She has taken the Bingham High School girls softball team to multiple state championships in her time as head coach. But when the state title suddenly eluded the team for years in a row, someone very close to Coach Jackson, didn’t give up.
On this episode of the Supercast, find out how, despite his own battle with Alzheimer’s, Coach Jackson’s dad stood by the team and was in the stands cheering them on to victory once again, at the last game he would ever see. It’s an inspiring story you don’t want to miss.
Audio Transcription
[Music]Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. She has taken the Bingham High School girls' softball team to multiple state championships in her time as head coach. But when the state title proved elusive for years in a row, someone close to Coach Jackson, didn't give up.
On this episode of the Supercast, find out how, despite his own battle with Alzheimer's, Coach Jackson's dad stood by the team and was in the stands cheering them on to victory once again at the last game he would ever see. It's an inspiring story you don't want to miss.
We're here with head softball coach, Mikki Jackson at Bingham High School. Mikki, thanks for taking the time.
Mikki Jackson:
Thanks.
Anthony Godfrey:
We are now up to nine championships for you here at Bingham in softball. Is that right?
Mikki Jackson:
Yeah.
Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me about why this particular year was so special.
Mikki Jackson:
I think there's a lot of reasons. I have personal reasons and then I have the actual coaching reasons. It's been, it feels like a long time since we've enjoyed being on top and having the escort home, all the excitement of that.
Anthony Godfrey:
When was your last state championship?
Mikki Jackson:
It was 13 years ago.
Anthony Godfrey:
Okay.
Mikki Jackson:
We've been in several state championship games since then but we just didn't get over the top. And so to finally get back on top feels awesome.
Anthony Godfrey:
And I understand you've had eight close calls, right?
Mikki Jackson:
Yeah. (laughs)
Anthony Godfrey:
Eight close calls where you're almost there.
Mikki Jackson:
Yeah.
Anthony Godfrey:
And tell me about this team this year, what happened over the course of the season
and what got them over the hump finally?
Mikki Jackson:
Yeah, I think this group, you know, there's always that mix of talent and effort, but then there's gotta be that, I call it the magical ingredient, and that's loving each other. And this group definitely grew close. They came in close, but they learned to care and take care of each other in different ways as the season went on. Plus they are young and so they were maturing. The more experience they got, understanding that their character is not, who they are isn't based on an error or a success. But that's icing on the cake, but who we are makes us the results that we get.
Anthony Godfrey:
Softball is of course a team sport, but it's a team sport where your individual errors or shortcomings are on full display. (laughs) Tell me about some of the things that you've had to overcome, some close calls in the season maybe, where you really saw what the girls were made of.
Mikki Jackson:
I think you're right, that the focus is on those individual successes and failures, but overall, you know, all of those come together to make that. And we had some times when we didn't get over the bump. You know, we are one strike away against Riverton in that first game this year.
Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah.
Mikki Jackson:
And our sophomore pitcher's on the mound and she's doing great, fouling off, and they got the better of that at-bat and they end up on top. That's, you know, it's a game of inches, you know, half an inch fair foul. And just from that game on, just helping the kids understand how to work through those moments and that maturity that kept growing stronger and stronger. Sometimes those failures make that strength later on. And I think we saw that with this group. They got stronger because of it.
Anthony Godfrey:
What was the makeup of your team? You said that they're now more experienced than they have been. Did you have a lot of seniors this year?
Mikki Jackson:
We had three great seniors. Shelbee has been on the mound for us. She pitched almost everything last year for us. This year we had Brecka come in as a sophomore and she took some of that load off of Shelbee so Shelbee could play elsewhere. And then we have Braxtyn who can play pretty much anywhere on the field and is primarily a middle infielder. And then Charity, our catcher and left fielder. So all three of them are significant players. Beyond that, we had one junior that was playing most of the time and the rest of them are sophomores and freshmen.
Anthony Godfrey:
Oh wow. So there are great things ahead for being a sophomore.
Mikki Jackson:
Yes, and the kids that played behind those guys got a lot of time this year. Behind Charity is a sophomore, now a junior catcher, and Braxtyn has another kid sitting right behind her that's been working into her spot as well.
Anthony Godfrey:
Good, that's great.
