PROUD TO BE AN ATHLETE According to Athletic Director Tom Ward, Jackson is driven by the goal of creating a program that athletes can be prideful of. “He’s very energetic and passionate about athletics and putting on really high quality programs that everyone is proud of and everyone wants to be a part of,” Ward said.

New Greenhills Middle School Athletic Coordinator Evan Jackson grew up with sports. As a kid, he was a multi-sport athlete, doing four different sports. He wants to be able to pass on that passion for sports to the next generation of Greenhills students.  

“I played soccer, basketball, track, and football a little bit. I think [growing up playing sports] is one of the reasons I do my job.” said Jackson. “I love sports and I want to see kids grow in that same space.”

One of Jackson’s biggest goals for the middle school athletic program is making athletics more prominent and accessible, so that every kid is able to develop and feel comfortable on the team that they are on. 

“We try to set our teams up so that everyone has a spot to play somewhere. It may not be on the A or the best team that we have, but we wanna give every kid an opportunity just to play and learn the sport. And getting kids more comfortable to step out of their comfort zone and try something new. Just encouraging that.” said Jackson.

To engage more middle school students, Jackson plans to highlight the idea that development is key and students don’t need to be amazing to join a team. 

“I think just showing [kids] that it’s okay not to be where you want to be yet. The key word is yet. It’s okay to not be good at basketball yet, good at soccer yet, but be willing to try it.” said Jackson.

One middle school soccer player, Malcolm Cha ‘30, says that Jackson always pushes the soccer team to be the best that they can be. According to Cha, Jackson (who coaches middle school soccer) is very high on the development of the players, and believes that to play hard, athletes must practice hard as well.

“[Jackson always says] if you work hard in practice, it will pay off in games.” said Cha. “[Jackson helped] us push forward and do better in games, and helped us with our development in soccer.”

Jackson has also set a goal to make Greenhills sports more competitive. He believes that it is very important to have fun while playing sports, but also allowing middle school athletes to understand the importance of commitment, confidence, and practice.

“Wanting to get the kids having fun and getting them to explore more into sports, making them more willing to try and growing their confidence, but also instilling a sense of commitment to Greenhills sports,” said Jackson. “[Instilling] mental toughness, work ethic, and getting the kids to understand that we want to have fun playing sports, but we also wanna compete and push ourselves to get better and improve.”

Jackson wants to make sure that students feel as if middle school athletics are seen. He plans to add more of a spotlight to them, so that students feel more encouraged to join a team and feel seen in their sport.

“There are a couple of other things I want to introduce in terms of like how we celebrate middle school sports. Like my old school did something we created called athlete of the week, where we kind of highlighted an athlete of whatever sport. Coaches kind of sent in recommendations and we did that at the middle school assembly,” said Jackson. “Just really putting a spotlight on middle school so kids feel seen and keep them engaged and encouraged to keep playing when they get to high school.”

With the help of athletic director Tom Ward, Jackson was able to start a middle school flag football program as well, which will take place in November. 

“We worked closely on creating this new intramural flag football season, which is pretty small for the middle schoolers. It’s only a couple days a week for seven weeks, but it’s an opportunity to take advantage of our resources, our space, our facilities, and do something new and fun. And I especially like that we are able to do that and offer high schoolers a chance to volunteer in leadership roles,” said Ward. 

The importance of middle school sports is a big value to Jackson. He encourages trying new things, setting good goals, and having fun while being competitive. Jackson encourages all middle schoolers to try a sport this year.

“Move your expectations. If you’re going into soccer, or whatever sport, just go and have fun,” said Jackson. “Go out there with the only goal just to have fun and learn, and you will be successful.”