Field Hockey, Lacrosse
Favorite athlete: Nick Foles
Favorite team: Eagles
Favorite memory competing in sports: When my team scores the winning goal in overtime and we all dogpile on one another.
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: When I went to hit the ball and accidentally let go of my stick and my stick flew across the field.
Music on mobile device: Country
Future plans: To attend college
Words to live by: “Sometimes you gotta work a little, so you can ball a lot.”
One goal before turning 30: To backpack across Europe
One thing people don’t know about me: I have a twin brother
By Mary Jane Souder
Nikki Jackson’s interests are nothing if not diverse.
Looking for a job? Consider asking the Council Rock South senior to see the 3-D animated video she and several friends created that won first prize in the Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) state competition last spring.
If it sounds as though Jackson would have her sights set on a career in business, guess again. It’s not necessarily at the top of her list of interests. As a matter of fact, she joined the FBLA at the suggestion of her mother, Shighla Jackson, who is employed by the Council Rock School District in staff development.
Jackson’s list of possible majors covers the gamut. It includes business but also education, political science, economics and pre-med.
Jackson’s versatility extends well beyond her career interests. A unanimous choice to serve as a senior captain of the varsity field hockey team, she has played just about every position on the field except goalie during her career.
“Her first year she was a forward for me, and she scored goals,” Rock North coach Heather Whalin said. “Then we had an influx of forwards, and I put her in the back. I realized she was a really good defender, but she’s also played defensive mid for us.
“If we need a push, we’ll move her up to mid. She literally could play anywhere – I could put her anywhere, and she could play it. She could go to college and be that utility player because she sees the game, and she understands it, which is nice.”
Jackson has been a perfect fit in the defensive backfield for the Indians the past two seasons.
“You need your anchor in the back to be able to direct people and tell them what to do, and she’s not afraid to do that,” Whalin said. “When she’s confident in something, there’s no stopping her, and that confidence is there this year. It may not have been there her freshman year, but it’s there now.”
Whalin can’t talk about her senior captain without talking about Jackson’s genuine humility. Her resume – shared by her coach, not Jackson – is certainly more than brag-worthy. It’s nothing short of dazzling, and field hockey is just one small piece, albeit an important piece.
Field hockey, it turns out, is a passion that Jackson shared with an important person in her life – her late grandfather John Devlin, better known as J-Pa and the undisputed biggest fan of Rock North field hockey.
So much a part of the team was Devlin that during his battle with pancreatic cancer last year – the entire team wore Team J-Pa shirts for its game designated to bring awareness to the deadly disease.
“Just to show how amazing this guy was – there was a three-hour wait to just get into the viewing for him,” Whalin said. “You name it – they were there. He was just an amazing guy.
“He just smiled all the time, and he just made you so happy. You were just happy to be around him. Grams comes to every game, and she is like, ‘He’s watching up there,’ and I know he is.”
Jackson acknowledged her grandfather was a special person.
“He never missed anything if he could help it,” she said. “He was always the person who would go up to everyone and start conversations. He wasn’t afraid to voice his opinion. Everyone knew him.”
J-Pa lost his battle with cancer in March of 2018. To ensure that his legacy would live on, the Team J-Pa Scholarship Memorial Foundation was established. Jackson is the co-director for a memorial fund that has raised $80,000 to date. She has organized t-shirt sales and fundraisers, and the team has initiated a Goals for J-Pa with contributions made for goals scored, shutouts, etc.
“We were just doing it for one game, but the parents were so moved by it they signed up to pledge money for the rest of the season,” Whalin said.
The scholarship is awarded annually to a Council Rock North or South student who has lost someone close to cancer. Last year’s recipient of a $3,000 scholarship happened to be a senior on Rock North’s hockey team, Sabrina Green, who lost her mother to cancer.
“He really valued education and giving back to others, so he would always give back – if he could give everything away, he would have,” Jackson said of her grandfather. “We were like – ‘How do we encompass those two things, giving back and his love for education.’
“We said, ‘We should create a scholarship for him,’ so we did. I know he would love it if he were here. It means a lot. I miss him so much. He kind of thought everything I did was amazing.”
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Listening to Whalin tell it, J-Pa was right – everything Nikki Jackson does is pretty amazing. Trying to get Jackson to talk about herself is another story, but according to the Indians’ coach, that’s vintage Nikki Jackson.
“The crazy part about her is she’s so humble,” Whalin said. “She doesn’t think anything is a huge deal.
“The only reason her mom found out she won the state FBLA (competition) was because she watched the live stream. That’s just who Nikki is. She never thinks anything she does is a big deal, but she’ll make a big deal about what other people did.
“She has such a personality – that’s the funny part. She’s really, really funny. All the girls like her, she’s always cracking jokes, but you would never know that because she’s shy.”
Coming as no surprise, Jackson excels in the classroom where she takes honors and AP classes, boasts a 4.35 GPA and is on the Distinguished Honor Roll. She is a member of the National Honor Society as well as the Latin, Science, Rho Kappa (Social Studies) and Mu Alpha (Math) National Honor Societies.
“She’s unbelievably intelligent,” Whalin said. “When I saw her SATs and her GPA, I’m like ‘This is next level stuff,’ and she’s like, ‘Yeah,’ but she’s the first to praise everyone else.”
It’s pretty much the same story on the hockey field where the three-year starter is a major contributor.
“Nikki doesn’t see herself as that next level player because she doesn’t realize how good she is,” Whalin said. “I remember the first game we played last year against Abington. Natalie McNamara was so frustrated because Nikki unbelievably shut her down.
“She just thinks she’s doing her job. She doesn’t understand that she was shutting down a top-level player. She was just thinking, ‘This is my job and I’m going to do it.’ Nikki does not get enough recognition. She’s an unbelievable player.”
Jackson – who grew up playing soccer and taking dance classes – got her first taste of hockey in seventh grade.
“My mom told me to try out – she played field hockey in middle school,” she said. “I had a lot of friends who played, and we would all play together. It was just really fun for me.”
A three-year varsity starter, Jackson – who also plays varsity lacrosse - admits she wasn’t quite sure she would stick with it when her freshman year rolled around.
“I was scared I would be cut, so I was afraid to try out,” Jackson said.
Jackson didn’t succumb to those fears, and Whalin is certainly glad she didn’t.
“She started to like it, and it was something she wanted to do,” Whalin said. “The first game, her grandfather walked down and said, ‘That’s my granddaughter down there, best player on the field.’
“She has a lot of colleges interested in her, but she wants to go to a certain (academic) level school. She’s got to figure out what she wants to do.”
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Off the hockey field, Jackson is the treasurer of her school’s FBLA club and is also the regional secretary. Last year’s first place finish came on the heels of numerous awards over her three years in FBLA.
Jackson is also involved in SHARE (Students Helping Area Residents Effectively), volunteering her time over the course of the school year to the community. She is also involved in LINCS (Learning in Neighborhood Community Service) and has volunteered her time at the Wetlands Institute in Stone Harbor, N.J., Central Bucks Lacrosse and Urban Promise in Trenton, N.J.
She is a Council Rock North School Ambassador, which mentors new students, and she is captain of the Ski and Snowboarding Club.
Jackson spends her summers at her grandparents’ shore home in Avalon, N.J., where she uses her talents as a donut designer at Duck Donuts.
“Nikki could tell you a novel about every single person on our team, and she wouldn’t stop talking about them,” Whalin said. “But when it comes to herself – that’s what makes her even cooler.
“There are some kids that can give you their whole resume, but Nikki is like – my team’s awesome. You’re like, ‘But what about you,’ and she’s still talking about the team. That’s who she is.”
