On Wednesday, April 15th (a date normally associated with taxes), South Side girls basketball star Jaci Jones signed her letter of intent to play college ball at Indiana University-Purdue University-Indianapolis. She had announced her commitment to IUPUI via Twitter on March 26th, about three weeks before the signing.
“It’s stress off my back now, and I can just move forward and continue my basketball career and see what I can do at the college level,” Jones said.
The signing was recorded through a video conference with WPTA using Zoom Video Communications software. The news of Jones’ signing became public when WPTA’s Zach Groth posted video of the signing to Twitter.
Since FWCS schools are closed during Indiana’s shelter-in-place, Jones held the signing at her house. She could not be joined by her friends and teammates as she signed.
“I did miss all my friends and family, I wish they could’ve been here to see me sign again, but we recorded it, so we sent it to them, and they can still see me,” Jones said. But it was heart-breaking that I couldn’t have family and friends around to see me sign and make it official again.”
Jones went through a long process before signing with IUPUI. She had originally signed to play at University of Detroit Mercy, but de-committed after head coach Bernard Scott was released. Even before signing with Detroit Mercy, she had a lot on her plate.
“Just from the beginning, even when I started getting college scouts looking at me, it’ always been stressful, but going through this process the second time was even more stressful,” Jones said. “It was my senior year, and I’m just glad I had the other opportunity and another college [was] interested in me, and I could still play college basketball at a Division 1 school.”
Jones was a starting guard at South Side. At IUPUI, she will likely be used as both a point guard and a shooting guard.
“[Head] Coach [Austin Parkinson] he likes…that I can play the one or two, so I’ll be playing the one and two at IUPUI,” Jones said.
At South Side, Jones had a very successful career. That included scoring 1,000 career points. She reached that milestone in this past season’s SAC Holiday Tournament game against Homestead. She was a part of three straight teams that played in a sectional championship. During her sophomore year (2017-2018) the Archers defeated Homestead to win a sectional title. Jones had 12 points and two assists in that game.
“I loved playing at South Side for those four years, I had some big accomplishments there, and it was just exciting to play for South Side and represent the Archer family well,” Jones said. And having a coach like Juanita [Goodwell] was just a great opportunity for me.”
Though Jones is set to graduate, the Archers stand to return most of their starters next year. That includes Lamyia Woodson and Jas Combs (soon to be seniors), as well as Olivia Smith (soon to be a junior). Smith averaged double figures in both her freshman and sophomore seasons.
“The next few years, [the future is] very bright for them,” Jones said. “They’ve just got to work on leadership skills and play together, and having a coach like Juanita, they’ll benefit very well, and they’ll have great opportunities to play and win a lot of games.”
