The girls basketball team has been working hard throughout the past year. Their season may be starting now, but they’ve been playing together throughout the past year at camps, summer tournaments, and summer practices. The girls basketball team consists of 17 girls. All the girls love to play the game of basketball. Additionally, the new reconditioned floor has been a huge upgrade. This new floor helps from slipping giving the girls better grip with their shoes. The girls love to play against each other in practice and do drills that are competitive.

There are 6 senior girls. The coaches are Pat Kenney and Coach Purnell. They have lots of faith in the team this year, 6 senior girls is great for them. They have a big rotation in subbing so the girls don’t get tired. Even the juniors get a good amount of time in the game.

The starting 5 is an impressive group of girls. These girls are hungry for wins and will play their hardest throughout the game, never giving up.  The teams starters include Courtney Mercer, Grace McDevitt, Abby Spalding, Chelsea Williams, and Camryn Mitchell. The Lady Jays perform tonight against the Sebring Trojans.  The Lady Jays are very experienced because this group of girls have been playing together since their freshman year and went undefeated together.

Courtney Mercer, a high school Senior starter, states, “Our team this year is definitely one of the better groups of girls that’s been at Jackson-Milton. All of my friends and I that play basketball can agree on it. I personally believe we could go .800 on the season or better, just depending on how hard everyone wants to work. This includes working hard before and after practice, staying after to shoot, whatever it takes. This is my belief and I feel that these girls are willing to do whatever it takes. On and off the court, these girls are ready to play.”

The  2019-2020 girls basketball season currently hold the record of 8-5.  The lady Jays have 6 seniors this year (Grace McDevitt, Courtney Mercer, Abby Spalding, Megan Fultz, Alyssa Deak, and Julia Bogden). 

Senior Courtney Mercer says, “I think it helps us a lot that we all got the opportunity to start together as freshmen and end our career together as seniors.  We’re all friends on and off the court and we have each others backs no matter what.”

This year the Lady Jays had 6 incoming freshman. These freshman make up the JV team and work hard everyday playing against upperclassman to get better. Junior Varsities record is currently held at 5-7. The Jays have 8 more games left and hope to see the community come out and support. 

Senior night is going to be held on February 13th, the Jays will face United Local High School.

Senior Abby Spalding says, “I think we’ve grown a lot over the years together which has helped us a lot. I think we have been working really hard in practice to get ourselves prepared for our upcoming games because our league has been tougher for the last two years than it has been in a long time but I know we can handle the pressure.” 

The Lady Jays are not just a team, but a Family.