Mark Jones enters his eight season at the helm of the West Texas A&M University baseball program. In his eight year's as a head coach, Jones has tallied an overall record of 159-212 (.428).

The 2006 season was one of Jones' most successful as a head coach, his Buffaloes finished the year 26-27 and 11-9 in the Lone Star Conference, which was good for a third place finish in the South Division. He was also named LSC Coach of the Year after his squad had a 10 game improvement over the 2005 campaign.

Jones also coached three All-LSC Second Team honorees, infielders Matt Ray, Brian Schupp and outfielder Justin Graham. While Patrick Wallis was named honorable mention All-LSC and Gabe Gonzalez was picked for the LSC All-Tournament Team.

Jones continues to build the Buffalo squad by valuable experience from six seniors. Bringing back most of the starting line-up from last season, Jones will field the 2007 team with experienced players and will add key newcomers.

This season Jones will return 21, which include the before mentioned seniors, leadoff hitter Cody Dean, outfielders AJ Knight, Josh McCreary, pitcher Jessie Rodriguez, middle infielders Gabe Gonzalez and Matt Ray.

A graduate of Howard Payne University, Jones earned his bachelor's degree in 1992. While at HPU, the Yellow Jackets won three consecutive league titles and made playoff appearances in 1992 and 1994.

After his time at Howard Payne, Jones spent the summer of 1993 as the manager of the Chilicothe (Ohio) Paints, a professional team of the independent Frontier League. Jones was the first manager of the Paints, as they played the first ever game in the Frontier League in June of that year and were victorious over the Portsmouth Explorers.

Jones was named assistant coach of the Buffs in 1995, he helped guide the Buffs to a 148-117 record, while finishing the 1999 season ranked at 14th in the nation. After the 1999 season, Jones was named the third coach of the Buffs after the program was brought back in spring of 1994.

His first year as head coach, Jones was in charge of rebuilding a program that lost 12 letterwinners, four starters, three pitchers and was picked to finish fifth in the LSC South Division.

In the year's following, Jones has coached 27 All-LSC honorees, including the conference Player of the Year, Travis Denson in 2003. Kevin Seibert, who played for Jones during the 2000 and 2001 seasons played professionally for the Amarillo Dillas.

Jones earned his master's degree from WTAMU in 1997. He and his wife, Tina, who is a teacher in the Canyon ISD, have two daughters, Taylor and Madison.