JACKSONS’ VOLLEYBALL LEGACY GROWING
Grad, senior and one more to come join Poway’s ‘Coach Dad’
The Jackson Trio can’t help but win championships.
Charlie Jackson, Poway High School’s boys volleyball coach, won a CIF-San Diego Section title as a player.
So have his sons, Hayden and Preston.
And now Charlie and Preston Jackson are after another crown. The thirdseeded Titans continue their postseason path today with a Division 1 semifinal match against Canyon Crest Academy. Seventh-seeded Canyon Crest upset No. 2seeded San Marcos last week.
The Jacksons know what it will take to win another title.
Charlie Jackson played for the Titans in the Division 1 title season of 1993. Hayden won the Division 1 championship in 2019 and an Open Division championship in 2021 before graduating.
Preston was a backup for the 2021 title run. He’s a senior now.
School choice
When it came time for Hayden and Preston to enter high school, Charlie
Jackson gave his sons a choice: They could follow in his footsteps and play for the Titans or transfer to another school.
Like Rancho Bernardo. “I’d never transfer to RB,” Preston said.
Charlie Jackson said he was surprised when both sons, along with youngest son Landon, now in the eighth grade, all said they wanted to play for their dad.
“I’m a lucky father because all of them were surprised when I gave them the option to play for someone else,” Charlie said. “My boys just wanted to play volleyball
here for me.”
Since Charlie had coached the boys through travel ball, they felt no need to get away from him.
“I was in a league when I was in second grade on the same team with Hayden, who was in fourth,” Preston said. “So I’ve always felt I was on the Poway team.
“Through the years, playing for Dad helped our connection flourish. He held me accountable for everything I do in the classroom, in the gym and at home. And he’d get in our faces if we did something wrong.”
No special favors from
the man Landon affectionately calls “Coach Dad.”
One thing Charlie Jackson was always worried about was that he might be spending too much time with his sons.
The Jackson boys played club ball at the old Epic Volleyball Club. They were in their dad’s class at Poway. They saw him on campus, in the gym, and at home when he was just Dad.
“None of them could get away from me,” Charlie Jackson said. “Preston took some time off from club one year to get some breathing room and then came right
back to play for Poway.
“It wasn’t what I expected, but I wouldn’t trade all the ups and downs that made us so close for anything.”
Playing the right way
The Jacksons learned the game of volleyball the right way. That’s the way it’s played at Poway.
“It seems odd to be coming to the end of my volleyball career at Poway,” Preston said. “No more next year for me. My tank is running low here. I was sitting in AP Government class one day and now I’m about to graduate.”
Preston is off to Michigan in the fall with an eye toward majoring in computer science. He might join an intramural volleyball league
while he’s there.
But he will never forget his 2021 championship season.
He was the backup setter and his role was to mimic the opposing team in practice. His grandfather, also an assistant coach, scouted the Titans’ opponent.
“I contributed the best way I could, helping the starters get ready for the next match,” Preston said. “We even started calling ourselves by the name of the guy we were impersonating in practice.”
Now Preston heads off as a graduate, and Landon is about ready to take his place as a Titan. The Jackson Trio will soon become Poway’s Jackson Four.