Feeling deflated
Couple a winning team on and off San Jac court
Three of the lowest moments for the NFL in the past year: Sept. 8, 2014: Ravens release running back Ray Rice — who was serving a two-game suspension — after video surfaces of him punching his then-fiancée in February. Sept. 12, 2014: Vikings deactivate star running back Adrian Peterson after he is indicted on a charge of reckless or negligent injury to a child in Montgomery County. Jan. 18, 2015: Patriots are found to not have properly inflated 11 of 12 footballs used in AFC title game.
When she was hired for her first head coaching gig, Brenita Williams wanted to bring along the perfect assistant coach. She knew what she wanted. Someone who shared her philosophy on smart, fast, aggressive basketball.
Someone who understood that player development was as important off the court as on.
Someone who would bring ideas to the table and could hold his own in a debate but be flexible in working toward a solution.
She knew the right man for the job. But there were two problems: 1. He was her ex-boyfriend. 2. And he had no interest in becoming a women’s basketball coach.
“I turned her down,” Kevin
Jackson said. “Cold.”
“Several times,” she chimed in. “I had to recruit him like a D-I athlete.”
After a succession of no’s, Williams showed Jackson a binder that contained her detailed plan for running a winning basketball program. He was hooked. The duo lit a spark under Lon Morris by leading a squad that was picked by league coaches to finish last to the conference tournament championship game.
While doing so, they also rekindled a love that is among the rarest of sports relationships. A relationship they brought to San Jacinto before the 2013-14 season.
Head coach, assistant. Wife, husband. Role playing
Their coaching union is in its fifth season. Their marital union just entered its third. (The couple celebrated their second wedding anniversary in December.)
“I don’t feel like I’m the dominant one, but for administrative purposes, yeah, I’m the decisionmaker at the end of the day,” Brenita Jackson said. “But that’s just at work. When we go home, it’s totally different. I have to remind myself to ‘turn it off, you’re at home.’ ”
Her husband, and assistant, (she calls him a co-head coach) said the roles aren’t confusing.
“When people ask me, I tell them, ‘She’s the head coach; I’m the assistant.’ That doesn’t bother me any,” Kevin said.
Head coaches and assistants often quarrel over strategy, procedure, schemes. The Jacksons say they are no different.
“We’re both competitors,” Brenita said, “so that’s not a bad thing.”
One thing is certainly different for the Jacksons compared to most head coaches and assistants.
Because they share an address, their disagreements aren’t as easily left on the basketball court or in the coaches’ office. ‘Family environment’
“With us being husband and wife, it’s going to come up. And we’re going to talk about it,” Brenita said. “For us, we can’t go home and not hash it out. Because it’s going to be weird at home. So we have to talk. I think that is the best part about us.
“Most coaches, if they don’t agree, they go home and whine and complain to their own husband or wife, and the problem may never get solved. For us, we can’t do that. We’re going to go home and do what, not talk to each other? I won’t cook him dinner? Then it’s going to be a problem.”
The two of them laughed. Hard.