2016 Shorter Hawks Schedule

ROME, Ga. – When they take the field for the first time under a new head football coach Thursday night, the Shorter Hawks will literally open a new page as the program prepares for its 12^th season as Aaron Kelton brings the team together under the guidance of a new-look coaching staff for the start of Spring Drills.

"The kids are excited to get it started," Kelton said about the Hawks, who will gather around Kelton for the first time at 7:30 p.m. at Ben Brady Field. "They've worked hard and they're out to win a job."

The Hawks have been meeting this week to begin the transitions the new staff brings to the table.

"I think we've put together a good staff," said Kelton. "They come from different parts of the country and have coached at all the different levels."

Arriving on "The Hill" for the first time to direct the Hawks are three new coaches who have a wealth of experience between them – associate head coach and defensive coordinator William Jones, offensive coordinator KiJuan Ware and offensive line coach Darryl Bullock.

They join four members of last year's staff – running backs coach David Sims, defensive line coach Justin Jefferson, receivers and strength and conditioning coach Kareem Hawkins and special teams coach Aaron Reese, all who will begin their second season with the Hawks.

"They've been working hard to put everything together in the last few weeks," Kelton said. "They're excited to get started."

Jones comes to Shorter having spent the past 15 years coaching in the Mississippi junior college ranks, 10 of those at one of the nation's top programs, Pearl River Community College, where he was the defensive coordinator from 2001-07 and helped the Wildcats compile a 60-12 record, win four straight MACJC state championships and claim the NJCAA national title in 2004.

In 2008, Jones was hired as defensive coordinator and associate head coach at East Mississippi, where he helped the Lions win the national championship in 2011. During his five seasons at East Mississippi, the Lions were 44-10.

Jones returned to Pearl River in 2013 to take over as the program's head coach for the past three years and last fall led the team to an upset over then-No. 1 ranked Copiah-Lincoln.

Before switching to the community college ranks in 2001, the 20-year coaching veteran spent six seasons at the NCAA Division II level at Kentucky State University, where he served as co-defensive coordinator and recruiting coordinator.

Jones cut his teeth in collegiate coaching with the Grambling State University Tigers, where he served as a defensive assistant coach under the guidance of the late legendary Hall of Fame head coach Eddie Robinson. During his time at Grambling, the 1994 Tigers claimed the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) championship and played in the inaugural Heritage Bowl.

While Jones has divided his football coaching career between the community college and NCAA Division II ranks, he also has extensive experience at the professional level. Jones has visited the training camps of several NFL teams through the years, and has also worked many mini-camps and NFL Scouting Combines.

Jones earned a bachelor's degree in life sciences (pre-veterinary medicine) from Louisiana Tech University in 1990, then served as vice president of scouting operations and personnel development for the Sportstek Management Group in Shreveport, La. He later earned a master's degree in higher education administration, with a concentration in sports administration, from the University of Louisville in 1999.

A member of Kelton's coaching staff at Williams College as a quarterback coach for the last two years, Ware has been coaching since he graduated from Springfield College, where he was a two-sport standout in football and baseball, in 1997 with a degree mathematics and computer science and then earned a master's degree in physical education and athletic administration.

Prior to arriving at Williams, Ware was the secondary coach at Eastern Michigan University in 2013 and from 2011-12 he coached at Western Illinois University (WIU), serving as the team's offensive coordinator in 2012 after exclusively coaching the running backs in 2011. In 2012, the Leathernecks ranked third in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) in red zone efficiency by scoring on 94 percent (15-of-16) of their trips inside the 20-yard-line.

Ware joined Western after spending two seasons at Miami University where he helped orchestrate one of the best turnarounds in NCAA Division I history. The RedHawks went from 1-11 in Ware's first year to 10-4 in 2010. He was part of the Mid-American Conference championship team and GoDaddy.com Bowl win over Middle Tennessee State.

Before his time at Miami, Ware spent the 2008 season at Notre Dame working as an offensive intern. He worked with the running backs and special teams as the Fighting Irish would claim the 2008 Hawaii Bowl championship. Ware was also responsible for film breakdown, scouting reports, playbooks and other day-to-day office duties.

He spent two seasons each at Dartmouth (2004-05) and Georgetown (2006-07) working as the recruiting coordinator before his time at Notre Dame.

Ware began his collegiate coaching career working at Springfield for two years, working with both running backs and receivers. Springfield captured consecutive Freedom Football Conference championships and back-to-back Division III rushing titles.

Ware also worked for five years as a teacher and the offensive coordinator at Weaver High School in Hartford, Connecticut where he assisted Weaver in capturing three state titles.

In January 2000, he was selected as a Fulbright Scholar – chosen for his academic merit and leadership potential, and studied in Tokyo. Ware was one of 15 selected to participate in the NCAA Football Coaching Academy during the summer of 2006. In June 2010, Ware attended the NCAA Expert Coaches Academy.

Bullock is a 1990 graduate from Penn State, where he played for the Nittany Lions as a defensive tackle and was joined the team for two straight trips to the national championship game, winning the crown in the 1987 Fiesta Bowl against Miami.

He began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Penn State and at Michigan, where he earned a master's degree, and went on to become a member of the staffs at Tennessee State, Elon, East Tennessee State, Morehead State, Morgan State, New Hampshire and at Gardner-Webb, where he coached alongside Phil Jones, who went on to become Shorter's first-ever head coach before retiring at the end of his 11^th season at the Hawks' helm last fall.

Most recently, Bullock was the offensive line coach, assistant head coach and interim head coach at North Carolina Central from 2007-10, coach for three seasons at Hampton University, was the defensive line and recruiting coordinator at Chowan in 2015 and last year was the offensive coordinator and assistant head coach at Langston (Okla.) University.

The Hawks will close out their opening week of Spring Drills with a Friday night workout at Brady and a Saturday morning session (11 a.m.), and end the spring workouts on Saturday, April 9 at Barron Stadium.

Shorter kicks off the new season on Thursday, Sept. 1 in Chattanooga, Tenn., squaring off against the NCAA Division I FCS Chattanooga Mocs in the first-ever meeting between the two teams.