Angela Demel Jones was originally recruited to West Virginia Wesleyan softball purely as a hitter. Once head coach Steve Warner heard what sound her pitches made in the catcher’s mitt, he knew that she belonged in the circle. The pitcher’s mound did in fact turn into her home at Wesleyan and it showed. 

Nicknamed ‘Tex’ by her teammates, Demel Jones shattered records while spinning numerous perfect games and no-hitters. She won the WVIAC ‘Pitcher of the Year’ award every year she was in school from 1995-98 and helped put WVWC softball on the map. Her playing career came to an abrupt halt due to an injury in the 1998 conference tournament, but she already compiled one of the best overall careers that Bobcat softball has ever seen. 

‘Tex’ was inducted into the 2010 WVWC Athletics Hall of Fame and her husband is quick to point out her achievements to those that are not aware. After Wesleyan, Demel Jones devoted her life to helping others in the medical field first as a surgical tech and then in assisting orthopedic surgery before going back to school. She became a physician assistant in 2012 and recently transitioned to teaching in 2019. Demel Jones is currently an Assistant Professor of Instruction in the Department of Physician Assistant Studies at The University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas. 

The following is an interview with West Virginia Wesleyan Hall of Fame softball player Angela Demel Jones. 

Q: How did you end up at West Virginia Wesleyan?

 A: “I wasn’t heavily recruited. I was born and raised in Houston. Down in Houston I was pretty much your average player and pitcher. I did not stand out amongst my teammates. This is back in the day of VHS tapes so my mom took a camera and made videos. We sent those out to schools. I knew I wanted to go outside of Texas. My sister who is eight years older than me went to school in Mississippi and had a whole new cultural experience. That’s what I wanted too. I did not visit the campus before signing, I took a leap of faith because of the conversations I had. My parents and I took a mini-vacation to Washington, D.C. and then went to the campus. I loved it because it reminded me a lot of the small town my Dad grew up in. I thought it was beautiful.”

Q: What was the adjustment like moving from Texas to West Virginia?

A: “I had never seen snow before and I remember the first time that it did snow I freaked out. It wasn’t a culture shock, it was just different. I never knew was a pepperoni roll was. My first impression of Buckhannon was a small quaint town where people had each other’s backs. Everybody kind of knew everything about everybody. It’s one of those small towns that you read about that you never actually encounter until you encounter it, then turns out to be exactly how it was described.”

Q: How did you earn a spot in the starting rotation?

A: “Steve (Warner) didn’t recruit me to pitch. He actually recruited me to hit because he already had three senior pitchers. He wasn’t really looking for a pitcher. I remember one day at practice and I was wondering why I was always being put at first base. I was playing around in practice and I was pitching to one of the players testing out my curveball and other pitches. I don’t know how it exactly happened but then I was thrown into the rotation. He brought me over to the bullpen area, watched me pitch a couple and went ‘okay’.”

Q: What was your favorite softball memory?

A: “There were a couple of them. My freshman year we made it to NAIA Regionals and there was a senior slugger named Staci Albright who is still in the record book. I pitched her a huge fastball and she just jacks it over the left field fence. It didn’t just barely clear the fence, it flew forever. I called my own pitches and I was very good at reading batters. I would watch them in the on-deck circle as they swung to see how they stood and how they held the bat. The next time she came up, I was trying to pitch as far away to her as possible while still being in the strike zone. Then I pitched the most beautiful changeup in the world and she stutter stepped towards it missing with her swing almost as if in slow motion. She just smiled this huge smile like ‘you got me on that one’.”

Q: What was another favorite softball memory?

A: “We played the number one team in the nation, California (PA) my senior year in a doubleheader during the middle of the season. It was kind of awe-inspiring playing the best team in the nation. We beat them in the game that I pitched and that was one of the highlights of my career just knowing that I led my team against the number one team in the country when we weren’t looked at in the same caliber.”

Q: What was your reaction to getting all of the recognition that you did?

A: “I wasn’t in the spotlight of anything but then I got to Wesleyan. I was always very humbled by stuff like that because of how I grew up not getting a lot of accolades. I always felt very surprised when I won awards or when people went on and on about how awesome I was. Little girls would come up and would say they wanted to be just like me. I was like ‘what?’ I never saw myself in the same way that other people did. Even now Steve tells me ‘you just don’t understand’ and I don’t. I was just playing the game that I loved to play since I was five years old. I wanted to do well for my team. I was extremely proud of it and I have all of those awards upstairs in my office.”

Q: How did you get the nickname ‘Tex’?

A: “It was the seniors my freshman year. Everybody had a nickname so they were trying to come up with nicknames for all of us freshmen. ‘Tex’ was it. They even made a cheer and a chant whenever I would come to bat. That was another thing that made me fall in love with the school; the team and the comradery.”

Q: Did the circle feel like home for you?

A: “Oh gosh yes. I still think that it was the best four years of my life. The circle was my home. That was my little place. When throwing the ball around the infield after a strikeout my teammates in the infield would not come into the circle. Even before the game, they would stand at the edge of the circle and would not come into the circle unless there was a play involved. They told me that it was my place. We had a couple of people on our team that were very superstitious.”

