Assistant Coach
2nd Season 

Matthew Jackson enters his second season as assistant coach at Johnson County Community College. He brought an extensive career working and playing in collegiate athletics when he arrived on campus last year.

In his first season at JCCC, the Lady Cavaliers opened the season unranked but at the end of the season they found themselves ranked among the top-20 programs in the country at No. 13. JCCC finished the season with a record of 33-9 and were co-champions of the Kansas Jayhawk D-II Conference. Individually 10 players were selected all-conference/all-district, with right-hand pitcher Jordan Harrison landing the Most Valuable Player award, proving to be one of the best arms in the conference punctuated by her selection as Pitcher of the Week five times during the season. She also was tabbed third-team All-American. 

Jackson worked extensively with the JCCC hitters and helped the team produce the best batting average in program history at .412, eclipsing the previous mark by 18 points. JCCC .412 batting average ranked fourth nationally, and their on-base percentage of .472 was the sixth-best in the country. Individually, Gaige Pinkerton ranked fifth in the NJCAA hitting at a .545 clip, the fourth-best average produced in team history, and Taryn Burkhardt produced a .504 average which ranked her 20^th in the country.

Off the field in his two fall semester with the program, 92 percent of JCCC’s softball players have produced a grade point average of 3.0 or better. In the fall of 2022, 15-of-18 had 3.0 or better and this past fall, all 18 roster player were above. 3.0 with five earning a perfect 4.0 GPA.  Last year, pitcher Jordan Harrison, infielder Toree Hoobler and catcher Gaige Pinkerton became the first softball players to be selected Academic All-District® by College Sports Communicators, and Harrison was selected as the College Division recipient of the CSC Academic All-America® Team Member of the Year award, the first in program history. 

Jackson came to JCCC after serving four seasons as assistant coach for coach Dustin Combs at William Jewell College. In his first campaign in 2019, he helped the Cardinals to a 24-24 mark and coach Courtney Beatty who posted a career-best .395 average on her way to unanimous first-team All-GLVC selection. Last season, he helped lead third baseman Allison Rawls to unanimous first-team All-GLVC honors, making them the only two players in William Jewell history to be All-GLVC unanimous selections. In all he mentored five All-GLVC performers and two NFCA All-Region honorees.

In 2020 Jackson was named one of the Top 100 College Coaches in the nation by Extra Inning Softball, and in 2021 he was awarded the Easton/NFCA D-II Assistant Coach of the Year from the National Fastpitch Coaches Association. 

Prior to William Jewell, Jackson served three seasons as an assistant at Baker University, helping lead the program to a 94-70 mark. In his final season, the Wildcats won a school record 41 games in 2018 and qualified for the NAIA National Tournament for the first time in program history. Over his three campaigns, he helped mentor a total of 12 All-Conference selections, four conference gold glove award winners and two first-team All-Americans. He also saw nine players garner 12 NAIA Scholar Athlete honors, one Google Cloud CoSIDA Academic All-America first-team selection and one Google Cloud CoSIDA Academic All-America Team Member. 

Jackson also served a season as an assistant on the staff for the Washburn University baseball program. In 2015, the Ichabods went 33-20 and finished in the semifinals of the MIAA Tournament and climbed as high as No. 6 in the national polls. 

Jackson played baseball for the Ichobods in 2013 and 2014, batting .307 in 46 games with 12 doubles and four home runs his final season. He started 45 games at first base and was an All-MIAA selection. 

A native of Lincoln, Neb., Jackson earned his associates degree in arts as well as science from Cloud County Community College in 2012. He received his bachelor’s degree in exercise physiology from Washburn in 2015 and his master’s in sports management from Baker in 2018. He graduated from Lincoln North Star High School in 2010.  He currently lives in Raymore, Mo., with his wife Shelby and two children Harlie and Remington.