As the spring season begins, Jones College Prep student-athletes in various sports look to repeat their success from last season. 

The Jones-Whitney-Payton Varsity Boys Lacrosse team had a great season in 2023 that they look to replicate. 

“Last year the team was pretty successful,” said Varsity Captain Braedan Prentice ‘24. “We won the city championship, and lost the second round of the state playoffs.” 

However, going into this season, the team has been forced to deal with some substantial changes. 

“We lost most of our offensive players after last season,” said Prentice. “We’re also missing our offensive coordinator from last year, so the offense has kind of gotten off to a rocky start.” 

Players hope they can win the city championship again regardless of their struggles. 

“We’re at a position where we’re playing better than we were at the start of last year,” said Prentice. “There’s still a lot of work to do, but I’m confident we can do it.”

The connection between the players remains strong across the team.

  “I really appreciate the strong bond I have with the guys,” said Prentice. “Even though we go to different schools and the bond is hard to achieve, it’s still there.” 

The Jones College Prep Boys Varsity Boys Volleyball team is also looking to recreate success from their 2023 season. 

“We were pretty successful last season,” said Clark Rohde O’Boyle ‘24. “We won regionals against Mount Carmel and came second in the city tournament to Whitney Young.”

The team had some new additions this season, which they hope will help them overcome the loss of some of last year’s players.

“We lost five seniors who were starters last season,” said Rohde O’Boyle. “But we had two new players join the team, Dallas Birkenbeuel and Peter Stewart, who are gonna be some great additions this season.”

Despite the changes to the team and the starting roster, the players have a plan for the season and know the keys to being victorious. 

“We have a lot of talent this year, we just need to start being more disciplined,” said Rohde O’Boyle. “We haven’t had a lot of experience playing together, so getting to know each other better will help guide us to success.”

As with lacrosse, the bond between the players is noted to represent something bigger than the sport itself. 

“If I had to choose [my favorite part], it would probably be the community,” said Rohde O’Boyle. “Being a part of this team for four years has been great and really shaped my time here at Jones.”

The Varsity Track & Field Teams have high hopes for this season, coming off a successful year in 2023. 

“I would say the teams were pretty successful,” said Captain Ivan Chen ‘24. “Both the boys and girls teams ended up with athletes at [the] state [tournament] which is a general goal for us each year.” 

Though other teams are solely focusing on losing last year’s seniors, the track team is also facing a unique change ahead of this season. 

“We do have fewer upperclassmen than we have in previous years,” said Chen. “We also combined the boys and girls team this year, which shook up the team dynamic quite a bit, but we’ve been learning to adapt.”

Despite various struggles, the team asserts that they can be successful again this season. 

“I am confident that we will be able to be at the same place we were last year as long as we can maintain our progress so far,” said Chen.