All photos by Malachi Conrad. Captions by Malachi Conrad and Gabrielle Watkins. Click on the photo gallery below to view images.
JHS defeats Floyd Central 50-47 last night in Hoosier Hills Conference victory
Tag: Basketball
Moye debuts as interim coach at last night’s JHS-Borden basketball game
All photos by Magdalene Conrad and Malachi Conrad. To view photos, click on the gallery below.
Sara Nord continues to give back to Jeffersonville community
by Breslyn Dozal
Sara Nord — JHS alumna, Indiana Miss Basketball (2000), former WNBA player for the Washington Mystics, elected to the UofL Hall of Fame in 2015 — loves to give back to her community.
Nord is the manager for the Spring Hill EnVision Center and Jeffersonville Fieldhouse. She does all that while training kids and giving back to Jeffersonville.
Hayden and Jazmin Doogarsingh, who have known Nord for five years, commented on how caring and how good of a role model she is to the people around her and great with kids.
Nord has always been a team player when it comes to sports or overall life.
“Being a team is important because you have to work with a lot of people throughout life. Have to be a team even when you’re your own boss,” she said.
Nord strives to make basketball mean a lot to people of all ages. She does a lot for a whole little and would do more if she could.
“Personable, outgoing, loyal, hotheaded. I feel like that’s who I am as a person. I meet people easily and I’m loyal to them,” Nord stated on how she thinks people would describe her.
Those who know Nord well describe her as humble despite her accomplishments.
“Very humble, very grateful. I think she knew she deserved it. She is a very gracious winner,” said close friend Greg Manor on how she was when she won Indiana Miss Basketball.
Nord always wants to make the best of people, especially when training with kids. ¨She’s selfless, she’s caring. And loves kids, she loves to help them,” said Manor.
Despite her selflessness, Nord will do whatever it takes to come out first. Whether it’s during a sport or a simple game of Uno, Nord is willing to do anything just for that game-winning feeling.
“Sara’s path to success is a true JHS story; she will be the first to open up and admit that she can identify with kids because Sara wasn’t handed everything on a silver platter. She had to fight for everything she got,” said principal Pam Hall.
She will help everyone get that feeling as well. Nord used to coach at JHS and Rock Creek Community Academy. Now she runs clinics at the Jeffersonville Fieldhouse.
“I think that her dedication on giving back to the community. She helps elementary, middle, and high school students. She is widely known — you can just say ‘Sara’ and people know who you’re talking about,” commented Hall.
Sara Nord, a strong, goodwill, selfless person. She has truly left a mark on everyone she met, and touched many lives. As Hall said, “Sara is kind to people… friendly to everyone in the area.”
“Live life with a purpose.” Sara Nord.
New x Two: Jeff High Basketball Rebounds With New Boys and Girls Basketball Coaches
Coach Melissa Voyles – Girls Basketball
Coach Melissa (Missy) Voyles took the head coaching job at Jeff High because it presented a great opportunity and a great challenge. Prior to coaching at Jeff, Voyles had coached at North Harrison. However, she wanted the chance to coach at a division 4A (the high school sports division for the largest schools) school like Jeff. She also saw the girls basketball team as a program with potential. “It’s always a program that could really be dominant,” she says.
Despite her optimism, there was a clear challenge for the Red Devils this year: injuries. Voyles said this season they had five ACL tears, one broken wrist, and two concussions. “I have never seen this many injuries,” she says. Despite these challenges she has been pleased with the level of dedication her players have shown, saying, “They play hard every day. I can’t fault them for that.” With this dedication has come improvement, according to Voyles.
Going into the season in a tough conference, and after losing a lot of senior talent last year, Voyles says, “I knew it would be a big struggle win-or-loss wise.” However, she credits her team’s leadership and hard work with their success this year, specifically, she credited Neveah Bates (junior), Baily Gibson (senior), Ajia Estes (senior), Tatum McFarland (sophomore), and Sofia Reese (sophomore) with creating a contagious positive atmosphere on the team.
For the postseason, the goal was simple for Voyles. “I want to compete with Bedford.” On Feb. 5, 2021, Jeffersonville fell to Bedford North Lawrence 62-36 in the Sectional Semi-final. Despite their season coming to an end, the Devils were able to keep the game within 10 points with the fourth-ranked Stars, until the fourth quarter.
Coach Andrew Grantz – Boys Basketball
Coach Andrew Grantz says he took the boys basketball job at Jeff High for many reasons, including “the history, the tradition, and the fan support here at Jeff.” Grantz also wanted to return to coaching in Indiana, and with the talent at Jeff High, he was excited at the opportunity to build the program.
For Grantz, the biggest difference between this job and his past coaching gigs is the community. “You know, Providence was a great place to be,” he says, “but you know with a private school, you’re pulling from all different directions.” He feels that the closeness in the Jeff High community really sets the program apart, and unlike Fort Myers, Florida (where he was for a past coaching job), basketball is a bigger deal here in Indiana.
For Grantz, his pride in his team was on display after the first semester when he learned the team had a GPA of 3.4 (highest in program history according to Grantz). For him this accomplishment was important as a coach because “they’re setting themselves up for life after basketball,” he says.
Leading up to the season, with all the confusion about COVID-19, he says the goal was simple: “Let’s just play games.” He also felt that despite the loss of a talented senior class last year, the team would be strong.
