Front Yard Field Day Sparked Kim Jackson’s Career

It was in his front yard when he was eight years old.

Kim Jackson was playing with his older brother, Jameel, and one other neighborhood kid against the three kids that lived nearby. They were all in super pee-wee football by then, so they all played in their helmets. Jameel would have been pee-wee football, being four years older. He played quarterback and Kim caught everything thrown to him that day.

“It was an amazing day,” Kim said. “Like when they say you see everything in slow motion, made all the right moves.”

No one could catch him that day and he began to tell them, “no one can tackle me.”

That was the day that Jameel approached their dad and told him Kim could play.

“That got my dad even more involved than he already was,” said Kim. “He’d take me outside, we’d work on stuff. We’d go out in the rain and work on stuff.”

Kim grew up watching his brother play for different TBYFL teams, and when he was old enough, Kim signed up, too. Kim and Jameel were too far apart to ever play on the same team together, just missing age groups in youth and grade levels in junior and senior high school. However, they were a neighborhood all-star team at 3 on 3s where they shared some fun times.

“We have a special bond outside of football,” said Kim.

Kim played safety on Sligh Middle School’s flag football team and spent most of his first year at on the JV team. In his first game with the Varsity team, he caught a touchdown pass against rival Hillsborough. By his sophomore year, he was starting at tight end.

He will play defensive end this year, too, but only if he keeps his grades up. His dad pulled him out of TBYFL when he was in elementary school for bad grades.

“I haven’t had a problem since,” Kim said.

He came very close in ninth grade when his grades slipped. His dad reminded him of the consequences of the grades dropping too low. Kim took his mom’s advice and took classes over the summer to get his GPA straightened out by the fall semester.

“My dad always told me I had to keep it up in classes, try to be somebody,” said Kim. “…and that’s just what I want to do is be somebody.”