Jackson Jambalaya

Am I 200??

Fortunately for JA, bigotry isn’t tolerated no matter how much you donate.

About time someone weighed in w/a positive take on the matter. Thanks for that.

On another note, Prep, JA, MRA, & Hartfield have all engaged in recruiting in years past, with the help of school parents who were willing to hep pay the freight for the “recruits.” In some instances, the kids & their parents were checking g out the school, but may not have been able to afford it. In some, the school and/or its parents approached a standout athlete with a “deal.” For any of these schools to pretend that they have not been guilty is nonsense. Hartfield, and MRA in years past, were just a little more obvious in their tactics.

It was just a matter of time before the antics of the Universities spilled over to the high school level. Money and opportunity talks.

People most definitely cared when Hartfield recruited 7 D1 players and had a booster pay for it. People cared when MRA recruited tons of players. People cared when Greenville Christian bought a team. People also care about JA. The real question is whether the MAIS will do anything about the violation of its rules. I wouldn’t hold my breath.

@11:14- The real issue at JA is its years-long failure to develop and retain talented kid who start school there in the elementary years. A substantial portion of Prep’s teams in recent years consisted of former JA students who moved because of JA’s leadership and failure to develop and retain quality players. It has been a self fulfilling problem. So, when most of the top white athletes are at other schools, what do you do? You hire Shay Hodge to recruit athletes, and the athletes he knows and trains are AA.

At least Prep transformed an attorney to headmaster!

@201. Nobody doubts they are good kids. Just seniors and their siblings are coming.

@227- yep. 2 recruits took seniors numbers this year. That’s the kind of favoritism that JA is showing recruits. One thing to bring recruits in another to show them this much favoritism…

The glaring omission of many, regular sponsors from the Blue and White night speaks volumes. Interesting reading….

How can the JA board continue to allow this to happen? Do they live in a bubble? Do they not care? Are they dumb? Everywhere I go people are talking about how JA is imploding and won’t survive this. JA parents are disgusted. The students are embarrassed to go to JA.

The parents must demand the right to elect board members. The IT Director head of school and the intellectually challenged AD both need to be fired yesterday.

The JA Mafia has been in power too long and is running the school into the ground. Something better change fast or the school will be latest place in Jackson to shut its doors.

10:28 nailed it. It’s been imploding for the last 5 years, but it’s escalating quickly. My neighbor and I were discussing the fact that we might need to sell our houses before our kids finish at JA bc handwriting is on the wall as far as future of JA, which impacts our lovely street, unfortunately. The kids are indeed embarrassed, but don’t want to leave their friends. My high schooler has lost several friends to other schools(mainly Prep) this summer and I wonder who will be next.

And dont forget these athletes and their classless parents shopping and hoeing their kid around since 6th grade looking for the best handouts. They beat on the door of these coaches looking for "athletic scholarship". I watched embarassingly sneak a select team from Clinton in Upward basketball at First Baptist Jackson in 3rd and 4th grade. Ask Chat GPT what compels adults to cheat at youth sports...see if you fit.

The original purpose of a "prep," or preparatory, school was to prepare its attendees to successfully continue their education at a college/university and receive at least a bachelor's degree. Hence, they had particular admissions requirements that required attendees to possess certain traits and abilities that would make that reasonably possible. That preparation took several years. It would have been VERY difficult to accomplish - for both the program and the student - with those entering that "system" as seniors.

However, if these are just "private schools," then the "program"/"system" is not particularly different than any other "non-prep" high school, private or public, even if the quality of the education itself is allegedly or actually better than other potential sources.

While "physical education" and team sports is an important part of high school and the development from student/teen to well-rounded adult, this kind of emphasis on football, and particularly on a championship team by bringing in transfers/ringers to accomplish it, isn't doing any of the students any particular good. The current students are literally sidelined and the incoming students don't get the benefit of either a preparatory education or the (alleged) better education offered by the program.

None of these students, life-long or transfers as juniors/seniors, are being helped by this kind of thing. There is no -zero - none - chance that any college is going to look at an application and admit a student because his or her high school had a championship football team. There is no chance that upon obtaining a degree and entering the working world that a hiring company will make its decision on that fact. And that is also true of standouts that are recruited into college to play football and even if the hiring company is an NFL team. Even for those with a college and professional football career in their future, no one is getting into college and on a college team or the NFL based upon what his team did.

The bottom line is that this kind of team-buying has no other reason or purpose than to stroke the fragile vanities of those doing the buying. And it does so at the expense of all of the students. Not really a good thing for an institution that claims to be a SCHOOL, be it public, private, or preparatory.

