VERO BEACH – Robert “RJ” Jones is a player who likes to keep things simple and straight to the point.
The Vero Beach 2025 ATH (No. 2-ranked overall player on the Treasure Coast) pledged his verbal commitment to Illinois on June 29.
The reasoning for his decision was short and sweet.
“It was really Amar reynolds my cousin,” Jones said of his former Vero Beach teammate, who is now at Illinois and will be a freshman at the Big Ten school. “I have known him since we were little, and he always inspired me to work harder than him.”
Jones starred at John Carroll as a freshman and sophomore before transferring to Vero Beach as a junior.
Here are Jones’ statistics from this past year:
•19 total tackles
•9 pass breakups
•2 interceptions
Jones on how his junior season went at Vero Beach:
“We should’ve won states,” said Jones, who helped Vero Beach reach the Class 4S regional semifinal round.
Now that the offseason has wrapped up with the consensus three-star athlete improving his overall craft in a variety of settings and securing his future on the college level, Jones is focused on the season ahead.
But before that, Jones was grateful to receive a special honor from ESPN West Palm.
The 6-foot-2, 170-pound athlete was one of three Vero Beach incoming seniors to be invited to the ESPN Top 63 ceremony on Saturday, Aug. 10 at Keiser University in West Palm Beach. The others were:
•LB Tarvos “TJ” Alford (Ohio State commit)
•DL Anthwone Montgomery (Austin Peay commit)
“It feels great,” Jones said. “That’s my brothers until the end”
Jones shared his aspirations for his upcoming senior season at Vero Beach.
“I want to have at least 1,000 receiving yards and four or five interceptions,” Jones said. “For our team, it’s states or bust”.
PHOTO CREDITS: TC Palm
Muck City Media Enterprises 
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