MCC’s Jessie Jerome to play volleyball at D1 Manhattan College

McCook Community College sophomore Jessie Jerome has signed on to continue her volleyball career in a few months at Division 1 Manhattan College in Riverdale N.Y.

Despite coming to McCook from Rawlins, Wyo., Jerome said from the moment she got off the plane and stepped on campus, she knew that’s where she was going.

“Even though it’s on Manhattan, the campus is very secluded – not like in the heart of the city – and it’s beautiful there,” she said. “The coach played professional volleyball for several years. I got along well with the girls and I loved the campus.”

Coach Mauro Miletic returned to Manhattan as head volleyball coach last fall after serving as an assistant for the Jaspers from 2014-2016.

He played professional volleyball for several years in Croatia, France, Slovenia and Puerto Rico, where he began his coaching career. The Jaspers play in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. After taking over the program late last summer Manhattan went 1-28 in 2022 and improved to 9-21 this past season.

Jerome said the Manhattan coaches reached out to her on one of her recruiting profiles and were interested in her as a setter in a 5-1 system. After she did a little research, she decided to visit New York City for the first time in her life and flew out for a visit earlier this fall and ended up loving it.

“Jessie has been a fun player to watch grow and change through our program,” said MCC Coach Hayley Kobza. “The Jessie I recruited is not the same player that will be going to Manhattan College. She is confident in her abilities and will be a great addition to her future team.”

This season Jerome, the 6-1 setter, appeared in 34 games and had 697 sets along with 303 digs, 180 kills, 80 total blocks and 38 service aces.

She had four matches this season of more than 40 assists, with a career high coming Sept. 1 in Texas against Frank Phillips College when she had 44. She had 30 matches with double-digit sets, and 14 with double-digit digs with her best games coming Sept. 6 at North Platte (18) and tied that mark again at home Oct. 21 against Trinidad State. Four times during the season she recorded double-digit kills with her best of 12 coming in both games against Central Community College. She had two triple doubles -- Sept. 19 against Western Nebraska with 11 kills, 24 sets and 10 digs and Oct. 3 with 12 kills, 32 assists and 10 digs against Central CC.

For her career she was credited with 1,248 assists, 503 digs, 265 kills, 116 blocks and 73 service aces.

  Jerome said her time in McCook has been amazing. The team won 22 games each of her two seasons.

“One of the things that stands out to me is the amount of people that want to volunteer to help our program,” she said, listing Dennis Troester, Nick Nothnagel and Matt Chitwood this year and Athena Messenger in the past.

She also said that extends to the people who support the team and college students by attending games and feeding student-athletes meals like in the adopt-a-student program and she’s grateful for that.

Jerome first stepped into the Peter and Dolores Graff Events Center when she was just 14. That’s when her older sister Jordan was being recruited by MCC. The Jeromes have relatives in McCook and her dad Joshua arranged for his daughters to work out in the college gym that summer when they were in town.

“I have had the absolute privilege of coaching a Jerome sister the last four years, and I will enjoy seeing Jessie continue to grow in her athletics and academics,” said Kobza.

Jordan, who is two years older than Jessie, graduated in 2021 from MCC and has played two years at Division 2 August College in Georgia. That team is 25-4 and hosting the Peach Belt Conference this weekend. The Jaguars are ranked third in the NCAA 2 Southeast Region rankings.

Originally Jessie was opposed to the idea of coming to McCook because she didn’t necessarily want to follow in Jordan’s footsteps.

“But I’m so happy I came,” she said. “I tell everybody this is my favorite place and I never want to leave. There is no place like McCook and I’m really sad my time here is ending but I’m excited for what’s next.”

That time will happen as soon as the semester ends. She is majoring in business administration and looking into the healthcare field as well as athletics. She’ll transfer at semester and will enroll in classes at Manhattan for the spring.

Academically she was named to the MPCC President’s list last fall and again this spring. She was also named to the NJCAA all-academic second team this past summer for student-athletes maintaining GPA between 3.8 and 3.99.

She said one of her favorite memories came just about a year ago.

“It was right after the season ended last year, there was a group of eight of us that went in the gym and just played four-on-four, but it was one of the best, most fun times I’ve ever had in any gym,” she said.

Jerome leaves McCook with fond memories of the college, the community, her teammates and her coach.

“Kobza is wonderful. She is good at what she does and is one of the best human beings I know,” she said. “And the team is really close. We’re all really good friends so I will definitely miss that.”

Full interviews with Jessie Jerome, and MCC Head Volleyball Coach Hayley Kobza found below.