Coach Jackson Lands On Achieving Coaching Excellence Honor Roll For Second Straight Season
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Rust College women's basketball program is grateful to be led by one of the best Head Coaches in the NAIA and one who is equally as proud of his alma mater, as Head Coach Eric Jackson Jr. made the Achieving Coaching Excellence Honor Roll in back-to-back campaigns per the release for 2024.
According to the Google Document released by the organization, "Started after the 2019-20 season, the College Basketball Coaching Honor Roll annually recognizes leaders in women's and men's college basketball that demonstrate tenets of coaching excellence that include on and off the court performance, community involvement, and serving as champions for college basketball, their coaching peers, and the coaching profession.
Achieving Coaching Excellence® is grateful for the opportunity to actively engage in college basketball and to encourage, uplift, and empower these experienced and aspiring professionals and what we hope will be continued success and a bright future as servant leaders, teachers, mentors, and coaches."
Coach Jackson is the only non-NCAA Coach on the list, one of only three outside of the NCAA's Division I, and makes up one of the five HBCUs on the list.
Head of the Class was the architect behind South Carolina women's basketball's second consecutive national championship and the tenth perfect season in NCAA history, Dawn Staley.
The Honor Roll consists of Coach Jackson, Coach Staley, Miles' Pete Asmond who are the 2024 SIAC Champions, Fayetteville State's Tyreese Brown after leading the Broncos to the DII Sweet Sixteen, WNIT qualifier George Mason's Vanessa Blair-Lewis, WBI participant Lamar's Aqua Franklin, Sweet Sixteen team and #2 seeded Notre Dame's Niele Ivey, WBI First Round winner Stony Brook's Ashley Langford, Sweet Sixteen Duke's Kara Lawson, #6 seed Syracuse's Felisha Legette-Jack, the back-to-back-to-back-to-back SWAC Regular Season Champion Jackson State's Tomekia Reed, and the two-time defending MEAC Tournament Champion Norfolk State's Larry Vickers.
Coach Jackson has won the last four GCAC Regular Season Championships and the last three GCAC Tournament Championships. He has also been the recipient of four of the past five GCAC Coach of the Year awards (2020, 2022, 2023, 2024) and has an overall record of 147-42 (.778) during his seven-year run in Holly Springs.
About Achieving Coaching Excellence®
The original concept of ACE was forged for the benefit of 25 black football coaches who convened at Stanford University in 1994. This professional development model stemmed from the collective efforts of Mike Brown and Ron Thomas of The Sports Institute and Stanford's Kevin Anderson (former Director of Athletics at Army and Maryland), Ted Leland, and the late legendary Coach Bill Walsh.
In 2002, the ACE concept model was modified and adopted by the Black Coaches Association (BCA; later Black Coaches & Administrators) to meet the needs of ethnic minority collegiate women's basketball coaches. The inaugural ACE for Women program was held in 2003. Male/men's collegiate basketball coaches were added in 2007. Primarily, ACE promoted the advancement of aspiring collegiate basketball coaches through programming facilitated by BCA and Advocates for Athletic Equity (AAE) through 2016.
Now, Achieving Coaching Excellence® will remain focused as an affinity group of professional, advancing aspiring coaches and professional development programming. Achieving Coaching Excellence ® will chart a course for leadership, development, and community. A rallying point for the coaching profession and for advocacy.
Achieving Coaching Excellence® operates as a recognized 501c3 nonprofit in accordance with the Internal Revenue Service tax code.
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