While it was basketball that proved to be her ticket to college, it was also her excellence in volleyball that made Danette (Jones) Wolfe a multi-sport standout athlete at Salem Community High School.

A 2001 SCHS graduate, Wolfe had to wait two years for a talented senior class that won 63 games during that span to crack the Lady Wildcats lineup. Once she got her chance as a junior in the 1999 season, the middle hitter was named the North Egypt Conference Most Valuable Player Award. Besides her individual honor, Wolfe helped Salem compile a 25-7 record to along with an NEC and Class AA regional championship. Wolfe won another NEC MVP Award in volleyball during her senior season in 2000, as she helped the Lady Wildcats put together a 22-6 record and another NEC title.

Although Wolfe also had to wait until her junior season to crack the Salem starting lineup in basketball, she proved to be a valuable sixth man as a sophomore for the 1998-99 Lady Wildcats squad that went 28-3, won the NEC championship and advanced tot he Class AA Elite Eight. Jones averaged 8.2 points per game as a sophomore and earned NEC Honorable Mention status. Wolfe proved to be an early threat from long range, as her 38.5 percentage from three-point territory (25-65) ranked ninth best in school history at the time of her induction. She also qualified for state competition in the Country Financial Three-Point Shot competition.

When Wolfe moved into a starting role in the 1999-2000 season, she became the NEC’s leading scorer at
22.7 points a game and received the NEC Honorary Captain Award, the league’s second-highest honor behind MVP. The 611 points Wolfe scored that season ranked sixth in school history at the time of her induction.

Wolfe finished her high school basketball career with another strong season during the 2000-01 campaign, as she averaged 19.9 points a game and was named the NEC’s Honorary Captain for the second season in a row. Wolfe was especially deadly at the free throw line where she made 105 of her
131 attempts, good for an 80.1 percent mark that ranked second in school history. Wolfe was named to
the Southern Illinois Coaches Association All-South Team for the second year in a row to go along with a Second Team spot on the Champaign News Gazette All-State Second Team and the IBCA All-State Third Team. Wolfe finished her SCHS career with 1,517 points, a total that ranked fourth in school history.

Wolfe, who received the Salem Times-Commoner Female Athlete of the Year Award in 2000, chose basketball and Southern Illinois University at Carbondale to continue her education and athletic career.

During her time with the Lady Salukis Wolfe had a 33-point game that ranks fifth in SIU-C history and tied the school record for most three-pointers in a game with seven. She finished third in career made three-pointers and sixth in career three-point percentage.

Wolfe entered the coaching ranks after graduation from college, as she coached girls basketball one season at Casey Middle School in Mt. Vernon and four seasons at Selmaville Grade school.

Wolfe joins her father, Don Jones, in the SCHS Sports Hall of Fame. Jones was inducted in 2005.