All photos by Malachi Conrad, Parker McCloskey, Sophia Goforth, and Isaiah Stewart.
JHS celebrates homecoming this past Friday
Category: Sports
Bloomington North defeats JHS last Friday 36-3
All photos by Malachi Conrad, Parker McCloskey, Sophia Goforth, and Isaiah Stewart.
possession. Photo by Malachi Conrad.
In the Moment: Behind the Scenes with freshman and junior varsity volleyball
Click on slides in the gallery below.
Boys’ soccer prepares for sectional
by Aubrey Cummings
Pushing themselves as hard as they can for the 80 minutes that the match lasts. Heads up and hearts pounding every touch of the ball sends it moving across the field. With a shared goal, getting the ball into the net, the team moves as a unit across the field.
Ranked 36th in the state and 27th in their class, the varsity boys’ soccer team is moving along in their season.
Currently they are 12-3-1 and are second in the Hoosier Hills Conference for varsity and are 7-5-2 for JV. As the end of their season begins to approach for both teams they all begin to prepare for sectionals, with a normal goal of wanting to win sectionals and advance to regionals.
Head varsity coach Collin Bell explained, “It’s all about the game that is happening. One game at a time, one set of 80 minutes. If we push ourselves for those 80 minutes and commit ourselves for those 80 minutes, we will be successful.”
This was shown in their game against Franklin this year. The team had many teams cut from their schedule and many new ones added. They have faced tougher teams than they normally would. They do this to better themselves and to allow for them to be better prepared for the competition at the end.
“It’s all about the game that is happening. One game at a time, one set of 80 minutes. If we push ourselves for those 80 minutes and commit ourselves for those 80 minutes, we will be successful.”
Head Coach Collin Bell
“I think it’s a great change because it allows for us to adjust to playing new teams that we haven’t seen before, so it is a good way for us to test ourselves against teams that are considered better teams,“ said junior Alan Solorzano Lopez.
The varsity team isn’t the only one beginning to prepare for sectionals. Six of the JV members have the opportunity to go with the varsity boys to the sectional games.
“Knowing there’s a chance for us to go with the varsity team to sectionals encourages us on JV to push ourselves harder to show we are the best to try and claim our spots,” stated freshman JV member Dominic Cummings.
Doing this allows for younger boys to know what they may have the chance to experience in the near future. This allows for the program to continue to grow. The future also depends on some of the varsity boys as well as the JV.
“The pressure feels greater not just because I am a goalie, but also because I am a freshman, so I am representing more than just my varsity team but also my classmates on JV,” said varsity freshman Jafet Benitez-Rubio.
Benitez-Rubio is not just on the varsity team; he is the starter goalie as a freshman. This is significant every, and everyone knows it. The student section in games makes sure everyone knows by cheering “He’s a freshman” whenever he stops a ball from going in.
The team’s spirits are high as ever. The team feels confident and are preparing to have a different outcome than last year where they lost in the final round to Seymour.
The Red Devils play Jennings County next Monday in the opening round of sectionals at Floyd Central High School at 7 p.m.
Homecoming game against Bloomington North tonight at 7 p.m.; royalty crowned at halftime
New Albany defeats JHS 5-0 last night
Tennis team heads into sectional play next week
by Mikail Cetiner
The boys’ tennis season is coming to an end, and that only means one thing — sectional is close.
The Jeff tennis team is really excited and nervous because for most of them, this is their first time playing in a sectional.
According to singles 1 senior William Brunette, “It is very exciting, but also very stressful to play sectionals.”
The tennis team works hard and takes the practice really seriously. “We work on a lot of basic strategies to prepare for sectionals; the main focus is playing with energy and focus and staying present during matches that can often be very intense,” head coach Jerid Inman said.
Even though the practice is hard and intense, many tennis players decide to stay after practice, and one of them is junior Alex Nef.
“I stay after practice to work on my weak points so I can be ready for Sectionals.”
“We have a lot of new varsity players this year,” coach Inman said, “so we need to practice more intensely so the varsity players can learn how to play under a lot of pressure.”
Sectionals also have a side effect for the J.V players, “Sectionals affect J.V really much because we won’t have any matches since sectionals only is for varsity,” junior J.V player Ian Hoyer said.
