Athletic update for April 2, 2024
JV softball at Union City is cancelled for today.
Varsity baseball at Hillsdale is cancelled for today.
No make up dates as of now.
Congratulations to the varsity girls basketball team on their win last night over Quincy to claim the Division 3, District 84 MHSAA title! The Lady Comets advance to Monday's Regional semifinal game at Leslie high school. We will play in the 5:30 game against Michigan Center.
Per MHSAA guidelines, tickets will need to be purchased via GoFan.co and no passes will be accepted. Cost for a ticket for a regional game is $9.
Go Comets!!
Athletic update for girls basketball:
Our lady Comets beat Hillsdale yesterday to advance to the district final game. The game is tomorrow, March 8, at home against the Quincy Orioles with a 7:00pm tipoff. The theme for the game is "White Out". Hope to see as many Comet followers as possible to watch and support the girls!
Per MHSAA guideline, tickets must be purchased online at GoFan.co and no passes will be accepted.
Athletic Department update:
Spring sports open up for the high school on Monday, March 11 and middle school on March 18. All game schedules are posted online at jonesvillecomets.org. Listed below are the sports we offer in the spring with the varsity coach's email. Students athletes must have physical on file before they can attend a try out or practice. Any sport specific questions, including practice times, please contact the varsity coach via email.
Softball - varsity coach Marlena Nichols, mnichols@jonesvilleschools.org
Girls soccer - varsity coach Jeff Dice, jdice@jonesvilleschools.org
Girls track - varsity coach Hailey Nielson, hnielsen@jonesvilleschools.org
Baseball - varsity coach Corey Rogers, crogers@lodgingkit.com
Boys track - varsity coach Pete Konieczki, pkonieczki@jonesvilleschools.org
Boys golf - varsity coach Mike Beatty, beattymichael21@gmail.com
MS track - coaches Jessics Stroble, jstroble@jonesvilleschools.org, and Jake Snyder, jsnyder@jonesvilleschools.org
Athletic department update:
Here is the Gofan.co link to purchase tickets for tonight's girls basketball game at 7:15 at home against the Hillsdale Hornets. Per MHSAA guidelines, tickets must be purchased through this website and no passes are accepted.
Go Comets!
Good luck to our winter athletes who will be representing Jonesville competing for a state title this week!
On Friday and Saturday, senior wrestler Evan McColley will be wresting in the individual MHSAA meet at Ford Field in Detroit in the 215 pound weight class.
Both the girls and boys bowling teams will be traveling to Muskegon's Northway Lanes on Friday to compete in the MHSAA team state finals.
On Saturday, these girls will be at Muskegon's Northway Lanes for the MHSAA singles state finals - senior Hallie James, senior Mikayla DeBoe, and freshman Harper James.
Also on Saturday, these boys will be at Muskegon's Northway Lanes for the MHSAA singles state finals - junior Andrew Sackett and sophomore Kyle Covey.
Congrats to these teams, individuals and coaches on a great season! Continue to represent Jonesville in a positive way and show your Comet Pride!
The athletic department would like to introduce our new varsity volleyball coach - Sydney Barrett!
Coach Barrett is a former four year varsity Comet athlete in volleyball, basketball, and track. After high school graduation, she took her volleyball game to Hillsdale College. She played and started four years there, where she was a two year captain, a two year GLIAC Libero of the year, and an Honorable Mention All-American. After graduating from Hillsdale College, she worked on their volleyball coaching staff until she took over the Jonesville volleyball program from 2015-2019. She was also a former 1st grade teacher at Williams Elementary from 2012-2022. A quote that she made during the interview says it all about Coach Barrett - "This school and community holds a huge place in my heart and I am excited to once again have the opportunity to bleed ORANGE and BLACK, like I have for the past 25 years as a student, teacher, and coach."
Welcome back Coach Barrett!
Once a Comet, always a Comet!
Today at the Regional Singles Bowling Competition at Jax 60, the Comet bowlers qualified 5 bowlers for next weekend's state finals in Muskegon as four Comet bowlers were in the top ten of the girls and boys final standings. Only the top seven qualify for state this year.
On the girls side, it was senior Hallie James winning 1st place, followed by senior Mikayla DeBoe in 3rd place and freshman Harper James in 7th place. Junior Hayley Steveson finished in 8th place.
On the boys side, it was junior Andrew Sacket winning 1st place, followed by sophomore Kyle Covey in 4th place. Senior Matt Woodruff finished in 9th place and sophomore Marshall Baker finished in 10th place.
Great job to the Comet bowlers and their coaches!
Congratulations are in order for some of our athletic teams as we enter state competition!
Our Competitive Cheer team qualified for the Regional meet tomorrow, Feb 24, at Michigan Center High School with a top four finish in the District competition. The Regional competition starts at 10:00 am and tickets must be purchased through GoFan.co per MHSAA guidelines.
One member of the Comet wrestling team, Evan McColley, a senior, qualified for the individual state wrestling meet on March 1 at Ford Field in Detroit. Evan finished in 3rd place at the Regional meet last weekend to qualify.
Our Comet Bowling teams have been ranked all year in the state. The girls team is currently ranked 1st in Division 4 and the boys team is currently ranked 2nd in Division 4. Today, at the Regional team competition at Jax 60, it was the girls team winning the regional and the boys finishing 2nd. Both teams have qualified for the state finals next weekend in Muskegon. Tomorrow the teams return to Jax 60 for the Regional singles competition that starts at 9:00am. Tickets must be purchased through GoFan.co per MHSAA guidelines.
Great job Comets! Best of luck in your quest for a state title!