Mikki Jackson:
I can't say they're all perfectly replaceable, but that group coming up is working hard and has the ability to do it.
Anthony Godfrey:
That's great to hear. Tell me about how the tournament works for those who may not be aware. It's double elimination. Tell me about the journey this year.
Mikki Jackson:
Well, it's double elimination, but they do break it out into the brackets. We have a four-team pool, and then there's a second four-team pool. We went in as the four seed with Riverton being the one seed and we had PG in there. The seeding is how that's all broken out. So you play the same teams three or four, it's almost like the women's college World Series. In fact, it is. You have your seedings through the regionals and then if you drop that game you're going to come back to that person that sent you to the losers bracket. That team is going to come back at you.
So we had PG and in that game, even more opportunities to grow because our backs were against the the wall multiple times with runners. Our pitching helped us a lot. Hitting kind of came around. Then we had Riverton, who had already beaten us two times several years in a row.
Anthony Godfrey:
Now, psychologically, that's pretty tough to face down someone who's beaten you in this situation more than once.
Mikki Jackson:
Because they've had great teams for years down there. And there's been a mutual respect of our two teams in that we know that we've got two great teams coming at each other each time we play. And so, you know, I just watched, it just felt like the kids were different this time. I think the two losses earlier, they were like, okay, we're done, we're done with this. But then they will have five to one on us. And we clawed our way back, oh, and the second game, I guess it was. But getting through that one.
Anthony Godfrey:
So you're down five one in the second game. What was the final score?
Mikki Jackson:
Seven to six.
Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, wow. (laughs)
Mikki Jackson:
Five to one, I think it was five to three.
Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah. I can't remember exactly, but I know we were still down one, 'cause I remember thinking, do I want to give up this out and bunt? Or do I want to bring them around? We bunted and we brought two around and we scored two more in the next inning and we had to hold them that bottom half of that inning, 'cause we were visitors the entire way through the tournament 'cause of our number four seed.
Anthony Godfrey:
It's been 13 years since you had a state championship and we've talked about why that was exciting this year for the team. Let's talk about why that was exciting for you personally.
Mikki Jackson:
My dad has Alzheimer's, and we've been going through the late stages with that. And especially about– I guess it was the second week of May, he was pretty close to leaving us. He was in really rough shape. I spent about five nights with him by his side in the hospital. And I kept thinking, we're so close, Dad. Hang on. I just want you to see us play again one more time. And our game times for the afternoons don't work with somebody with Alzheimer's, with the sundowners. And I knew that an 11 o'clock game in the championship was the way he was gonna be able to come. But unfortunately, those couple of days ahead of time, he wasn't drinking or eating anything, they couldn't get him to wake up. It just wasn't looking like it was gonna happen.
Anthony Godfrey:
And he's been in the hospital all this time?
Mikki Jackson:
Well, he went back to the care center that he was in. We got him healthy enough. He had a few infections and things that week that he was there. My sister happened to be in Europe at the time. Finally takes the family trip that is overdue by years and about four or five days after, I'm thinking he can't pass while she's gone. We've got to keep him alive long enough. And we got him to where she got home just a few days before state and she said “Well, we'll try. Let's do everything we can to try to get him there.”
So we start the game and then I heard my sister's voice in the stands. I couldn't see where she was, but I could hear her, and she stood up and waved her arms and she pointed down. My dad was right there, and so my dad got to attend that game. She told me later that that morning the nurse called and said “You're not going to believe this but your dad got up this morning. He ate his breakfast, he drank his juices, he's sitting in the chair. If you want to come get him I think we can make it work.”
And so after the game I went back up to him, I ran up to talk with him and I said, "Hey Dad, it's Mikki." He didn't really respond too much, you know, a little bit of his little quirk that he acknowledges you there. And I said, "Dad," I said, "my girls are champs." I leaned down to his ears. I said, "My girls are champs." Just like everything you've always taught me to be. And his eyes came open. He smiled. The first smile, the first acknowledgment. And he reached out for me, grabbed my hand, and then put his other hand over the top of mine. And that is more purposeful movement than we've seen in the last three months from him. It's a moment that I will never ever be able to replace.
Anthony Godfrey:
That's miraculous that you were able to have him there. It's the time of day it worked and he held on through that. How's he doing right now?
