EDITOR’S NOTE – This is a story that originally published in February, 2018
By Mark Gregory
Editorial Director
@Hear_The_Beard
mark@buglenewspapers.com
Former Plainfield Central football coach John Jackson died July 13 after a long battle with cancer.
Jackson coached high school football for more than three decades.
On April 7, Jackson was enshrined into the Illinois High School Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
“I wasn’t expecting it. It threw me for a loop, but a positive loop. I actually cried,” Jackson said in the months prior to the induction. “To be able to stand in front of your peers across the stage for the association I was president of, it was a real honor. It never dawned on me that it was going to play out. I guess some people like me.”.
Jackson came to Plainfield 1997 as head coach of then the only high school in District 202.
While with the Wildcats, he amassed an 83-98 record, qualifying for the state playoffs seven times including the quarterfinals in 2000. Overall, he posted a 93-116 record as a head caoch between Plainfield and Collinsville.
While he doesn’t have the gaudy numbers or state titles as some coaches, District 202 Superintendent Dr. Lane Abrell though the Hall of Fame honor was well past due.
“I was unaware that he wasn’t already in the Hall of Fame,” Abrell said. “So, I enlisted the help of (Plainfield Central Principal) Dave Stephens and (Plainfield Central Athletics Director) Mark Krusz to get some former players to write letters and the rest is history. John came over to the District office about a month ago to thank me personally and I said, ‘John, are you kidding me? You played high school football in Illinois, you played college football in Illinois. You have been as assistant or head coach for 35 years. It is a no brainer.’ I was almost embarrassed that I didn’t nominate him sooner, or that someone else didn’t.
“I don’t see the coaching lifers stay in it anymore for 25, 30, 35 years and John did. He gave so much to the game. Although he never won a state title, but a lifetime achievement award, come on. This is someone who gave more than 40 years to the game of football in the state of Illinois if you count his playing days. They don’t make people like that anymore.”
While many fans may remember only the struggles Jackson’s final two Plainfield Central teams had — it is only right to look at the turnaround he brought to a Wildcat program that was winless the year prior to him taking over.
“When John took over at Plainfield it was my freshman year. I was coming into a program that just finished a varsity season 0-9,” said former player and Plainfield North assistant coach Sean Carlson. “His passion for the game and his enthusiasm at practices helped turn the 0-9 program that he took over into an 11-1 program by my senior season. In my varsity career, he led us to a 19-4 record. To my knowledge this is one of the best two-year spans of any coach in this town.”
Carlson said what he remembers most about Jackson is the fire he brought to the field.
“My earliest memory of John was his intensity level. As a timid freshman, his enthusiasm and intensity was eye-opening. I remember hearing him across the two practice fields during freshman practices with his intense coaching,” Carlson said. “This intensity, I feel, stems from his love of the game and his pride that he took from being a football player himself. Countless ‘life-lesson’ stories ended a lot of practices and were included in pregame speeches. Talking about the teams he played on and the time in the trenches of the defensive line were brought up a lot and stuck with many of us players.”
Those stories were told because, as Jackson said, he always identified as a player.
“I still identify myself as a player, not just a coach. I am always a football player first,” Jackson said. “I wasn’t a superstar, but I can say I was a damn good football player. There is no doubt in my mind. (As a coach), it was nice to give back to the game that I so closely identify with and always will. I was fortunate to have a lot of great guys at Naperville North and Jacksonville Routt and Collinsville and of course at Plainfield that I am able to see them give back to the game because that is what it is all about.”
Those guys like Carlson, Anthony Imbordino and Sean Drendel, who was a linebacker for Jackson at Naperville North and is the current head coach of the Huskies, where Jackson was on staff after retiring as Plainfield’s head coach
“I have been coaching football myself now for 12 seasons and would have to say the drive to go into this as part of my career was first ingrained in my high school playing days. I was also on staff with John for my very first season while I was student teaching and he helped show me the ropes,” Carlson said. “The pure emotion, enjoyment, and passion I witnessed from John Jackson had to subliminally filter into my blood because I feel myself loving the sport like I know he has. The few games that we have coached against one another have always ended with a hug at the 50-yard line and I bet it would be fun for him see former players follow his footsteps. His induction into the Hall of Fame is much deserved following his career and I am very grateful I was part of it.”
Imbordino is currently a defensive assistant at Oswego.
