Jones got all of the Sumter area players in his day. Could he do it now? I doubt it. Times change. Demographics change. Every year it gets harder and harder to keep kids in Legion. And frankly, many of the kids that are legitimate college prospects would be better off playing travel, especially considering the level of Legion ball in some areas.
The more metropolitan/affluent the area, the harder it's going to be. For example, Spartanburg Post 28 is always going to struggle to get the better kids from Dorman and Spartanburg High School. Most of those parents are going to put their kids on travel teams in hopes of getting them greater exposure. A few of the better Dorman kids played Legion this year, but only because they had already committed and had little to gain from another year of travel. Yes, there are things you could do to get a FEW kids back. Sponsoring/Playing in tournaments like Florence does could help. You could also have Regional Showcases just for the Legion kids. Anything that might get a few scouts out would help. (I probably went to 10-12 games this year and saw 1 scout, and he was just there because he was in town for a travel tournament). But in this area, most of the best players are gonna stick with travel no matter what you do, and no matter who the coach is.
How to get kids to TRULY commit their summers to Legion, I have no idea. Up here, most of the ones that play Legion really aren't committed to it. Derek must use some sort of voodoo on his kids. ;-)