Sep. 24—JAMESTOWN — After five seasons coaching the Delco High School girls' tennis team in Idaho and winning six individual district championships and two state championships, Cameron Jackson wanted a career change.
"I was coaching high school tennis in Idaho but my wife and I kind of wanted to make the jump to the college level, so I kind of kept my eye on spots open — hadn't really applied for any — just kept watching for some," said Jackson, the head coach of the University of Jamestown women's tennis team.
"I didn't play college tennis so I knew getting hired might be a bit of a challenge but then I saw this one and it was for a brand new team," he said. "I thought that could be kind of interesting and something that could set me apart from other coaches who did have experience so we jumped at the opportunity and it's worked out."
Jackson was hired as UJ's head coach in December and officially signed on as the coach in early January. Soon after he signed, Jackson got to work building the Jimmies' first-ever tennis team.
"It was a challenge," Jackson said. "I was hired after Christmas and it seemed like most girls had already chosen their college. That kind of cut the pool in half, then when summer hit, every single person had a school picked.
"We went the international route for some players," he said. "The goal was to get eight and I have five international players and three U.S. players. So far the girls have been amazing."
Seven of UJ's players are freshmen. Sydney Friesen, a player from Lodi, California, is a sophomore.
"We started fairly slow because like I said, we have no leaders, we have no seniors so we were trying to let the girls develop their own leadership," Jackson said. "Everybody did things differently — a bunch of the international girls had never played team tennis so we started really slow, just looking at what it is to be on a team.
"Now we're getting into a lot more intense practices," he said. "These girls get very locked in — they want to be the best on their team. It doesn't matter if you have the No. 1 vs. the No. 8, they all go into the smallest drill being like, 'OK, I am going to win.' That's one of the main reasons I wanted to make the jump to college was because I wanted that level of competitiveness."
Jackson and the Jimmies played their first official matches on Sept. 13 at the Gustavus Adolphus Fall Invite. Julie van Zeijl got second place in the No. 1 singles draw. Van Zeijl's twin sister, Bodil, placed first in the No. 2 singles draw. Anna Sharandachenko won the consolation side in No. 3 singles. The van Zeijl twins won the consolation side in the No. 1 doubles slot.
UJ's next competition, a exhibition match at the University of Mary, is scheduled for Oct. 14. The team's competitive regular-season will begin in February and will conclude in April.
"We're still new, we've had one match, so I don't want to jump to conclusions but so far, these girls started off great in school, they're already great friends and the season has gone well," Jackson said.
