He’s just a rising junior and already stands at 6-foot-6, 345-pounds along the offensive line. Don’t let that frame fool you for a single moment, though. He’s just as polite and cerebral as they come. He’s already got the right mental approach when it comes to playing the tackle position and fits right in with the persona that some of the game’s most successful players at the position have displayed. He’s fine with being the guy that can clear the path up front or be the guy that understands how to breakdown someone else’s tendencies to help his teammates succeed with the notion that his skills will always be evolving and that there will always be room for improvement. He’s Sam Jackson at Lakewood Ranch High School.
The Mustangs got off to a fast start in their spring game versus Sarasota-Booker and never looked back en route to a rain-shortened 27-0 victory. The game was called less than four minutes into the second half due to heavy rains and lightning during the evening. Lakewood Ranch’s offense was well on their way to putting up over 300 yards of total offense on the night, so all-in-all, you could say their spring was a success. Jackson seems to agree.
“I think our spring went really well. The game got cancelled halfway through, but I thought we did pretty well on offense and defense. There were some mistakes, but I think that everyone did their job and that’s why we were able to come through with the victory.”
Jackson feels there were some extremely valuable learning experiences to be taken from a 6-3 season. A season that by all accounts would have been successful to most teams, but a season that sounds like it could have been so much more according to him.
“With Braden RIver, we went in already feeling like we were going to win that game, because for the past three years we had won (it). I think that was a great learning experience because it taught us we need to go into the game and play for the entire game no matter who the opponent is; the Palmetto game was a huge loss, a loss that really got to our self-esteem a bit I gotta say. I think all of that just makes us stronger people off the field as well as on, though. It kinda opened our eyes to how much work we still needed to do.”
“To be honest, I feel like we have the team that can win district this season.”
To get the results that he and his teammates desire this season, it won’t come easy to say the least. The Mustangs are still in a district with Palmetto and have Venice added to the fold. In addition to those crucial contests, Lakewood Ranch will try to avenge their loss to Braden River as well as take on stiff competition hosting Jesuit, Tampa Catholic and Sunlake this season as well. “Yes sir! That schedule should just point to how hard we have to work this year!” says Jackson as that gauntlet is pointed out.
The challenges of the schedule combined with constantly working on his craft are ones met with enthusiasm however. He knows that he’s got the size, but that his size isn’t going to guarantee him anything if he’s not producing on the field.
“To me I feel like, I feel like there’s nothing I cannot work on enough. There’s always something that I can do to get better. Like, my o-line coach always makes sure he tells me that I can always get better at something. Whether it’s footwork or speed, strength or technique; anything really. For me it’s all about as long as I can work hard and that I’m improving and not getting worse at something, then I feel like I’m going in the right direction. That’s where I’m at. You could say I’m good at my footwork, or good at something else, but to me you shouldn’t be fine with where you’re at. You should always want to get better and I never really see myself as being perfect or the best. I just see myself as trying to get better and making sure I can help my team out in any way I can.”
We mentioned the cerebral aspect of this young man that fits into the mold of some of the more successful players at that position regardless of the level. That is, the big fellas in the trenches don’t always get the love they deserve as arguably being the smartest guys on the field. Jackson is no different when he points out one of his future course offerings at Lakewood Ranch and that his interests to study in college are directly tied into that course.
“I’m really looking forward to taking Psychology next year. Basically at this point, when I go to college I want to study Sports Psychology. So, right now with all my other classes I just want to make sure I’m getting by and doing what I’ve got to do to as best I can and keep what I think is a pretty good GPA.” For what it’s worth, that “pretty good” grade point average happens to stand at a 3.9 at the moment with the first half of his secondary career in the books.
“A large part of football is also a mind game,” Jackson goes on to say eloquently. “Psychology is something I always found interesting. My mom studied psychology, studied therapy and then became a therapist, so the mind and knowing what people might be thinking or how they feel is pretty awesome.”
Although in a technical sense Lakewood Ranch is not in BCP’s coverage area, we certainly look forward to seeing the team progress and should have ample opportunity to see them against some of the Bay Area’s best. There are many counties outside of the four exclusive ones that represent themselves really well during the regular season and offseason events.
So with all of this in-hand and two more years left to develop, what are his plans for the immediate future? Jackson and his teammates have that covered as he (better yet, they) concentrate on the bigger picture. The rest of his summer will be busy, and so will his regular season and as he continues to develop, we will certainly be watching this young man and bring you updates to his progress.
“The summer at the moment is going pretty well. We’ve been lifting for an hour and then conditioning for an hour every morning. It’s just great to see everyone out there competing and that only makes us better as a team. At the end of the summer we have the Western Carolina (University) Camp on July 15th-18th that we are going to that we will use for team bonding and get a good college experience seeing what it’s like on a college campus and how college practices go. Schools that have both offered me at this time are USF and the University of Miami; and I went to a camp in Gainesville and talked to their o-line coach and he told me they would definitely be tracking my season this fall.”