Kerrick Jackson, Southern Jaguars

Kerrick Jackson was named head baseball coach of the Southern University and A&M; Jaguars in late July. Jackson replaces Roger Cador, who spent the past 33 seasons as the Jaguars’ head coach.

“I want us to get back to winning conference championships on a regular basis,” said Kerrick Jackson at his introductory press conference in Baton Rouge. “For me, (winning conference championships) is not going to be a goal, that is going to be an expectation.

“When we go out, our players will understand that we’re going to win conference championships and we are going to take that to the next level.”

A native of St. Louis, Kerrick Jackson began his collegiate career as a player at nearby St. Louis Community College Meramec before transferring to Bethune-Cookman. After guiding the school to its first championship on the diamond, Jackson finished his playing career and earned his degree at the University of Nebraska. From there he proceeded to coach at virtually level in the amateur ranks.

The first coaching stint for Jackson came at Fairfield University in 2000-2001. Following that, he spent one year as an assistant at Emporia State (2001-02) and one season as assistant head coach at Coffeyville Community College (2002-03). From August 2003-July 2005, Jackson was an assistant coach at Jefferson College in Hillsboro, Mo., where he was the pitching coach and played a large role in recruiting. He also served as the Student-Athlete Success Coordinator at Jefferson College, developing a program that helped to ensure a smooth academic transition to all colleges and universities.

During this time Jackson also coached several summer league teams, including one summer in the New England Collegiate Baseball League (NECBL) and one summer in the esteemed Cape Cod League. He coached several former Tigers in the summer leagues, including Danny Hill, James Boone, Zane Taylor, Brad Flanders, Aaron Crow and Kyle Gibson. Jackson coached the MINK League Sluggers to back-to-back NBC World Series in the summers of 2002 and 2003. In 2006, he coached a United States team to a Gold medal at an international tournament in Holland.

After serving as assistant head coach and recruiting coordinator at Nicholls State in Louisiana, Jackson became the Midwest Area Scouting Supervisor for the Washington Nationals, overseeing all scouting in Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas, Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota and North Dakota.