On January 31, 2022, Pacific University declared Brian Jackson the new Interim Men’s Tennis coach after previous head coach, Pete Yellico, stepped down to pursue other coaching opportunities. Jackson is making a comeback to his coaching position after serving as the head coach for the Boxer Men’s Tennis program from 2007 to 2017 and spending four seasons as head coach of the Pacific Women’s Tennis program.
Not only is Jackson stepping in to help the tennis program, but he also has the responsibilities of being a professor and attending to his students. Jackson is a professor in the Kinesiology field and the new SLAM program (Sports Leadership and Management). He believes that the most challenging part of taking on this coaching position is managing all he has taken on with academics and athletics.
“I’m not gonna sugarcoat it and say it is easy,” Jackson said. “I feel like I have a full plate. I get to school at 7, start teaching at 8, and then I’m here till the end of practice around 7 or 8 at night. It’s a long day, and weekends are getting ready to be jammed, but I think my wife and I realized that I would be disappointed if this is something that I didn’t do.
Jackson is looking to impact the team in any way he can; since he is only the “interim head coach,” he wants to make sure that he builds a strong relationship with the players to make their experiences worthwhile.
“I don’t think that I could have just sat by and just watched them not get the opportunity to make the most of their season,” Jackson stated. “The team is very talented and has an opportunity to be very successful this year.”
Stepping into this season, Jackson is set on high aspirations for his team and believes it is hungry to make a name for itself after losing in the conference tournament last year.
“For me, success is a little different,” Jackson explained. “I want to see a team at the end of the year that feels like they were able to play at a high level and that they were able to enjoy their experience. They felt like they learned a lot and were given the opportunities to be successful. As long as we have that, then I feel success will be achieved.” — Todd Takeuchi
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