Nashville (Arkansas) selects Hayti (Missouri) head coach Shawn Jackson for same position
NASHVILLE – The football coaching search for one of Arkansas' all-time prestigious programs has concluded.
Nashville approved the hiring of Shawn Jackson with a 4-1 vote during a school board meeting Friday afternoon. He takes over a program that finished the 2023 season 8-4 and advanced to the second round of the Class 4A playoffs.
Jackson is likely a familiar name to some in South Arkansas from when he held the same position at Crossett during the 2020-21 seasons. He compiled a 15-6 record with the Eagles and led them to the 4A quarterfinals in both years.
Since then, Jackson has been busy. He left Crossett following the 2021 season to take the same job at Cadillac (Mich.) in order to be closer to family.
Cadillac finished 5-5 in Jackson's lone season with the Vikings, and he resigned following the season to take over at Hayti, his alma mater, in the Missouri Bootheel. 2023 was a struggle for Jackson and the Indians, who finished with a 1-8 record.
Jackson replaces Mike Volarvich, who won the 2015 4A state championship and 76% of his games with the Scrappers.
Crossett is not the only Arkansas town that Jackson, who is 66-61 in his career as a head coach, has ties to. After graduating from Hayti in 1989, Jackson worked for nine years in an aluminum plant and a steel mill before deciding to take a different path. He enrolled at Arkansas State in 1998 and coached at Blytheville in 2004 while finishing his degree.
Along with the aforementioned schools, Jackson has also had coaching stints in Georgia, Kentucky and Tennessee. Over the course of his 20-year career that includes six stops prior to Nashville, Jackson's longest tenure was at Obion County (Tenn.), a program that has struggled for many years, where he compiled a 22-32 record in five seasons from 2008-12.
(Cover photo courtesy of MISportsNow)
– Kyle Sutherland | @k_sutherlandAR