Today is Athletic Director Kathy Bondsteel's retirement from JCS. She has worn many hats over her career from working at Hillsdale College and Hillsdale Academy as an administrative assistant to Hillsdale Community Schools where she was the administrative assistant to the AD. She was also a spot welder, production control clerk, worked at a family owned convenience store, and a secretary at the USDA.
However, she is best known for 17.5 years as Athletic Director of JCS. She was a pioneer in that she was the first woman to be the AD in the Big 8. She was elected region AD of the year two times and worked on many MHSAA committees. She is well respected amongst her peers. She always made the officials feel welcome.
Her position is not an easy one. There are a lot of moving parts to the position and you, at times, are working with staff and athletes at their lowest in times of defeat. She always remained positive and, most importantly, cared about kids. We hope that her retirement brings her all the love (grandkids) and TIME she has earned. Thank you for everything you have done for JCS! Best of luck and go Comets!
The bond vote is 2 weeks from today! Go to jonesvilleschools.org for more information about the bond.
This is the answer to the question, "Why didn't you just move the football complex to the high school along with the track?".
Here is a quick summary of the November 7th bond project. It is a 0 mill increase focusing on safety and security, classroom and instructional technology updates, and critical repairs/renovations.
The bond will not increase your taxes and they will begin going down in 2034 and continue to go down each year over the life of the bond. Visit Jonesvilleschools.org for more information!
One of the questions I frequently get about the bond is, "Why don't you use the money you have?" Here is a pie graph of our 2022/23 school budget. This breakdown is very similar to districts statewide. The vast majority of a school district's expenses go towards staff (wages, benefits, retirement, etc.). And that is as it should be. You want to put your money towards your people.
The rest of the money then has to be divided up between transportation, athletics, supplies, technology and maintenance. In the pie chart, the ESSER funds were spent on the HVAC project at Williams last year so that is not in this year’s budget. Those monies are gone. The safety and security money must go towards safety and security and is temporary. Our maintenance budget which is around 3% of our total budget goes towards utilities, grounds, maintenance and custodial supplies, water, trash, and repair/purchased services. The repair/purchased services portion is what we have to work with for major projects. In times of an emergency, we can dip into our fund balance if we need to.
So why not just keep setting money aside? The district does and has. However, any money you are saving for the future is money we can't use for the needs of today. Our facilities director (Tom) has done a great job of repairing what we can but he is limited by our budget, the size of the project, and facilities that are just past their useful life.
These are some photos that show the state of our bleachers at the football field. The larger hole was a result of someone’s foot going through it to no fault of their own. Another is an image of a board that prevents items from falling below the bleachers that have fallen off. The bleachers are rotting. Not due to neglect but time. We can, and have, replace(d) boards. None of the complex is ADA (American Disabilities Act) compliant. There is no, real, handicap parking at the field. There is no handicapped seating. There are no sidewalks which makes it difficult for our seniors and disabled to navigate to the bleachers. There is no locker room for our kids. They use the transportation garage and the visiting team goes back on their bus.
This 0 mill proposal provides new bleachers for both sides. The bleachers will have railing and the steps grip. The bond provides real handicapped parking. It provides sidewalks. It provides a multipurpose building that can house concessions, restrooms, storage, and locker rooms. It also provides new lighting for the stadium.
Remember, the majority of the bond is going towards school buildings in the form of safety and security, updated furniture and instructional technology, and repairs/renovations. However, our athletic complexes are also facilities. The football field is around 75 years old, possibly older. These are used by the entire community. Go to jonesvilleschools.org for more information. Go Comets!
Recent Jonesville High School graduate, Hannah Spencer, a current freshman at the University of Alabama Honors college, has earned a spot on the Crimson Tide Women’s Division I rowing team.
According to Hannah, “This has been a great experience and I’m loving the opportunity that University of Alabama has given me but also remember the support from my community back home. My years in competitive cheer helped to physically prepare me and band helped provide leadership skills that have been useful in my experience.”
Hannah, as a valedictorian for the class of 2023, understands the importance of taking her coursework seriously and has expressed how well her AP courses, as well as her economics class, at JHS have prepared her for the college workload. She is maintaining strong grades, in addition to a part-time job and working out with her team six days per week. Hannah is double majoring in Political Science and History with a minor in Russian.
There is still a lot of hard work to put in between now and spring season, and Hannah is learning about what it means to be an NCAA division 1 athlete but she’s proven that she is up for the challenge.
There is still heavy competition to earn a spot on the varsity team, and it will be an ongoing process for the next few months but with how much she is loving her coaches, her teammates, and the sport, she is excited to see where this takes her.
She will be competing in UA’s fall regatta on the Black Warrior river in Tuscaloosa on October 28.
Go Comets & Row tide
These are the boilers at Jonesville Middle School. They are over 20 years old and are nearing end of life. This is one of the projects the committee felt should be addressed. We replaced the boilers at Williams Elementary school last year and we have seen reduced usage as a result. Boilers are much more energy efficient now.
Please read for some bond FAQ's
These are our Pathways students who went on a "talent tour" at Aertech! The students learned a lot about manufacturing parts for the aerospace industry and what a job there would look like. The kids represented the school well. Aertech were very generous hosts!
This is one of the restrooms in the middle school. The restrooms have decades and decades of use and need to be renovated. This will improve the accessibility of the restrooms and the appearance which are showing their age. It was also an item the student committee I met with said needed to be done.
One thing to remember when looking at the replacement of equipment is the volume of use these facilities get every day. They get a tremendous amount of use every day. Now add that up over the decades.
