Jonesville votes to join The Cascade Conference in the 2023-24 school year
JONESVILLE — The Jonesville Comet will be making their first conference transition since the formation of the Big 8 in 1973.
Jonesville school board members voted on Monday, June 27 to join the Cascade Conference after the 2022-23 sports season. The Comets will join Leslie and Brooklyn Columbia Central High School in their moves to the Cascades Conference.
Jonesville superintendent Erik Weatherwax released an official statement on the move:
"JCS is excited to announce that tonight our school board voted unanimously to switch to the Cascades Conference beginning the 2023/2024 school year. This was not a decision that was taken lightly given our history with the Big 8 and the tradition that goes along with it. However, the move to the Cascades Conference provides more athletic opportunities for our students and that's what we had to stay focused on. I want to thank our community members, coaches, parents, board members, and Mrs. Bondsteel for their work in exploring this opportunity. In the end, it's the best decision for our Jonesville Comet athletes. Go Comets!"
Weatherwax said that school and class size diminishes had limited Jonesville students' opportunities. "The move opens those opportunities back up for our kids," said Weatherwax. Weatherwax said that while there were questions about travel, the number of miles Comets would drive to play Cascades games was not significantly different to the amount they currently travel with their scheduled athletic events.
Several opportunities that will be available to athletic programs at Jonesville include the potential introduction of a full conference schedule for Comet bowling teams. There will be new opportunities for junior varsity athletes to compete in different sports. The Comets look to potentially have a girls golf team when they enter the Cascades conference. Weatherwax believes that while there may be challenges ahead for the Comets as they enter a new era, those challenges will only bring good things to their sports programs and the students.
Jonesville A.D. Kathy Bondsteel said that the Comet athletic programs are looking forward to the transition and will look to work with the Cascades to help develop a game plan for what the sports calendars for Cascade schools will look like in 2023.
"We appreciate the Big 8 conference and the history of Jonesville being a part of it for so many years," said Bondsteel. "We look forward to the opportunities this will present to us. We will start to meet with the Cascade athletic directors to look into out how we are going to put the league together. There's a lot of things the Cascades has now but they are interested in hearing feedback from all of us (new schools) and including us in those conversations. We look forward to bringing our coaches in and having them be a part of the transition as well."
There are no current plans for how each sport will be structured in the Cascade conference during the 2023-24 season.
The move brings the total number of Cascade teams up to 11. The Cascades Conference was formed in 1954 with Vandercook Lake, Michigan Center, Napoleon, East Jackson and Grass Lake. Other current members include Addison, Hanover-Horton and Manchester high schools.
The Cascades has seen it's fair share of schools come and go over the past few decades. Columbia Central will be making its second tint in the conference, having previously left in 1996. Columbia Central has played in the Lenawee County Athletic Association since 2012. Leslie will conclude its ninth year in the Greater Lansing Area Conference after joining in 2014. Both teams are committed to finishing this upcoming year in their current leagues.
Jonesville will compete in the Big 8 conference this upcoming sports calendar before making the transition to the Cascades in 2023. Jonesville has been a member of the Big 8 conference since 1973, after the league formed around the remaining members of the Little-C Conference. Jonesville's history with teams currently in the Big 8 can date all the way back to the early 1950's.
It is unknown how the move will affect the current rivalries Jonesville has established with teams like Homer and Reading. The Comets and the rest of the Big 8 play in crossover games with the Cascades Conference, and no decisions (if any) have been made that would change those events in the future.
Jonesville may not be the last Big 8 member to move to the Cascades, as there have been reports another team may be on the move in the near future. The Big 8 conference last saw a shift at the end of the 2016 sports calendar. Athens High School made a move to the SCAA conference, before dropping to 8-player football. Bronson High School joined in 2017. Superintendent Erik Weatherwax said that the Big 8 conference will seek to expand in the future. There is no current information on who those new schools will be or when that expansion will happen.
The Comets have seen a fair share of success over the past few years in the Big 8 conference. The Comets have competed for league titles across all of their sports including football, softball and boys and girls basketball.
This past football season, the Comets went undefeated in the Big 8 and won the Cascades Crossover Championship with Addison High School. Jonesville has played more than 70 football games against Big 8 rivals Homer, Quincy, Union City and Reading. The Big 8 conference has no moves currently in the plans to bring in more teams, and the conference currently still has Homer as a member.
In addition to the recent moves in the Big 8 and Cascades conferences, The Daily Telegram's Doug Donnelly reports that Adrian Madison will formally join the Lenawee County Athletic Association, leaving the Tri-County Conference and filling the void Columbia Central has left. The LCAA conference includes Hillsdale, Hudson, Onsted, Blissfield, Dundee, Clinton and Ida.
This article originally appeared on Hillsdale Daily News: Comets to make move to the Cascade Conference in 2023
