Foley High School senior Steven Jones is one of five Alabama students chosen to receive Alabama Public Television’s 2011 Young Heroes Award.

“I’ll definitely remember (winning this award),” he said. “I never thought I’d make it so I thank everyone and God for this. I was actually quite surprised when I got the letter n the mail. It’s important to me, though. I’ll always remember it.”

Julie Champion, Jones’ peer leader teacher, nominated Jones for the award.

“Obviously, it’s important to the school, but I’m mostly excited for him. He’s worked so hard,” Chapman said.    “The day I got the call that he won, I cried.”

Jones was chosen out of hundreds of nominations statewide.

Jones was born the third of six children. He became accustomed to poverty and substance abuse in his younger years, but he turned his life around when he went to First Baptist Church of Foley and learned about the Baldwin County Sheriff’s Boys Ranch in Summerdale. The ranch is a non-profit organization that provides family-style homes for Alabama’s needy children.

Jones, who said he’s lived in many different areas of South Baldwin County and was born in Texas, said he’s going on his fifth year at the ranch. He moved there at the age of 14, and he currently is 19 years old. The ranch will pay for his college, he said, and he plans to attend Faulkner State Community College for two years before transferring to Troy University or the University of Alabama.

“(The ranch) doesn’t want you to go off to college right away,” he said. “They want to make sure you are going to work hard so they know the money isn’t being wasted.”

Jones already has plans for what he wants to do when he graduates.

“I’m going to be a police officer and maybe move on to a private investigator,” Jones said. “I want to get a degree in Criminal Justice. I’ve already talked to Baldwin County Deputy Sheriff Hollis Mack, and he told me to keep my head up and stay out of trouble.”

While he is happy with his life today, it was a different story before he moved to the ranch.

“Before I moved to the ranch, there were a lot of fights at school and a lot of disrespecting my teachers,” Jones said. “I’d cuss them out.”

Jones said family issues surrounded his early years, and he was on his own a lot of the time.

“I didn’t talk to my mom ever until the end of eighth grade because she was in and out of jail and with substance abuse,” Jones said. “My father wasn’t a bad dad. He just worked a lot. Me and my brothers were basically by ourselves.”

Jones said his discipline problems got so bad that he was sent to a detention center when he was still in middle school.

“In seventh grade, I got sent to a detention center and boot camp because my friend and I went out one night and my friend threw a rock and busted a police car window,” he said.

Jones said the hard times continued through eighth grade.

“My grades weren’t bad,” Jones said. “It was hard though. I was working 40 hours a week and in eighth grade.”

Jones said he was kicked off the middle school football team in seventh grade, but he returned in eighth grade and things started falling in place.

“In seventh grade, they kicked me off the football team, but in eighth grade we had a brand new coach and he asked me if I wanted to play football,” Jones said. “On the eighth grade football team, there was a kid named Travis Borders who invited me to church. At church, there were people who told me about the ranch.”

Jones visited the ranch and loved it. He’s been there ever since.

“The rules were hard at first because I wasn’t used to listening to anybody,” Jones said about the transition to the ranch. “At home I could do whatever I wanted, but the ranch saved my life.”

Jones played varsity football at FHS for three years and maintained a 3.85 grade point average. He also does volunteer work and is a spokesperson for United Way. Jones also received a Baldwin EMC scholarship, and he started in the Alabama-Mississippi High School Football All-Star game. He doesn’t plan to continue playing football in college, though.

“To me, you’ve got to have a passion for the game,” Jones said. “I love Jesus more. I didn’t feel (football) was best for my future. I pray about all of my decisions.”

Jones sat down with Alabama Public Television to record an interview at the school on Thursday to talk about his life from when he was getting into school fights to today. The interview will air during a “Stars in Education” broadcast May 11, which combines the Alabama Department of Education’s Teacher of the Year Awards with the Young Heroes awards. Alabama Public Television is the first statewide public television network in the country.

The other four award recipients include: Faith Bynam of Corner High School in Warrior; China Barber of Theodore High School; Jessica DeVoe of Piedmont High School in Piedmont; and Matthew Watts of Robertsdale.