Sarnia's Kyle Jackson is settling in quite nicely with the Rochester Knighthawks.
Drafted by the National Lacrosse League franchise seventh overall in the 2016 draft, the forward was hoping to contribute right from the get go.
He did just that, after being held off the scoresheet in his NLL debut, Jackson broke through in a big way against New England on January 7. He scored twice and added nine assists in an 11 point effort, helping the Knighthawks to their first win of the season.
Jackson humbly credits his teammates for his offensive outing.
"I was just fortunate enough that when I passed my teammates the ball they were able to put it in the back of the net," he says. "As much as the 11 points were a bit eye opening, it was more of being a lucky recipient of having great teammates."
The 23-year-old says it was one of the more memorable games of his young lacrosse career.
Jackson played minor lacrosse in Sarnia before spending five seasons with the Kitchener-Waterloo Jr. A Braves, scoring 154 goals and 289 points in 98 games. He spent his final three seasons as team captain.
He also attended the Hill Academy, a high performance athletic and academic high school in the Greater Toronto Area, before heading to the University of Michigan where he graduated as the program's all time leading scorer. He also became the first player from the university to be selected in the NLL draft.
During the week, he works at the Hill Academy and coaches the school's under-16 lacrosse team.
"It's a chance to give back to a school that gave me so much, gave me the opportunity to go onto the collegiate level and play lacrosse,"say Jackson. "I get to show them the ropes and show them that there's a bigger picture at hand, and if they stick to the process, things will work out in their favour."
Jackson was also drafted to the Boston Cannons of the MLL, a nine team professional field lacrosse league in the United States. The two MLL and NLL schedule have a slight overlap by Jackson is hopeful he can suit up for both teams.
Through the first three weeks of the NLL season, Jackson is 14th in league scoring, first among first year players.
The Knighthawks' are in Saskatchewan Saturday for a game against the Rush, they will make their only trip to Toronto the following weekend, on January 28.
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Here's the audio interview between CHOK's Jake Jeffrey and Kyle Jackson:
[audio mp3="http://blackburnnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Kyle-Jackson-INT-for-web.mp3"][/audio]