Every Silsbee athlete flashed nine fingers for the camera after beating Kilgore 24-13 to advance to the Texas 7on7 State Tournament. Their teammate, Jayce Jones, wore No. 9. He should have been with them.

Instead, Silsbee celebrated with heavy hearts less than 24 hours removed from Jones’s funeral.

Jones was a standout starter in both football and basketball at Silsbee High School. He was a dominant rebounder for the Tigers, earning District 22-4A Honorable Mention honors as a sophomore standing at 6-foot-6-inches. That frame caught the eye of college football programs like Memphis and Kansas, who offered Jones as a tight end before he played his junior year.

More offers were sure to flood in, but Jones never played after his sophomore year. He contracted brain cancer in July 2021 and died on May 12 after a courageous 10-month battle. He was 17 years old.

Jones’s friends and teammates gathered in Silsbee High School’s auditorium on May 20 for the funeral. Each of them dressed in all black and carried a white rose, which they gave to Jones’s parents at the conclusion of the ceremony. The next morning, Silsbee’s 7-on-7 football team drove over three hours to Tyler and won four straight games to earn a spot in the state tournament, which will be held in College Station from June 23-25.

The Silsbee community now circulates the #FI9HT hashtag on their personal social media accounts as a tribute to his positive attitude. Silsbee head football coach Randy Smith wrote in email correspondence that Jones would text him almost every day to ask how the team was progressing despite going through chemotherapy confined to a hospital bed. Drelon Miller, another two-sport athlete, spoke at his funeral how Jones’s fight with cancer inspired the basketball team during their run to the Class 4A State semifinals.

“Jayce was so much more than just a great athlete. Jayce was a great person,” Smith wrote on May 13. “He was the kind of kid coaches and players loved to be around.  He was the ultimate team guy.”

The GoFundMe that was set up for Jones is still accepting donations to help the family with medical expenses. The Silsbee High School 7-on-7 team is also accepting donations for their trip to College Station, as 7-on-7 is not a UIL sanctioned event and thus cannot receive school funding.