I could not have said it better myself. There is a lot of speculation, opinions and assumptions, but nobody has presented any facts or proof to support those bold anonymous claims. If you have it, I would love to see it. My son is proud to be a Raider and he works his ass off. Nobody is going to take that from him. He has also had nothing but good things to say about the new kids transferring in and is looking forward to playing with them. And before anyone says something about a recruit taking his job - 1. He isn't entitled to it. 2. Our expectation is that he earns it every single day.

MAIS - Moving Athletes Into Schools

@958 - Nick Miller - a couple of things on this. Let me guess...your kid doesn't play receiver, QB, or RB? See...there are a lot of kids with the same physical capabilities that your kid has, but they happen to play the wrong position. In all conflicts, try to see it from all sides. Also, it really irks a lot of people when they hear directly from the kids how little their family pays, or as one kid told another long-standing JA kid "I bet your family actually pays to go here". There is more to it than "you're not entitled to it"

Why are youth sports under attack everywhere in our country by evil adults? Is it only greed?

JA's problems are a direct result of the exodus of families from North East Jackson. It does not make much sense to drive past Hartfield, Prep, and MRA to go to JA. It is very sad to see. I put three children through JA and would not do it again based on the way it is being run today.

@10:47 Anonymous - I put my name on my post so you don't have to guess who my kid is, or what position he plays. I stand behind the lessons we are teaching my son, especially when it comes to facing challenges or adversity. And I am also proud he is a Raider!

Nick’s opinion of the situation will change when a few offensive lineman are recruited to JA and then, because they are recruits, are shown favoritism with playing time over his son and preferential treatment. That hasn’t happened (yet). Tack on more Ls to rival schools this year and you’ll see it happen next year. Then Nick will understand.

Nick Miller: wait until next year when your son is giving water to the recruits who take his position. That will be fun to watch for you and your son.

@1:26 Nick Miller- you think it is fair for families to pay $20,000 and then someone comes in and pays NOTHING but starts over their kid. How can you think that is right? Some parents have many jobs and can barely afford to go there. They don’t care if they win, they care to see their kid play and have fun. NOBODY can have fun watching someone come in and pay nothing and start over them. Think about what is right!

The whole reduced tuition for deserving students (Aka, elite athletes) was just starting when my youngest was in HS at JA. If it had been going on when we had my children in elementary school at JA I would have left and gone to PREP. Anyone that cares enough about HS athletics to fund the tuition bill for an elite player needs their heads examined.

Good for alice apostle!!!!!

She has grandkids at JA and Prep. Brave to put her name out there

The MAIS isn’t going to do anything to Jackson Academy. The head of the MAIS is currently living off Shefeld in a house owned by by JA…. #truth

KF- have you put and end to comments on this post? I don’t think think the parents at JA want it to stop.

If you done believe the head of MAiS (Barrett Donahoe) lives in a house owned by JA off Shielfied, call JA. Ask if you can rent the house off Sheffield Court.

You can’t make this up

@5:59pm If you do call JA, they will tell you the house is not available to rent BECAUSE Barrett Donahoe’s family is renting it from JA. #Truth

You are correct that JA parents don’t want the posts to stop BECAUSE they don’t like 13 Juniors and Seniors transferring to JA to play sports for 1 or maybe 2 years while their kid loses his/her spot. They are understandably upset but you may not care about that.

This can’t be true!
ESPN 30 for 30

If I am Prep, Hartfield, MRA, etc. I am DEMANDING to see the lease and proof of payment. If he is paying less than market value or he cannot show checks or proof of electronic payment, this is going to get uglier.

No chance the head of MIAS lives in a house owned by JA!!!!!

WTH JA!!
Does Hartfield,Prep, MRA know this? They poor bayou academy’s of the world have now idea.

Is the house made of TIMBER?? Looking at Lamar

MAIS - Manor Acquired, Integrity Skipped

MAIS - Mis'sip - Ain't It Sumpin'?

Have you looked at the academics coming out of these "public schools?" There are more scholars out of Madison Central than JA any day!

what are you saying about public schools?? You think they are all thugs?? Rich kids steal too...

I got a kick out of the leaked 'croot list doc that got circulated ahead of the official announcement and got folks up in arms.

No one gets an athletic scholarship at JA. No tuition dollars go to pay for other students’ tuition. Students who transfer as seniors cannot get tuition assistance. These kids applied, got accepted through the grueling admissions process, and can afford the tuition. Let them play ball.

https://jacksonacademy.org/admissions/tuition-assistance/

Parents at all of the private schools are sick to death of the kids transferring in just to play a sport. You can call it the silent majority or whatever you want to call it-but people are tired of paying thousands from k-12 and then the coaches go recruit a kid to take their son or daughter's place. We are about to the point where people have had enough and the donations to the private schools are going to slow down dramatically.