Tuscaloosa native Taylor Jackson part of first wave of female coaches in professional baseball

Posted: Feb 21, 2023

Taylor Jackson doesn't consider herself a pioneer, though by definition she is one.

After being involved in baseball in one way or another as far back as she can remember, the Tuscaloosa native will make the game her full-time professional beginning this spring. Jackson, 24, has been hired as the first on-field coach for the Greenville (S.C.) Drive, the Class-A minor-league affiliate of the Boston Red Sox.

"I guess I really hadn't thought about it much until people started asking me about it," Jackson told AL.com last week. "Growing up around baseball, always being around the guys, it never really felt like a novelty. It was just what I did. … It's cool if someone looks up to me and gets inspired by that, but I just like being around baseball."

Jackson played baseball — not softball, as other girls did — until age 15, when she didn't make the team at Tuscaloosa County High School. Wanting to stay in athletics upon enrolling at the University of Alabama in 2016, she began working as a student assistant with the strength and conditioning staffs for the Crimson Tide's various Olympic sports teams.

Jackson also worked with the Alabama softball team, but her heart remained with baseball. She helped out with the Crimson Tide baseball team before graduating in 2019, and later worked as a volunteer assistant while in graduate school at Louisiana Tech and with the Shelton State Community College team in her hometown.

"I just found myself being drawn back to baseball a lot," Jackson said. "I went to grad school at Louisiana Tech and got an opportunity to help out on the field there my second year. I volunteered with them and then moved back home and volunteered with Shelton State. I'm still (at Shelton) in the offseason right now. They were really good to me as far giving me opportunities to coach. That's been a big help leading into this too, giving me some reps and gaining some confidence."

Louisiana Tech coach Lane Burroughs said Jackson was a valuable part of the Bulldogs' organization while she was in school there.

"Taylor was just a pleasure to be around," Burroughs told the Lincoln Parish Journal of Ruston. "Very intelligent, tremendous work ethic and an extreme desire to learn and grow. She literally just showed up and wanted to help with our program. It didn't take long for her to gain the respect of the coaches, players and everyone within our organization. She has that hunger to succeed with zero ego. I will always have her back and anything she accomplishes in life will not surprise me. I'm a big Taylor Jackson fan and we are so proud of her."

According to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, there were at least 11 female on-field coaches in professional baseball in 2022. That number includes Alyssa Nakken, who in 2020 became the first female on-field coach in the major leagues when she joined the staff of the San Francisco Giants.

Many others have followed, including Bianca Smith and Katie Krall with Boston minor-league affiliates in 2020 and 2022, respectively. Jackson is the latest to get a full-time job in the Red Sox's organization, having spent last season as a video intern with the Drive.

"I'm thrilled for Taylor to make history this year," Drive president Jeff Brown said last month in announcing Jackson had been hired as the team's first female coach. "She has a proven track record of success with our team, and I'm excited to see her take the next step in her career with us."

Jackson connected with the Boston organization through longtime Shelton State coach Bobby Sprowl, who pitched with the Red Sox in the late 1970s after an All-America career at Alabama. Sprowl introduced Jackson to Danny Watkins, a former Crimson Tide assistant who is now a scout for the Red Sox.

Watkins passed Jackson's resume on to the Boston front office, who hired her for an internship last summer. As a "video intern" she ran the club's various high-speed tracking camera and software systems (such as TrackMan and Edgertronic) during games, batting practice and bullpen sessions, as she says, "filming things from different angles, hitting and pitching, so that the (organization's) analytics staff and coaches could look at it and use it for player development purposes."

That job led to a full-time coaching position for Jackson this year. Like any coach at the minor-league level, she'll do a little bit of everything.

"I know for sure I'll be coaching first base, helping out with the outfielders and baserunners in games and with (pre-game) work," Jackson said. "We have a development coach, so I'll be helping out on the tech side of things, bullpens and in the (batting) cages, assisting other coaches. I'm just filling in the gaps, I guess. Any way I can help out the other coaches and make their jobs easier, and also provide help with reports after the game."

After several years playing baseball and many more working with college teams either behind the scenes or on the field, Jackson said she's not worried about any "friction" with Greenville players due to the fact that she's female. Several other female coaches have paved the way in recent seasons, so that women in baseball are no longer considered all that unusual.

Being three levels away from the major leagues, players at Single-A clubs such as Greenville generally range in age from 20-25. Most are either a couple of years out of high school or a few years out of college, as Jackson is.

"Even when I was in school, I was working with guys who were pretty much the same age as me, even some that were older," Jackson said. "Now I'm just a few years ahead of them. I think it helps on the side of being able to relate to them, culture-wise and what they've grown up around, that sort of thing.

"… The biggest thing is just getting to know them as people and show that you care. That's what I've found everywhere I've been — they just want to know that you care about helping them get better and care about them as a person. Developing those relationships so that they trust you as a coach. Once you gain that trust, and they know you can help them, it's been pretty smooth."