Q: What’s your reaction to being inducted into the WVWC Athletics Hall of Fame?

A: “I was very moved because Steve told me he wanted me to be the very first softball player inducted into the Hall of Fame. I was like ‘why me?’ and he said ‘because it’s you’. He told me that I was one of the best players he has ever seen. I said ‘you just don’t know that yet’ and he responded with ‘no’. I was extremely emotional and thought it was very cool. He was telling me for a while that I would be the first softball player inducted. I still thought he would change his mind. I had to make a speech and I had never given a speech before in my life. At the time I was inducted, I was still working in the operating room so I wasn’t used to saying much to people. I remember getting extremely emotional at the ceremony talking about my dad who was a huge supporter of mine. My dad had passed away a couple of years after I graduated college.”

Q: What does Coach Warner mean to you?

A: “When my mom dropped me off she told Coach Warner to take care of me like I was his own daughter. He was sort of a parental figure as well as a coach even though he wasn’t much older than me. My mom told me to listen to him. He was the biggest influencer of my life at that time. He gave me self confidence and made me believe in myself. He taught me that there is a bigger world out there and this is just a very short time of your life that you’re going to be here. He gave me the drive to want to succeed. He didn’t want me to settle and he wanted me to keep pushing forward toward my goals. That affected me my entire life. Now he’s one of my best friends. Last year I attended a teaching conference in Virginia. My husband and I decided to drive. Before the conference we took two days to hang out with Steve and his dad in utter peace and tranquility. We’ll probably do that again because we had such a great time. We talked so much about the past and about now. He’s one of those people that I can call when I have problems. I have made many treks back to West Virginia either for the conference tournament or alumni games.”

Q: What was it like supporting the 2017 Bobcat softball team at the Division II College World Series?

A: “That was fantastic. We got really close to the World Series my senior year. I told him that the minute you get to that point I’m going to be there. I don’t care what happens, I don’t care where it’s at I’m going to be there when you get to that stage. I know how hard we worked to almost get to that point. Seeing his 1,000th win was fantastic. They played so well in the tournament and it brought a spotlight to Wesleyan.”

Q: When did you know that you wanted to work in healthcare?

A: “Probably high school. I was part of a program in high school where we went to a center that helped disabled kids, nursing homes, hospitals, and places like that. I really loved that. I always loved sports and was trying to figure out a way to combine those two. I was an Athletic Training major in college and was thinking about going that route.”

Q: How did the teaching opportunity come about?

A: “I was contacted by the program director from where  I graduated. He was moving to Galveston and heading up physician’s assistant program. He asked if I would be interested in becoming an assistant professor. This was 2019, and at this point and I had spent almost 20 years in the operating room which requires standing all of the time. I absolutely love teaching the next generation of physician assistants. We’re teaching the teamwork that it takes to be in healthcare and to be in medicine. It’s come around full circle. Now I’m teaching a team not on the softball field but in healthcare and medicine. You might have different a background, education, or experience level as this other person but you still have something to offer the team dynamic.”

Q: What is your favorite part about teaching?

A: “I love the interaction and the building of relationships with the students. We (faculty members) each have little teams of students that we are mentors and advisors to. I like that part too. It doesn’t always have to be what you learn in the classroom. It’s about what makes you succeed in life. There are so many other things you can learn outside of the classroom. It doesn’t always come from books. Sometimes it comes from the people you’re surrounded by. It can be a janitor of the hospital or the CEO of the hospital. That is what I try to push my students to learn. There is always room to learn and it can be even the most minute thing. Pay attention and don’t let the world go by you so fast. You have to pay attention to the little things because they usually have the most meaning. I can see why Steve got into coaching. It’s the relationships that you build with your students.”

Q: What do you miss the most about WVWC?

 A: “I miss being able to go to Steve’s office whenever and talk about stuff. I’ve talked to my husband about where we’ll retire; about moving to a small town like Buckhannon. I miss seeing my college friends in person. Texting and calling on the phone can be awesome but it’s not the same. It’s that feeling of home. The campus is absolutely gorgeous. I miss the seasons changing. We have about two weeks when that happens in Texas. I am blessed to have a chance to live all of the seasons in West Virginia. Down here in Texas we have summer, almost summer, a week of fall and maybe one day of winter.”

Q: How much have you missed softball?

A: “I’ve probably never said enough how much I truly love the game. It broke my heart when I broke my leg. I did try to pitch at alumni games. When Nancy Stonestreet got inducted we played a little bit against the current players. I pitched behind a net and hadn’t picked up a ball in who knows how long. A couple of the girls in dugout said ‘I thought this was supposed to be slow pitch and someone said ‘that is Tex’s slow pitch’. I was surprised with how much I still had left. Steve even told me that I still had a little bit left for someone who didn’t continue to play.”

Demel Jones plans to stay in the education field for a while and is excited to see herself becoming the one giving students confidence in themselves.