Coastal Plain League

I'm not counting AAA baseball.

I'm not counting single-A baseball or Coastal Plain League.

They're not counting that in Austin either.

Austin's got the Round Rock Express 15 miles north.

And even when he got doubted, I mean, how do you continue to doubt Walt after what he did in the studio and built Mickey Mouse and Snow White? Like, how do you continue to doubt? And they're like, we're going to keep doubting you.

Like, what does he have to do? And so that's why when we left Coastal Plain League, our college summer league, even after we built the bananas to sell out every game, to do a world tour that sold out, to have millions of followers, we still get doubted.

And it's the same process of Walt Disney.

And I believe we're going to continue to get doubted.

Was a, was, uh, given this opportunity with the Nationals and again, uh, one of the, the guy who hired me I've known for 20 years.

We coached in the Coastal Plains League against each other 20 years ago.

Similar type backgrounds.

And so this was my first year in professional baseball as a manager.

Right.

So like the Cape Cod, like I was talking about, like the Bananas played in the, uh, Coastal Plains League.

Mm-hmm.

And that basically got out of the league to start Banana Ball.

Okay.

So I played, I played in the Coastal Plain League, which is a college, college summer league.

It's the top three in the, top three in America, in the United States.

And it was same thing.

Along the way, 15 of his players were selected in the MLB draft, and 16 went on to play professionally.

Jackson's coaching journey stops included Campbell, Barton, Wofford, UNC Wilmington, Liberty, and even the Wilmington Sharks in the Coastal Plain League, where he earned Coach of the Year honors.

Today we're going to talk about what it takes to recruit an elite level, develop players for professional baseball, build championship programs, and ultimately create a culture that consistently produces winning baseball.

Let's welcome

And then I got a chance to go back to Campbell and play or excuse me, coach for the for the program.

But the head coach that I played for, Chip Smith, was still there and basically had to teach two classes, lifetime wellness classes and and got a chance to work with the position players there.

And then that summer I was the head coach in the Coastal Plain League.

And Randy Hood approached me, who coached me at Campbell, who's now the head coach at Wilmington, and asked me if I would want to coach the pitchers at UNC Wilmington.

2016

in the Coastal Plains League.

So talk about why Jesse is so committed to his vision and what has been so special for you to see him grow as a leader over the last six years.

Yeah, getting to be around Jesse consistently.