According to senior J.V player Micah Cabell, “J.V should be taken more seriously because most of them are the future of the varsity team.”
“Even though we have no matches we will still practice and play against each other for next year,” J.V coach Clint Fackler said.
Sectional begins Tuesday, Sept. 30.
Girls’ soccer defeats Columbus East 4-1
All photos by Malachi Conrad.
Cheerleaders earn honors at ‘Fear the Cheer’ competition
by Reese Dobson
Cheerleading is a lot more difficult than it may appear at a regular football or basketball game.
“The hardest part about cheer is probably cheering throughout all the difficulties, like weather conditions, losing, and people being absent,” said sophomore cheerleader Aaliyah Flowers.
Cheer is an all-year-long season. “I don’t think anybody realizes how much we practice. We only get one month off throughout the year, and we practice from April to competing at nationals in February,” senior Kyndal McCartin said.
McCartin said the cheer team practices on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday. On weekends, cheerleaders compete in competitions and cheer at sports games.
“Going to nationals with my team and competing the routine we have worked so hard on makes it all worth it,” senior Kenzie Keller stated.
UCA cheer nationals is a cheerleading competition in Orlando, Florida, where teams all over the country come and compete for state titles. Teams have to receive a bid to compete in the competition, Keller explained.
However, cheerleading isn’t always about competitiveness. A big part of cheerleading is team bonding and trust, which cheerleaders need to have for each other.
“I have always enjoyed watching others cheer, and I wanted to give it a try. I enjoy the sportsmanship and friendship on the Jeff team, and it keeps me going,” said freshman Kiela Smith.
Coming to practice with a good attitude is important to get through a hard practice, Flowers explained.
Cheer is sometimes debated as to whether it’s a sport or not. “I think cheer is definitely a sport because we practice, train, and perform. We have a minimum of four practices a week, and we have competitions against other teams,” said freshman Eliza Davis.
The Jeff High cheerleaders attended one of these competitions at New Albany High School last Saturday, Sept. 21. They came out in first place for the timeout routine and first place for the game day routine. The awards ended with the title “Grand Champs” for the overall timeout category.
“I’m glad we won because we practiced hard, and I’m glad all the work paid off,” Keller said.
Red Devils beat North Harrison 3-2 to celebrate Senior Night
Floyd Central beats Jeff 34-12 on Friday; Red Devils prepare for Bloomington North and Homecoming this Friday, Sept. 26
All photos by Magdalene Conrad, Malachi Conrad, Parker McCloskey.
Red Devils face Floyd Central tonight on Senior Night
by Austin Bainbridge
It’s a rivalry week for Jeff football, matching up against a Floyd Central team that has had great success against them in the past, and Jeff is trying to turn the corner on tonight’s game.
“It’s a mental thing for the players, when a team just beats you down year after year you just expect it to keep happening, so I’m hoping we can get this done,” said head coach Joe Washington.
The coaches know this game starts with them, and they want to show the players a way to win.
“This game starts with me. If I’m fiery and excited about the game, I think the players are going to feed off my energy. So I hope me showing how much I care will make the players really want to dominate Floyd,” Washington said.
Even though Jeff hasn’t beat Floyd in 11 years, the players remain confident in their skills.
“I think they’re scared of coming here and losing. When you’re scared of doing something, you come up with excuses to get out of it,” said fullback Jaxx Long.
The Jeffersonville defense made several stands against Kokomo last week, along with a dramatically improved performance at Bedford-North Lawrence.
“Our linebacker play was really good against Kokomo. Malachi Monts had 13 tackles, and KT (senior Kurion Thompson) had nine and an interception. I think that’s what helped with the win,” said Washington
The defense is going to have to step up to stop Floyd’s potent rushing attack, which went for 425 yards last game.
“They played Silver. I mean, it’s not too hard to rush for 400 against Silver Creek. We put in a new defense, we’re going a five-man front this week to try to slow down their running game,” said Washington.
It’s Senior Night tonight, and that is just more motivation for the players.
“I want to play hard and win to give these seniors a good memory before they go off to college,” said Long.
The coaching staff sees where a win could take Jeff, and they want to make it there
“A win against Floyd would start a fire and start this program down a path we want to go,” said Washington
