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BLACKSBURG – Virginia Tech Director of Athletics Whit Babcock announced Saturday that he has accepted the resignation of Kevin Jones as Assistant Athletics Director, Special Projects and Design. Jones expressed his desire to continue working with his own Blacksburg-based firm, JoBa Design, and to pursue his MBA from Virginia Tech.

“We appreciate the many contributions Kevin has made to Tech Athletics, especially his work in the past two years,” Babcock said. “Kevin will remain a great ambassador for the Hokies even though he will no longer be serving in an official capacity. His design concepts on Union Park at English Field, as well as his tireless efforts in transforming the look and feel of the Merryman Center will be lasting contributions to our department for many years to come.

“While we will miss Kevin’s presence in the department every day, he’s a Hokie to the core and we’re glad that Kevin, Robyn and their children will remain in Blacksburg,” Babcock continued. “We’re also thankful that Robyn will continue her wonderful work as a learning specialist on our Student-Athlete Academic Support Services team. We wish them all the very best, as Kevin builds on his Virginia Tech education and continues his exceptional work with JoBa Design.”

A consensus All-America running back at Tech in 2003, Jones has served as a role model and mentor for Tech’s current student-athletes in all sports, while heading the Hokies’ outreach to former student-athletes, with a particular emphasis on those competing professionally. In addition to his conceptual design work on the upcoming renovation of Tech’s baseball facilities and the graphics for the Merryman Center transformation, Jones utilized his industrial design degree on a number of other projects the past two years.

“I’m eternally grateful to Whit for providing me the opportunity to serve my alma mater the past two years,” Jones said. “The chance to connect with so many Hokies has been a phenomenal experience. While I’m definitely proud of the contributions I’ve helped make to our athletics facilities, my dream has always been to build a thriving business of my own. I appreciate the support of Whit and so many others as I take the next step with JoBa Design.”

JoBa Design provides strategic design services to start-up and established companies to create and execute design solutions for problems of form, usability, physical ergonomics, marketing, brand innovation and sales. For more information, visit: http://www.jobadesigngroup.com.

The Chester, Pennsylvania native was rated the nation’s No. 1 overall high school football recruit when he signed with Tech in 2001. He went on to amass 3,475 yards on the ground in three seasons, which still stands as the second-highest career rushing total at Tech. He earned consensus All-America honors as a junior in 2003 after rushing for a then-school season record 1,647 yards. He entered the 2004 NFL Draft and was a first-round pick of the Detroit Lions. He went on to play four seasons with the Lions and two with the Chicago Bears before retiring. He ran for 1,133 yards in 2004, joining Billy Sims and Barry Sanders as the only Lions’ rookies to ever post a 1,000-yard rushing campaign.

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