Sawyer Jones remembers being ranked as Morristown High School’s top student since his freshman year. He liked the feeling and had motivation to stay there.

However, in retrospect, Jones is not a fan of virtual learning and wonders if his senior year stayed out of the classroom, maybe the ranking would have changed.

“I may have struggled with a calculus class online,” said Jones, Morristown High School’s valedictorian for the Class of 2021. “To be back in person, I liked it way better.”

Jones, the son of Patrick and Linda Jones, will take advantage of Ivy Tech’s two-year, tuition-free program before transferring to Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) to complete his degree in Business Administration.

“I plan on doing financing and accounting,” he said. “I like working with that stuff and I’ve enjoyed it so far with the classes we have here.”

Jones was a fifth grader when his family moved to Morristown. Four years later, he was celebrating a Class A basketball state championship with his teammates on the floor at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.

“It was awesome,” said Jones who admitted his state championship ring is kept safe in his bedroom. “It’s still in my mind. I can’t believe it’s been four years.”

Jones played soccer for two years and was a varsity golfer in addition to being a key member of the basketball program. He also was a member of National Honor Society and Student Council.

As a young boy, Jones remembers his older brother, Garrett, struggling to speak and needing speech therapy sessions. In his desire to help his sibling, he realized how quickly he was learning things.

“Garrett is 15 months older than me and he could not talk until he was 4,” recalled Jones. “So he went into speech therapy and I always would go with him and sit in the corner while he was there and shout the answers.

“So that’s when I started to absorb knowledge quicker and that was a big advantage for me. All the way through elementary school I was pretty smart. I credit a lot of that to him.”

Morristown salutatorian Rylee Kleine admits leaping ahead one spot seemed unlikely but Jones still had his concerns right up to the final day of classes.

“Going into the last day of finals, I had my dual-credit Calculus final and I had a major paper from a college English class (due),” said Jones. “Once I knew I got a good grade on my calculus final, I think I got a 96 on that final, and I aced my last paper, I knew I had it in the bag.”

Jones will see the Morristown athletic season continue tomorrow as golf teammate Asher Caldwell competes in the Muncie Central Golf Regional.

Caldwell advanced out of the sectional Monday in a playoff against a Triton Central golfer. Both hit their first shots out of bounds, according to Jones.

“Asher hit one of the most spectacular shots I’ve seen in person,” he said. “He was on one side off a hill and maybe 175 yards … or more … and he puts it 12 feet within the pin and two-putts to win.”

And that meant the team had an added practice to schedule.

“He got me a free round of golf at The Players Club,” laughed Jones.