improve on personally which ultimately is what develops our whole team.”
In staying 5A the Rams not only stayed in a loaded 5A class, but the region itself got even harder. With the additions of Viewmont, Bountiful, and Woods Cross up north, there are no mediocre teams in this region.
Highland will have to get off to a strong start and stay consistent if they want set themselves up for a good playoff spot. It’s going to be challenging, but this team is well equipped, and Jones knows they have what it takes.
“Now that we’ve reached a point where we’re competitive and we’re pretty good, we got to learn how to take the next step and get over the hump,” Jones said.
