500 wins (and counting). Timberline basketball coach Andy Jones reaches rare milestone
Andy Jones’ basketball resume already extends a mile long. But the longtime girls basketball coach added another bullet point Tuesday, winning his 500th career game with Timberline’s 63-54 victory at Ridgevue.
Idaho does not keep any official high school records outside of its state tournaments, so how many coaches have won 500 games is unknown. But Jones is just the second active coach to surpass the milestone after Snake River boys basketball coach Robert Coombs (563 career wins).
“Five-hundred is a big deal,” Timberline Athletic Director Tol Group said. “I don’t know how many have done it. There’s probably not a lot.
“... To do that for that long, that’s pretty dang good. And to still to be able to take kids and be competitive, that’s a pretty good place to be.”
Reaching 500 wins requires two traits — success and longevity. That latter is often more important, as high school coaches rarely last one decade, let alone three. But Jones, 59, said he has no plans to hang up his whistle even though he becomes eligible for retirement at the end of the school year.
“I love the competition, and I just really enjoy the girls,” Jones said. “If I’m having a rough day teaching — things didn’t go well or we had some problems in class with kids acting up — when I come into practice, they are always smiling and laughing and ready to go.
“It’s just something to look forward to.”
Even before his 500th victory Tuesday, Jones already owned a spot as one of Idaho’s most decorated basketball coaches: He’s the only girls coach to win state titles at three different schools.
His seven state championships rank second in Idaho history behind only Emery Roy, who won nine with the Meridian and Centennial girls basketball programs.
He built a juggernaut at Middleton, winning 72 straight games between the 2010-11 and 2012-13 seasons, the longest active streak in the country at the time. He then revived Timberline’s program, snapping the school’s 13-year state tournament drought in his first season in Southeast Boise before leading the Wolves to their second-ever state title in 2021-22.
“Probably the best compliment I can give Andy is that he finds ways to make teams successful, regardless of talent,” Boise coach Kim Brydges said. “As a high school coach, some years you are blessed with pretty amazing and talented kids. Other years, you have to get creative about what’s going to work best for the girls on this squad.”
Born in Wheatland, Wyoming, Jones graduated from the University of Wyoming in 1990 and led his first teams in Elbert, Colorado, where he coached four games a night — the boys and girls varsity teams, as well as the boys and girls junior high teams.
He took his first Idaho head coaching job at Caldwell in 1994-95. He led the Cougars for eight seasons, taking the program to its only state title in 2001, while posting a 57-110 (.341) record there.
He then went 317-89 (.781) during 16 seasons in Middleton, making 13 trips to the state tournament, bringing home five state titles and capturing nine district championships.
The wins kept coming at Timberline, where he’s 126-43 (.746) so far in seven seasons and has led the Wolves to the state tournament five of the past six years.
Jones said many of the state championships stand out in his mind. Those include a last-second steal and 3-pointer by Lauren McCall for Timberline’s 2022 championship, and snapping Bonneville’s 39-game winning streak for an underdog title in 2010. But he said his favorite memories come away from the spotlight.
Just last week, a member of his 2001 Caldwell state championship team approached him at Boise High before the game. Her children attend and play for Boise.
“It’s the everyday interaction with the kids,” Jones said. “It’s so fun. It keeps me fresh. It keeps me going.”
This story was originally published January 29, 2025 at 2:05 PM.
