Iced on the field

Published 9:44 pm Wednesday, August 20, 2014

King’s Fork football coach Joe Jones, right, and his son Bryce get doused with cold water for the “Ice Bucket Challenge” at Tuesday’s football practice. Jones issued the challenge to Suffolk’s three other high school football coaches.

King’s Fork football coach Joe Jones, right, and his son Bryce get doused with cold water for the “Ice Bucket Challenge” at Tuesday’s football practice. Jones issued the challenge to Suffolk’s three other high school football coaches.

The viral fundraiser for the ALS Association hit Suffolk’s sports field this week when King’s Fork football coach Joe Jones and his son, Bryce, took the “Ice Bucket Challenge.”

The challenge involves people dumping buckets of ice on themselves in lieu of — or sometimes, in addition to — a donation to charity, usually the ALS Association. They take a video of the stunt, along with a recitation about which charity they’re supporting, and post it on social media with a challenge to others. Those challenged can give $100 to avoid the ice bath.

As of Aug. 19, the ALS Association said, it has received $22.9 million in donations since July 29, more than 12 times its total in the same period last year.

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Jones said he took the challenge, issued by athletic booster Shannon Ward, because he and his wife had a good friend who had ALS, a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord and eventually results in death.

“I don’t mind getting cold showers after wins,” Jones said. “This would be the only other thing I don’t mind getting a cold shower for.”

Other members of the team soaked the elder and younger Joneses after practice on Tuesday, with the rest of the team looking on.

Jones issued the challenge to the other three high school football coaches in Suffolk — Bryan Potts at Lakeland High School, David Coccoli at Nansemond River High School and Lew Johnston at Nansemond-Suffolk Academy.

But he had a special message for Potts, who was Jones’ defensive coordinator for many years before being hired at Lakeland last year.

“I would like to pour the bucket on Potts myself,” Jones said just before getting saturated by ice water.

Potts said Wednesday that he already did the challenge, and Coccoli did it Wednesday. Johnston said he will meet the challenge.

King’s Fork’s field hockey coach, Courtney Van der Linden, and some of her players also took the challenge earlier this week, Ward said.