Skylar Jackson hired as new Sandite Volleyball coach
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Courtesy.
This story was originally written for the Sand Springs Leader.
The Charles Page High School volleyball team will have a new coach this fall, but the name may sound familiar.
Taking over for three-year head coach Derek Jackson will be his wife, Skylar Jackson, formerly a varsity assistant and JV head coach at Broken Arrow.
“Last summer I had told my head coach at Broken Arrow, ‘hey I think this is going to be my last year. I’m ready to move on and be a head coach,’” said Jackson.
She thought she would have to wait another year or two after finding out she was pregnant in June, but when Derek vacated the Sand Springs job to take over at Claremore, it was too good of an opportunity to pass up.
“I coached quite a few of the Sand Springs kids during the club season and I hated to leave them at the end,” said Jackson.
Both Derek and Skylar coach for Club Virago. Derek resigned from Sand Springs in December, but by the time club season ended in March, the job was still open.
“I know a lot of the families, I know the administration. I know there’s going to be lots of support on both sides of that,” said Jackson.
It’s not exactly common for a coach to take over their spouse’s former program - a fact that Jackson is well aware of.
“It kind of started as a joke. All of our friends, as soon as he left, asked if I was going to go over there and take over.”
“It is unusual. How often does that happen? Would that make the transition harder? Would it make it easier? We talked through it and I chewed on it for a while. I finally just decided the girls deserve somebody who’s going to come in and work hard for them.”
Leaving Broken Arrow wasn’t an easy decision, however. In addition to spending five years on the coaching staff there, Jackson is also a 2011 Tiger alum.
“It was really hard. Anytime you go somewhere and you’re there for any length of time; you see these kiddos when they’re little and they grow up in your gym. You spend so much time with those people that they become like your extended family.”
“It was definitely hard leaving what I feel like is home, the halls I used to walk as an athlete, and where I got to go back and make an impact as a coach. It was really difficult.”
Jackson is well qualified. As a prep player she was a two-time defensive captain for the Tigers and played in two State tournaments. She competed at the collegiate level at Southern Nazarene University and coached for one season at Will Rogers High School before returning to her alma mater.
One challenge she’ll face at Sand Springs is making the program her own.
“I want the girls to know that it’s not just a continuation of what he left behind. We’re going to do our own thing and we’re going to go make waves.”
Jackson has already taken over coaching duties for the Sandites, overseeing tryouts in May and organizing a summer youth camp that will be held June 20-22. She left Broken Arrow for maternity leave after Spring Break, and visited the Sandites for seventh-hour athletics for the last six weeks of school to get a head start on practices.
“We’ve been in the gym, breaking things down and working on our fundamentals,” said Jackson. “I tell the girls all the time; if you can do the little things well, it makes the big things easier.”
The Sand Springs program isn’t quite as established as Broken Arrow, which has won a State title and been in the finals as recently as 2019. It is growing, however, and the district added a seventh grade team during Derek’s tenure.
More and more Sandites are participating in summer club leagues, and several have signed to play at the collegiate level in recent years.
While most of Jackson’s coaching experience came at the largest school in Oklahoma, her year at Will Rogers has also given her some insight into programs with less of a support structure.
“At Rogers, while there wasn’t a whole lot of district support as far as resources and things like that go, unfortunately there wasn’t a whole lot of parent support either.”
“To go from that to Broken Arrow, where you can get almost anything, and parents are supportive - that’s one of the nice things about Sand Springs. Their parents are just as invested, they are super helpful. Everyone’s willing to do anything you need.”
Jackson plans to continue hosting the Sandite Invitational, which Sand Springs won in 2021 and 2019. One of her biggest goals this season is to win some upsets.
“I want the girls to really buy in that we can do this, and if we work hard and put in the time and the training, that hard work will out-work talent every day. I really want them to buy in that we can be as good as we want to be and that we’re going to be the only limiting factor to our season.”
As for playing against her spouse, that’ll have to wait for a future season. Sand Springs and Claremore aren’t on each others’ schedules for 2022.
Assistant coach Lisa Wright will be returning to the Sandites this season. Broken Arrow assistant Kirstein Mattox will follow Jackson to Sand Springs, and 2020 Sandite alum Raylynn Mong will also be joining the staff.
