Security Federal Athlete of the Week: Aug. 14-20

Partnering with Security Federal, the Warren County Sports Authority will honor a standout local athlete each week. The WCSA and the Friendliest Bank in Town love seeing great athletic achievement and there are plenty to pick from every week in Warren County. From winter to summer, spring to fall, and on courts, fields, diamonds, dance floors and anywhere else an athlete can succeed, Security Federal and the Sports Authority are going to be on the lookout for the best of the best!

At this point, Warren County may need to add on to its scoreboard at the soccer field. The Lady Pioneers might as well have a separate column for Bekah Jackson – she may outscore plenty of opponents on her own this year.

Jackson is off to a tremendous start as a senior, scoring five goals last week while Warren County started 2-0. She had four goals last Tuesday when the Lady Pioneers opened with a 6-0 demolition of Ooltewah, then had one goal in a 3-1 victory over Riverdale Thursday.

After three years of being one of the best sidekicks in the state, Jackson has emerged as the undisputed go-to player on the Lady Pioneers. She has stepped into the role held by Katie Toney the last three years and excelled, turning into a threat to score every time she gets past midfield.

With a rare blend of accuracy and power to go with her off-the-charts soccer IQ, Jackson has shown the knack for getting on the board even when opponents send waves of players at her. After the opener, where she had three goals in the span of 15 minutes during a second-half run, Jackson acknowledged how she’s embracing the role of being the player opposing defenses will mark this fall.

“I’m really excited. I think (the opener) showed a low of promise of things to come. Katie isn’t here anymore, so some of us have to step up and score,” said Jackson, noting that freshman Jayla Garibaldi (three goals last week) and Hailey Simpson (one goal) are picking up the slack as well.

Jackson’s assault on opposing nets and relentless attack of keepers has her rising up the career leaderboard in goals at Warren County. The special senior already has 64 goals in her career (not counting any scores in Tuesday’s road match at Central), leaving her in striking distance of second place all time.

With a strong senior campaign, Jackson could pass Morgan McCormick (90 goals) and Ansley Mullican (95) for the second-most all time. There may not be enough games, however, for Jackson to catch Toney’s 113 career goals.

Don’t put it past Jackson to make a run at it though. She’s going to be collecting plenty of hat tricks and wins – she might as well add school records to her to-do list too.