Sports are a huge chapter of many people’s lives. Some people play sports growing up just for the fun of it, while others strive to make it to the big leagues. Playing sports can be just an “activity” for people, or it can be one’s life. Like his teammate, Jesse Sipin Jr., former senior football player, Jonny Mack, is making it to the next level of football: college. 

     For Manchester football, getting another Lewis Cass player to carry on their careers in high school to college is nothing new. From the Cass class of 2024, middle linebacker, Eli Martin signed to play football at Manchester University. Now, out of the class of 2025, both Jesse Sipin and Jonathan Mack have found their way to Manchester football as well. Lewis Cass runs a tight program, and it is no surprise that Eli Martin was succeeding at Manchester. Manchester’s Defensive Coordinator and Linebackers Coach, Alan Bowen, had to say this about the incoming freshman duo Jesse and Jonny joining Eli, “We are really excited to add each of these two guys! Elijah has done a great job this year of coming in and representing himself, his community, and family the right way.” Bowen followed this statement with, “As we add more Cass guys, we believe we are adding two guys who do the same. Jesse and Jonny are both great guys to be around, and we are excited to see who they develop into. On the football side of things, we are excited to get two hard workers who love the game!” Manchester football is getting two new great players and people in Jesse and Jonny. While Cass football has a strong foundation of training players to be good people, they also find ways to make college athletes out of these kids (or you could say men). Thankfully, for Jesse and Jonny, their high school football career will transition into college football prosperously. 

     When it comes to incoming freshman Jesse Sipin, he is still looking for a roommate. Sipin said, “I have been teammates and a friend of Jon’s for some time now, but at this point in time the decision to room together has not been made.” Along with potentially being “roomies,” Jesse and Jonny are reuniting with former Cass player, Eli Martin. Jesse and Jonny are both looking forward to sharing the field with Eli again, as Jesse said, “I am really looking forward to getting to play with Eli again. In high school, we shared time together on the offensive line, where we became good friends. I think it is a pretty cool thing to have three former high school teammates play together at the same college.” 

     Going to college to play football is a challenge alone, yet Cass has three kids from the same school playing in college, all within two years. Statistically, roughly 7.3% (Mapreps.com) of athletes attend college to play football. Jonny said, “I feel very honored to do something a lot of people don’t get to do, and it shows that hard work can pay off. This has been a dream of my own to play football at the next level, and now that I am doing it, it feels like I have accomplished my biggest challenge in my life.” Along with committing to play at the next level, Jonny ran for an impressive 1,007 yards this season! Beside him, Trevor Rowe ran for 1,201 total yards this season, placing Jonny in a group of two achieving this impressive feat. This accomplishment strongly propels Jonny towards his college career. “Doing this really made me rethink taking my step to the next level. Obviously it is a really hard thing to do yourself, but it is even more difficult to do with another teammate doing it as well. This really helped me want to play at the next level, knowing that I can do this. It really helped me build confidence in myself to make sure that I play the sport that I love for the future to come.” Jonny put up an impressive senior campaign, where he earned All-Loganland Honors, All-Conference for the TRC (Three Rivers Conference), and Team MVP. 

     Outside of the football aspect of Manchester, both gentlemen are looking forward to the traditional “college experience” as well. “What I am most looking forward to in college is the new experiences I will have and the new people I will be able to meet,” Jesse said. 

     All in all, Jonathan Mack overcame a “quiet,” so to speak, junior year to a shelling senior year. Everyone in the Cass community is proud of Jonny for what he has accomplished, and we wish him the best of luck for his future career at Manchester University. Sadly, there will be no more “GO, FIGHT, WIN,” yet there will be more “BRING THE JUICE!”