Mikki Jackson:
Unfortunately, we're probably going to take him home tomorrow to California. I'm going to do the parade with the girls and then I'm heading out. We don't know how much longer we'll have, but we got through that game. We got through a happy moment for him. I could see him watching and scanning the field at times, even from down at third base. I'd look up there. A couple times, he was sleeping, which is fine.
Anthony Godfrey:
Sure.
Mikki Jackson:
But a couple of times I could see him scanning and my sister said, "Mik, he's not been that alert the whole time she's been back."
Anthony Godfrey:
Wow.
Mikki Jackson:
And it's been great. So, you know, we don't know if we have days with him next week or if we have a month, we don't know, but we're gonna bring him home.
Anthony Godfrey:
But an additional moment of pride in his daughter and her accomplishments.
Mikki Jackson:
Oh yeah, and he was the kind of dad, I mean we know, as educators, we know how much parents put into their kids. And you can appreciate this, when we moved from Southern California, we moved to a town of 200 people. It had a K-8, one-room schoolhouse in this town.
Anthony Godfrey:
Wow, wow.
Mikki Jackson:
And so at that time we lived 20 miles out of town. I'm too young to drive still, and I'm doing a pentathlon, so he built me a long jump pit, and we did a bunch of mattresses, and then we have a high jump pit. That's the kind of dad-he was always making ways for me to be successful and my siblings as well.
Anthony Godfrey:
So he really went out of his way to create opportunities where in a small town they weren't just available around the corner.
Mikki Jackson:
Yeah, yeah.
Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me about some of the other ways that he impacted you as a person, as a coach, as a teacher.
Mikki Jackson:
I think he always had an expectation that we would do our best, but it wasn't a pressure, it was just the way he lived himself. And he was so selfless that I personally, I can't even think of things that were his love. Things that he liked to do because everything was always taking us to. Like we have this lake that we go to. My sister and I run a youth camp up in the mountains by this lake, or my sister does and I help her out sometimes, but the family is up there. And my dad, when we go to this blue lake, he's always the one fixing their campers and boats and stuff like that. He's just always doing for others. There was a joke- we were out there celebrating his 70th birthday and one of the persons got up and said well you know he just travels around to all the widows and he's always taking care of all the widows in town. He had this little circuit that he would drive around he was just he's just a very selfless person. I think that you just internalize that when you live around it, you just internalize it and I think that's the biggest gift he's given me personally.
Anthony Godfrey:
That's amazing. How did he impact you as an athlete and as a coach? Are there some philosophies that you bring to coaching that came from the way that your father has lived his life?
Mikki Jackson:
I think probably some of it is. Like I like to break skills down to teach them and I think that comes from him. He was a mechanic and so you know, this part goes with this part, goes with this part, and maybe that's why my mind is a science mind too. But I think, you know, I'm the one that tries to see what skills need to improve and how to fix those. And then I think the way he was always patient teaching us how to do something, like even fixing a car or something like that, which I'm not very good at, 'cause he always did it for me.
(both laughing)
Anthony Godfrey:
But his patience in talking you through that and teaching you has translated into the way that you interact with your athletes.
Mikki Jackson:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sometimes I'm probably not as patient as my dad was with me. (both laughing) But I try to remember that every one of those kids out there is someone's daughter. And that person is a kid that's growing up, that may not understand the game. I look back at things that I know about the game now that I never even thought about. There's a maturity that goes on and what we're ready to learn. It's like in math, like in science, some brains are ready for this right now. Others are gonna take three more years before their brain's ready for that. And you just try to take wherever those kids are at that time and build the best you can inside of them. And I think that comes from my dad and my mom. My mom's pretty wonderful too.
Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah, I don't doubt it.
(soft music)
Stay with us when we come back, more with Coach Mikki Jackson.
(upbeat music)
Break:
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Anthony Godfrey:
What got you started in softball? What got you interested in softball to begin with? I assume you played when you were younger?
Mikki Jackson:
I did when I was younger. I wasn't in a big city area where we had summer and travel ball. I just played and I loved it. My mom was one of my first coaches when I was little and the funny thing is the first team I ever played on, I found out later we won one game by forfeit. I was a catcher, yeah I had no idea about stealing even was. I I didn't even know stealing existed. I didn't know what it was.
Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah, sure
Mikki Jackson:
I kind of have a goofy start to that whole thing, but I was in Southern California at that time, then we moved up to another area. I actually played other sports too. My parents encouraged me to do other things. I played soccer and I have to think I must have been pretty good because I was scheduled to go to Japan and Europe and stuff like that as a fairly young kid and then we moved so I didn't. And then track, I ran pentathlon I was a miler when I was in elementary. And then through middle and high school, I did the pentathlon. So I was a multi-sport athlete. I heard somebody say once when she figures out softball, her thing, she's going to go a long way. And I guess-- I don't know if that influenced my decision to go that way or not. I actually did not play softball my junior year in high school, or my senior year. I actually wrecked my ankle my junior year playing, but I went back to track in my senior year. And then I came out to BYU as a walk-on.
Anthony Godfrey:
For the softball team.
Mikki Jackson:
Yeah and tried out and got to play.
Anthony Godfrey:
Great. Tell me about your teaching career. Where have you been throughout the years?
Mikki Jackson:
I actually was headed to medical school and I was accepted to medical school and my husband wasn't quite done with school yet, so I requested a deferment. I also had some family reasons to stay. I got it. I started here at Bingham. I did my student teaching here and then I just loved it. I loved being in the classroom and when I was in high school, they had a cross-age tutoring program to kind of prepare kids that they thought had leanings toward being great teacher material. And I was invited to be in that class and I think that was where some of those seeds were sown, that it was there. But then from there I've been at Bingham. I taught at Copper Hills for a little while. Over there primarily chemistry, anatomy, physiology, biology. I have zone now so I've had a little bit of everything. My favorite though probably was action chemistry when I had the kids that had one foot in the court system and one foot supposed to be in the classroom but not quite there. That was early in my career and I really loved that experience with those kids
Anthony Godfrey:
So how many years have you been at Bingham now?
Mikki Jackson:
At Bingham itself, I started in 89-90 with my student teaching and then I was trying to figure that out earlier, someone asked that. In the middle stretch I was gone for about five years.
Anthony Godfrey:
Okay, okay. What do you hope your girls take away from the experience of being on your softball team?
Mikki Jackson:
I think particularly this group, the relationships are the things that last. That trophy will always be special to them and it's just really special to be able to say you're a state champion. But every year my hope is that they walk away proud of having been a Bingham Miner, but also that those relationships are the ones that they're sending the invitations to each other's weddings. That they're following up. Our 2009-10, that was the three-peat. Those guys still are so in contact with each other. They still are friends with each other and other groups too.
I also kind of find it exciting, I don't know if you're aware of it, but Herriman had three previous Bingham players on their coaching staff this year. Nicole just graduated a few years ago. Heidi and Pam played for me in the 90s on state championship teams. And I kind of hope that the impact of having to go through challenges and lead yourself, and be an example to others grows in the long run. Mylei Zachman is an administrator from the Davis District. She's out of our program, she came through our program too. I look around and I see so many people that have come through and they're successful. And I'm not saying our program made them successful because I feel like they also made the program successful because of the traits they brought, but you look at that and you're just excited to see them being happy and successful in their life. And you hope that you have a little bit of a piece of that.
Anthony Godfrey:
I love that. Well, thank you very much for taking the time and thank you for all the time you've invested in these athletes over the years. I have no doubt it's a lasting positive influence on everyone that's been on your team.
Mikki Jackson:
Yeah. They've been an influence on me too. I'm who I am because of the things I've learned from the families and the kids that I've been fortunate to have crossed my path along the way. And I just hope that they know how much I love them. And there's been people that have been happy, sometimes people not so happy, but I love one of them regardless of what experiences they had.
Anthony Godfrey:
I'm sure they know that without a doubt. Well enjoy your parade, enjoy that victory and my best to you and your family. Thanks for the time.
Mikki Jackson:
Thanks for everything you do for us too. I feel like you really engage with us and you really appreciate us in our district.
Anthony Godfrey:
You guys are amazing, thank you.
Thanks for joining us on another episode of the Supercast. Remember, education is the most important thing you'll do today. We'll see you out there.
[Music]