Basketball
Favorite athlete: Maya Moore
Favorite team: New York Knicks
Favorite memory competing in sports: When I scored a career-high 23 points against Wissahickon this season.
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: I will never forget playing in the Lou Cappiella Summer Basketball League with my team when I ended up in a split after a hard drive to the basket.
Music on iPod: Drake, Alicia Keys, and Maroon 5
Future plans: Attend college next fall to study business marketing and hope to find a job in advertising and promotional marketing.
Words to live by: ‘Adversity causes some men to break, others to break records.’
One goal before turning 30: Attend either the 2016 in Brazil or the 2020 Olympics
One thing people don’t know about me: I’m a 2nd degree Black Belt in Karate
By Mary Jane Souder
Simone Jacques is her basketball team’s choice to take foul shots at the end of practice when making a shot means the difference between running wind sprints and going home.
“They’ve run 15 sprints by that time, and if she makes the foul shots, practice is over, but if she misses we have to run sprints,” coach Daniel Dougherty said. “The kids want her to shoot, and we want her to shoot those free throws.”
That’s a telling example of the faith both her coaches and teammates have in the Plymouth Whitemarsh senior who is the undisputed leader of this year’s squad.
“She’s a quiet leader,” Dougherty said. “She’s the one in the locker room that is just so positive all the time. She never yells at her teammates in a negative way. It’s always – ‘You’ve got this, you can do it.’ She’s just a real positive leader all the time.
“We have five seniors on the team, and they’re technically all captains, but without a doubt, she is the captain of the team. Everyone follows her.”
With good reason.
Jacques is not only a four-year starter, she also leads the team in both scoring and rebounding, but it’s much more than that.
“She’s just a leader at every single practice,” Dougherty said. “We’ve had some really rough practices with the tough losses we’ve had, and she keeps the team going.”
Jacques credits her upbeat personality to her father..
“My dad is a really positive person,” she said. “Things aren’t always going to go your way, so you have to roll with the punches. You have to handle what life gives you. Life is too short, so why sit there being miserable or critical when you can be positive and keep a smile on your face.”
Former coach Becky Duffy also cannot talk about Jacques without mentioning her unfailingly positive approach in every situation.
“She just has such a great perspective on life,” Duffy said. “Basketball aside, she’s a very positive individual, and she’s a very mature individual.
“When she came in as a freshman, she just carried herself so much more sophisticated and mature. Maybe it was because she had been through so much in her life.”
In the spring of Jacques’ eighth grade year, her mother lost her courageous battle with cancer.
“That was difficult,” said Jacque, who is an only child. “You don’t think you’re going to lose a family member like that, but the support from all my basketball teammates and parents – they really came together.”
Jacques wrote her college essay about her mother, who taught her young daughter some invaluable life lessons.
“The perseverance and determination of her attitude while she was going through it showed me firsthand that life goes on and you have to make the most of it and do things you love to do, which for me is play basketball,” Jacques said.
Jacques got her first taste of competitive basketball playing on an all-boys team with Plymouth Junior ABA.
“I always liked watching basketball on TV, and my parents wanted me to get involved in a sport,” she said. “At that time, I was taking karate classes, so I wanted to get involved in something else. Basketball was an opportunity for me.
“I liked it, but it was a little uncomfortable playing with the boys. Once you score in a game and get that confidence going, it was fun. My coach really made me feel welcome.”
The following year Jacque, a 2nd-degree black belt in karate, began competing with the Whitemarsh travel team. She was officially hooked on basketball, and by the time she was 11, she was competing on the AAU circuit.
As a freshman, Jacques started for the varsity.
“She really ended up being, in many ways, a role model for some of the upperclassmen even as a freshman,” Duffy said. “Her character – she just has such great character.
“She’s very grounded, she knows who she is, and she’s easy to coach because she has such a great attitude. She’s always a team player – what can I do to make the team better?”
For Jacques, playing varsity meant leaving her classmates who were playing together on the eighth grade team.
“I was a little nervous,” she said. “It took me a while to get used to it, but the seniors were definitely welcoming. We didn’t have a winning season, but it was definitely a good experience.”
Everything was going according to script until, during her very first practice with her Fencor AAU team in early March, Jacques went down with an injury.
“The first drill – we were doing defensive slides with the defense,” she recalled. “I planted wrong and felt a pop in my leg.”
A week later, Jacques underwent surgery to repair her torn ACL.
“I had never had a serious injury before,” she said. “It was definitely something new. It was hard to hear, ‘You’re going to be out six to eight months.’
“I went through a rigorous rehab. I went to a sports training center to help me get back my quickness and confidence on my leg. It was definitely tough coming from where you were and then not being able to do the little things.”
Midway through her sophomore season, Jacques was back in PW’s lineup armed with a new perspective.
“You don’t realize how much it means to you until you’re seeing your teammates playing out there and you want to help so bad,” she said. “It made me realize that basketball is something that’s a big thing in my life, and I enjoy playing it.
“It reaffirms your passion. I definitely think I’m a stronger and better player because of that. I feel as though it’s made me tougher even though it was difficult.”
If Jacques was looking for a new challenge, she got it the following year when, as a junior, she played all five positions on the floor.
“She had to transition from playing the small forward to the point guard to the post almost every single game,” Dougherty said. “She’s physically strong, and she’s smart so she knows every play from every position.
“She’s a very good free throw shooter, and she gets to the foul line probably 8-10 times a game and shoots over 70 percent from the free throw line.”
Jacque, according to her coach, is also a great game manager.
“Whenever it’s a big spot in the game, we want the ball in her hands, and she knows what to do with it,” Dougherty said. “This year looking at our stats, she hits three’s, she hits free throws. She’s just everything to our team.”
As much as Jacques enjoys basketball, she is equally enthusiastic about her work in the classroom.
“Going into high school, I made a commitment to myself that I would try and excel in my classes, get good grades,” she said. “Through my coursework, I try to challenge myself by taking AP courses and things like that.”
This year Jacques is taking a scheduled that includes two AP classes with the remaining honors classes and one elective. A member of the National Honor Society and ranked in the top 10 percent of her class, she boasts an unweighted GPA of 4.00 and is a regular on the distinguished honor roll.
A member of the Class of 2013 steering committee, Jacques also is a Senior I-Block Buddy, serving as a mentor to freshmen helping them succeed at the high school level.
“I’ve had the pleasure of teaching her in the classroom, and she’s an unbelievably smart kid,” Duffy said. “She applies herself. She really wants to learn, she wants to understand things.
“She doesn’t want to get an A and just get the paper done with – it’s ‘Okay, what can I learn from you?’ and that’s how she is on the basketball court. She’s probably one of the smartest players I’ve ever coached. I think someday she would be an amazing coach because she understands the game very well.”
Coaching might be down the road for Jacques, but for now, she’s concentrating on her final high school season. She hopes to continue playing basketball at some level in college where she plans to major in marketing.
Jacques has already been accepted into the business programs at Fordham and Hofstra. Her top choice is NYU, and Emory is also high on her list.
“I can’t wait to see where she ends up,” Duffy said. “She’s got a good head on her shoulders. It’s been neat to watch her develop.
“I’ll be excited to see what happens in her upcoming years and see what she does. She’s a great kid.”
