High school sports present students with numerous opportunities to grow, both in their physical abilities and emotional development. For Mr. Tyler Jackow, sports present an opportunity to teach and guide others how to improve  their skills. Jackow has been teaching at Edison High for six years, having taught both physical education, driver’s education, and junior health. Overall, he has been coaching for a total of ten seasons and is heavily involved in Edison High’s sports community. 

Jackow has coached football, basketball, and baseball at Edison High for five years. This year, however, he has sacrificed his position as football coach to achieve his long-term goal of becoming a head coach for basketball or baseball. He is currently the head baseball coach at Perth Amboy Tech. Furthermore, he has coached seventh and eighth grade baseball teams at the Baseball Warehouse in Highland Park for six years. 

Jackow possesses an extensive athletic history: he played football, basketball, baseball, and wrestled throughout his childhood. He was a member of the football, basketball and baseball teams as a student at Colonia High School. He later went on to play Division-3 baseball at McDaniel’s College, where he served as captain as well as a 4-year starter. Jackow’s relationship and love for sports can be traced back deep into his past. He now gets to coach alongside his former coaches and students, which he finds to be an irreplaceable experience. He hopes to continue the legacy that his coaches began, saying, “The impact that my coaches left on me, I try to instill that into my current players.”

Most people consider coaching to be only a matter of improving the team’s status and the skillsets of its players, however, Jackow finds that coaching truly has a more profound effect on the players. He says, “My goal is not only to get them(students) to become better athletes, but become better people as well. To me, that’s what high school sports is all about — building a culture within your team and making memories that will last a lifetime.” He emphasizes the diversity within his student athletes and how rewarding it is to take a beginner athlete and leave an impact on them, teaching them how to “become a leader on and off the field.”

While Jackow acknowledges that accolades and victories can provide pride and motivation, he places more value upon watching his students progress and observing how they advance over time. He notes his team’s involvement in state championships and tournaments as well as the gratification that comes with these victories. Jackow acknowledges the thrill experiences like these while playing high school sports can provide, but highlights the importance of community, the  refining of one’s skills, and the process of finding oneself through playing as well.