Jillian Jackman, Woodland history teacher, steps outside of the classroom and onto the soccer field to claim the role of the new girls soccer assistant coach.
Jackman started her soccer career at a young age, when her aunt influenced her to play a sport, joining a U5 rec league in her hometown in New Jersey. From there, she began club where she would travel throughout New Jersey and New York to play and assert her role as captain. Once she entered high school, she exceeded on the field playing varsity for all four years, where she would then re-claim her role as captain. After high school, Jackman went on to play division one soccer for Sacred Heart University. She describes her college soccer experience as “hectic, very busy, and lots of workouts.”
“You have to respect coaching staff and hierarchy of the team. You play wherever you can, and you all fight for the common goal to win,” said Jackman.
College soccer taught Jackman discipline and the inner workings of a team, making her more then qualified.
Jackman knew that she wanted to coach soccer from a young age.
“The idea of coaching has always been instilled with me from my coaches growing up, as well as the idea of contributing to a bigger picture.”
This season, Jackman is looking forward to seeing the team reach success, however she is more excited to see the girls connect and work together in order to grow and problem solve.
“I want us to have a good season, but mostly working together and problem solving and all the things that we teach here in school being translated into a real life event,” said Jackman.
She believes that she brings a fresh face to the team and can help build skills within her players that she learned in her leagues growing up.
“I also think I am a good bridge once again between school life and sports,” said Jackman.
For the players, having the adult role model both in the classroom and on the field is an advantage as the coach-player connection is much stronger. Jackman’s personal goal for this season consist of working on taking control of large groups, something that will help her as a teacher as well. For the team however, she wants to focus on the players learning the game and themselves simultaneously.
“I always wanted to have an influence and a good lasting mark on a team.”