“(John) has been a great mentor to me both as an athlete and as a coach. Just the characteristics he instilled in the football programs when I played in the late 1990s and early 2000s were the same qualities he instilled in the program when I coached with him in his last year at Plainfield. It was really neat to coach alongside him. It was a pleasure playing for him and it was great coaching with him,” Imbordino said. “He has a hard exterior, but any one of his former athletes or just anyone that knows him, knows just how much he cares about his football players and his students.
“When I was the defensive coordinator at Romeoville, I wanted to learn offense, so I called him up asked if he would teach me the double wing. Even though I was the opposing coordinator, he invited me to his house for breakfast and for like four hours we talked about the double wing. That just speaks to his character that he was willing to help me out even though I was an opposing coach in the conference. To me, that spoke of how he treated people and his former athletes and guys like me that got into coaching because of him and because of the experience I had playing for him over four years. That is the kind of coach I want to be. One of those coaches that any time one of your coaches call you up, you will help them no matter what the situation. I am glad he got the long-awaited honor.”
As much as his players remember about what Jackson taught them on the field, they remember more of the lessons he taught.
“Coach told us all that anyone can work hard and be positive when the team is winning, he wanted to have kids that would keep working hard even through the losing. It’s hard to keep that mindset when things aren’t going the way you want them to but he would walk the talk,” said former quarterback Micah Bank of his final season in 2003. “Later in the season we were in a game that eliminated us from any playoff hope and I almost lost my emotions on the sideline but he came over and told me ‘we’ve come this far together, don’t lose your composure now.’ It’s small things like that, they still have meaning in my life when football is long gone. As we all know losing is not easy but coach made us realize that your character through that process will shape you as a person and make you stronger in life. I have the obvious memories of a great coach that you usually hear about but I think I appreciate his mentoring during the tough times the most.”
Helping his players in life was something Jackson took pride in as a head coach and something win-loss records can never record.
“It is fun doing what I always wanted to do — working with the kids and contribute to their lives and hope I can make a difference in one or two or three men’s lives — it makes a difference,” Jackson said. “It doesn’t matter if they are doctors or lawyers or construction workers, as long as they are good at it, I don’t care, but that is why I did it.
“My walls are decorated with my past players and I love it because you are only as good as the talent that presents itself.”
During his time at Plainfield, there was little turnover in Jackson’s staff, as most of the assistants stuck by his side for the better part of his tenure.
“It was a great experience working with John at Plainfield High School. During the 12 years we worked together, John built a great coaching staff and we were fortunate to coach a lot of great student athletes and have some success,” said Jeff Kuna, who left Plainfield to take the head coaching job at Romeoville and is now the offensive line coach at Fannin County High School in Blue Ridge, Georgia. “He helped me as a young coach at the beginning of my career, to develop as a coach and move on to becoming a head coach. He gave me the opportunity to work with some great coaches and players who became great friends. It was a great culture and family we had at PHS during my tenure, which John was largely responsible for creating.”
“Coach Jackson is one of the most passionate coaches I have ever worked with and one of the smartest defensive guys I have ever worked with,” said Frank Yudzentis, who spent several years as an assistant at Minooka after leaving Plainfield. “It was a pleasure working with him, as he allowed me the freedom to grow as a coach. By that I mean, he let me run my segment. He trusted me to teach the techniques and skills. Another big piece was him also trusting me to make in game adjustments with schemes. Coach Jackson is very deserving of this honor.”
One of the coaches that spent the most time with Jackson was Ray Shields, who coached for 16 years alongside Jackson at Plainfield.
“Coach touched a lot of kids during the years by making them accountable,” Shields said. “He was hard on them but yet understanding and cared about them. A lot of kids didn’t have the money for our summer football camps but yet he would find a way to take care of them so they could participate in football. He treated the kids with respect and tried to make men for later in life. I will always be grateful to coach for giving me the opportunity to coach at my alma mater Plainfield Central.”
After retiring from head coach at Plainfield Central two seasons ago, Jackson returned to where he spent the most years as an assistant – Naperville North – the place he coached with one of his lifelong friends and a 2010 inductee into the IHSFCA Hall of Fame, Larry McKeon. Before going to North, McKeon also coached at Plainfield High School.
“John was with us (at Naperville North) from 1984 to 1993 and then he went to Collinsville and then to Plainfield. He is very knowledgeable and except for a streak of bad luck there and the end at Plainfield, he had some very good playoff teams,” said McKeon. “A lot of guys he has emotional ties with are players he coached. He made friends with a lot of players because they admired him. They liked his emotion and competitive nature. He was the kind of guy that would yell at you and correct you and have his arm around you five minutes later and the players saw that his intensity was good for the game. He had a unique ability of being a boss on the field and being a great man to get along with off the field.”