Despite his optimism, he does feel one of the major challenges was Jeff’s lack of a consistent feeder program. “Whenever I was younger there was the JYBL (Jeff Youth Basketball League), and if you look at the run Jeff had in the ’90s, that happened right after JYBL started,” Grantz says. He hopes to be able to tackle this problem, which he believes will really help the program as it has before.
Looking toward the end of the season, his goal for his team is simple: “We want to reach our full potential… if we do that or come close to that we have a chance to make a run in the postseason.” Over the season, he says the team has “had flashes of it.” But to reach his goal it’s about “putting it all together at once.”
By Max Fisher
COVID-19 Casts a Shadow Over Winter and Spring Sports Prep
Jeffersonville High School athletes are trying to keep in shape and healthy even as there are some concerns about how things will unfold this year with COVID-19.
Basketball, a winter sport, presents many challenges specific to the sport such as physical contact, touching the same ball, and being played inside. Sophomore boys basketball player Conner Lyons has some concerns but is ready to start the new season. He says his most pressing concern is “guarding people and close contact,” but Lyons’ concerns are overpowered by his drive to get back out on the court. “It’s always been my dream and that’s what I want to do when I get older,” he says. As of right now, the first game for Jeffersonville boys basketball is scheduled for December 5.
Members of the Jeff High baseball team, who have already lost their spring season this year, are trying to stay positive but realistic despite losing some senior talent. Baseball also has the benefit of being a more spaced out game that is played outdoors. Sophomore baseball player Sam Whallen isn’t getting his hopes up, saying, “we might not end up playing this season because of COVID.” The Jeff High baseball team’s first game is scheduled for April 2.
Members of the Jeff High softball team are also trying to prepare for a spring season in 2021. Senior Danielle Monroe says the team is beginning winter workouts, which are different this year because of social distancing. Still, she feels like the effort will pay off in the spring. “I’m hopeful. I think we’ll have a season,” Monroe says. “I really hope so because it’s my senior year.”
The Indiana High School Athletics Association (IHSAA) has said the organization is committed to letting students play, saying they believe it is “essential to the physical and mental well-being of student-athletes to return to organized physical activity and build team relationships with their peers and coaches.”
Although every sport has its own precautions for the safety of players, coaches and fans, they have one thing in common: in the age of COVID, athletes are optimistic but unsure about the future.
Story by Caleb Vincent
Girls Basketball Team Wraps Up a Challenging Season With a Winning Record
The Jeffersonville girls basketball began this season with high expectations. They had all three seniors signed to play in college: Nan Garcia signing to Penn State, Kelsie James signing to IU Kokomo, and Kiersten Poor signing to Grace College. In the course of the season, both Garcia and James would fall victim to injury, taking them out for the season.
Despite this, the team was still able to come out with a 14-11 record, and they were able to reach the semifinals of the sectional tournament losing to Jennings County 52-45 on February 2. “It was a big loss losing both Nan [Garcia] and Kelsie [James] because they both had such an important role on the team,” says junior Laura Gillenwater. Despite this, she says she was “very impressed by our team though because everyone pulled it together and stepped it up.” Gillenwater chalks a lot of this success up to a strong performance by the freshmen this season. “They had to adjust quickly and learn how to play varsity basketball which they excelled at,” she says.
Sophomore Lily Haire also noted that the season was made harder by the loss of Garcia and James. She credits Senior Kiersten Poor for a lot of the success this year. “Kiersten had a major role on our team. She was a very good leader and someone to look up to,” says Haire.
Despite their struggles this year, the girls’ basketball program has a lot of talent coming up. Jeffersonville has three of the top five girls in Clark/Floyd county in the class of 2023 according to News and Tribune in Tatum McFarland, Sophia Reese, and Cadence Singleton. These freshmen along with the returning varsity sophomores: Lily Haire, Nevaeh Bates and Olivia Clive and juniors: Alexis Gibson, Laura Gillenwater, Aija Estes and Bailey Gibson, will make a strong team looking forward to next year.
Additional News in Sports
Following Sectionals Jeffersonville Girls Basketball Coach, Michael Warren, resigned as coach following the season’s conclusion. Warren ended with a record of 112-61
after 7 seasons as Girls Head Basketball Coach.
Chris Moore takes the top coaching spot for Jeff High Boys Basketball
New head coach has experience at the college level
During the Greater Clark County Schools board meeting on Tuesday night, Chris Moore was announced as the new head coach for the Jeffersonville boys basketball team. Moore joined Jeff High this fall as an assistant coach. Prior to that, he coached at the college level at schools including Indiana University Southeast, Bellarmine University, the University of Cincinnati and Wright State University. Most recently, he served as an assistant coach at Southeast Missouri State.
Because so many players who helped the team secure a 2019 sectional championship are expected to be back this year, expectations are high for the upcoming season. Moore acknowledges that taking over as head coach under those circumstances is stressful, yet exciting. “A lot of both,” he said. “I’ve taken over teams before,” he added, “but this one has the talent and potential to go a long way.”
Jacob Jones, a senior point guard for the Red Devils who recently verbally committed to playing college basketball at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, is pleased with the coaching decision. “He’ll be a good coach,” said Jones. “He has a lot of experience coaching at colleges.”
Moore holds a bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice from Kentucky State University and a master’s degree in sport administration from the University of Louisville.
Moore succeeds Joe Luce, who joined the Red Devils as head coach in 2015. Luce resigned from his position as head basketball coach and principal of the Engineering and Manufacturing Academy on Aug. 29, 2019.
