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"Baseball is his hobby," Davis adds, almost forlornly. "Basketball is his passion."
- Dallas Newspaper. See link below for full article (older profile).
Well, it's official - Austin Jackson has chosen GT over Illinois, after finishing his visit to ATL this past weekend. Austin loved the school at Coach Hewitt. He still plans on playing minor league baseball and college hoops. Jacket fans will have many questions in the next year about how all that will play out, but he has been very adament in his intention to play hoops. Time will tell. Jackson is expected to be a possible top 5 draft pick in baseball.
By the way..... do you find it interesting that Jackson commits the same night that CJ Miles arrives at GT for his official weekend visit? Hhhhmmm.
Here's a Dallas Ft.Worth story - link here.
People have been telling Denton Ryan's Austin Jackson to give up basketball and focus on baseball for years.
It's not going to happen.
Perhaps one of the area's top two-sport star, Jackson said he orally committed to play basketball at Georgia Tech on Thursday. Jackson plans on playing minor league baseball during the summers.
"Giving one up, I don't think I could do that right now. I want to prove them wrong. That's why I never gave it up early," Jackson said.
Jackson, 6-2, 185 pounds, is a potential first-round pick in the 2005 amateur baseball draft.
Ryan coach Bryce Overstreet said Jackson would still retain his NCAA eligibility to play basketball, but Georgia Tech cannot give him a scholarship. If he signs, money to pay for school will be provided in the deal he signs with the major league team that drafts him.
Jackson started earning national attention when he was 12, and a major league scout dubbed him a "can't-miss kid." He is a two-time winner of Baseball America's Baseball for the Ages award, and the outfielder has led Ryan to two state championship game appearances in baseball.
In basketball, the guard averaged 22.6 points, 5 rebounds and 3.1 assists per game last season. Rivals.com ranks him No. 49 nationally.
Jackson had narrowed his options to Illinois and Georgia Tech, which he visited last weekend.
Jackson said his decision came down to his comfort with the coaching staff. Jackson also had the chance to meet several players who will be in his recruiting class.
Georgia Tech has become a force in area recruiting. Lincoln's Chris Bosh played there a year before jumping to the NBA. Fort Worth Dunbar's Jeremis Smith is a freshman there, and Tech is a finalist with Skyline's Calvin Miles, ranked as the state's top senior by Texas Hoops.
Here's a good article on Jackson from the Dallas Morning News.
YOU MUST READ THIS ARTICLE!!!!!!
When he was 12 years old, BaseballAmerica named him the best of his age group. He played football until 7th grade when his mom put a stop to it. He had scored 24 TD's for his team. Some interesting quotes from the article:
And still by all accounts, Albert and Alice Jackson have raised the ultimate team baseball player.
"Austin is a special person," says John Davis, who coached him for three seasons in the intensely competitive Texas Reds baseball program. "He has a way of making everyone around him feel better.
"He is the kind of kid on and off the field you hope to be exposed to sometime in your lifetime."
........
Cecil Espy, a former Rangers outfielder and now a successful youth league coach in Arlington, says there isn't a major league scout in Texas today who isn't following Austin.
"I've been watching him since he was 11," says Espy, a major league outfielder for eight seasons. "I have seen maybe one other kid's natural talents that are his equal [Californian Delmon Young, younger brother of the Detroit Tigers' Dmitri Young]. I think the scouts see the same thing."
........
On loan to another select team later in the summer, Austin led the Dallas Tigers to the American Amateur Baseball Congress' Pee Wee Reese World Series title in Puerto Rico. Once more, he was named MVP. Austin batted .660 over the course of his MVP triple-crown run. He hit 18 home runs in 26 games, including at least a half-dozen that traveled more than 300 feet.
........
And now you know the biggest perceived roadblock in the development of the baseball prodigy.
The nasty word: basketball.
If there is one thing that could keep Austin from hitting it big in baseball, his baseball coaches and the scouts agree, it is his passion for basketball. They believe the time he spends playing basketball at school and on his nationally competitive AAU team would be time better spent concentrating in baseball.
"All my life, people have been telling me that I have a better chance to make it in baseball than basketball," Austin says, sitting in the Ryan baseball office, decked out this day in a gold Kobe Bryant, Los Angeles Lakers jersey. "People have told me to quit basketball.
"I want to show them I can play both. That's why I go out and shoot 400 shots every day."
Even when his baseball teams have been in the midst of an important tournament.
"It was my worst nightmare," says Davis. "He stayed up all night once practicing basketball. That sound of that ball bouncing kept all the other players up, too."
"Baseball is his hobby," Davis adds, almost forlornly. "Basketball is his passion."
BasketballPhenoms ranks him #46 in his class - link here.
BaseballAmerica sais this - link here
AUSTIN JACKSON • OF
Ryan HS, Denton, Texas
Bats: R. Throws: R. Height: 6-2. Weight: 180.
Jackson plays alongside DeLaughter in the same high school outfield but makes his own impression. Also a standout basketball player, he has five-tool potential.
Jackson was named to the pre-season watch list for the AFLAC National High School Player of the Year - link here. Justin Upton of Chesapeake, Va won the award.
Info on his 60-yard dash times - link here.
Day three saw the AFLAC All Americans workout in the morning. Several players ran the 60 yard dash while others were a bit stiff and sore electing not to run. The fastest electronic laser times were recorded by Cameron Maybin 6.42, Ben Booker (TX) 6.45 and Austin Jackson (TX) 6.51.
I found this very interesting post from 10/2003 about his baseball skills- link here.
I'll say one more thing and you won't ever have to hear from me again. I've seen the kid play, he is a GREAT player. He is definetly one of the best outfielders in the state of Texas. He has a plus arm, plus speed, gets great reads on flys, and makes difficult plays look routine. My belief, from what I have seen, is that his bat is not strong enough to be regarded as one of the top three best youth players in the nation. Seeing a player hit in showcase events and seeing him hit in a live game situation are two totally different things.
Then, there was this from 2/2004:
Scott, I am not 100% what his plans are, but I know last year in the Dallas Morning News, they had a huge article on him in the Sports Day section. He stated in the article that his true love is in fact basketball. At that point I didn't know he played basketball. Then, I started keeping up with his team in basketball, and the kid outscores everyone. No one comes remotely close to him. He scores around 30 points a game. It's now said that he is a better basketball player than he is a baseball player, which tells you just how good he is at basketball. Judging on speculation, I would say that he would probably go to a D1 school where he would play both basketball and baseball, unless next year's draft offers him the world. I would go so far out as to say that we might just be seeing this kid in the next five to seven years as an NBA and MLB player. But as for me, I'd like to see him pick one now and start concentrating on practing hard at the one sport so he can reach his full potential quicker.