STUDENT LIFE

MAKING STUDENTS’ EXPERIENCES VALUABLE

Students remember relationships, says Jimmy Messer, Jackson Academy’s associate head of school for student life. Athletic and art activities offer essential skills – teamwork, resilience, organization, and physical fitness, to name a few – but how adult leaders make students feel valued leads to lasting positive memories.

With oversight for athletics, arts, and activities, such as chapel and clubs, Messer has a bigpicture perspective that encompasses the outside-of-class experiences of every student. Enriching student life is one reason Messer prioritized staffing structure and facility decisions in his first few months at JA. These decisions are helping athletics and arts strive toward a definite mission: enhancing positive experiences for every student who chooses to participate in an extracurricular activity.

In athletics, he has focused on hiring a staff of individuals devoted to helping students reach their potential at JA and beyond. “Our mission as an athletic department is to help each player reach their God-given potential in every area of their lives,” says Messer. “While we want to win every time we compete, we also want to produce student-athletes who will be winners in life. We have assembled a staff that we believe is devoted to this mission.”

New Head Coach Aubrey Blackwell leads Raider football, and he has several new staff members, highlighted by the addition of Defensive Coordinator David Duggan. Head Strength and Conditioning Coach Michael Brinson joined the staff in spring 2022. Matthew Gabriel will assist Brinson in strength

and conditioning for athletes. JA has also placed new assistant coaches in baseball, basketball, soccer, volleyball, and track.

“Facility improvements include The Brickyard’s new 40-foot video board, which will add to an already awesome experience at our sporting events hosted in this facility,” Messer said. “We also recently updated the playing surface in the Raider Dome, including renaming the court in honor of longtime Lady Raiders basketball Head Coach Jan Sojourner. Several other areas have received painting, maintenance work, updated logos, and new equipment.”

In arts, JA filled the Upper School choral music director role previously held by Amy Whittenton ’12. Garrett Lindsey joined JA after eight successful years in Jasper, Alabama, in which he developed competitive show choirs, a regional show choir competition, and advanced the school concert choir program.

These hires, facility improvements, and programmatic changes are all designed to enhance the student experience. “Coaches and directors in the arts spend as much time with students as anybody,” said Messer. “Our head of school, Palmer Kennedy, and I feel that No. 1, we should be valuing kids, so I want to model that. We want every player, not just the star player or the lead in the show, to be valued. When students leave here, yes, they remember the wins and the losses, but I think more than that, they remember the relationships they built with their coaches, teachers, sponsors, and directors. They want to come back and see them because of the relationships.”

The new associate head of school for student life position has as one of its roles building a bridge for interactions across campus. “The school envisioned a position that would bridge the gap between athletics, arts, and the school to make sure we are all working in the same direction and on the same team, from a communication standpoint and from the sharing of students who participate in multiple activities and teams. It’s a work in progress,” Messer said. “Hopefully, I will be that bridge that communicates with arts, that communicates with athletics, communicates with the spiritual life aspect, and also communicates with Lower and Middle Schools.”

Students are drawn to programs where coaches, directors, and teachers show they care. He believes it is up to leaders to be intentional about encouraging students to participate, to make sure students know what is available, and to create programs students want to be a part of. He also believes in offering new activities, varying activities to spark students’ interest, and intentionally involving students who may not currently be involved. He refers to it as “recruiting our halls.” For example, Messer said a new Bass Club is in the works. Last year, staff worked to increase participation in Showtime, JA’s Middle School show choir. Another project in the works is an intramural program serving Lower School and lower Middle School. With coaches and student coaches, this intramural program would give students opportunities to be role models and gain experience teaching younger students.

Despite the details needed to accomplish these ideas, Messer maintains a focus on the mission of helping students reach their God-given potential and feel valued in every program they choose. Messer believes that is one of the strengths of an independent school.

“If we create an environment where kids feel valued, where they feel they are a part of something bigger than themselves and have this camaraderie, I think they play or perform at a higher level, which leads us to win games or succeed in an arts program. We’re doing it because it is the right thing to do, because at the end of the day, we want to create equipping, inspiring, and nurturing programs. Yet, we also feel that if we do those things, we will put a better product on the field or stage.”

Messer said he and his wife, April, who works in the JA business office, and their daughter Macy, a junior, have felt a warm welcome to JA. “We’ve enjoyed becoming a part of the JA family. We feel very welcomed.”

GARRETT LINDSEY

SHOWCHOIR DIRECTOR

Garrett Lindsey was hired this summer as the new director of Upper School choral music. Lindsey spent the last eight years at Jasper High School and Junior High School in Jasper, Alabama. During his tenure, he took the show choir program into the competitive world of show choir. He also established the Jasper Foothills Show Choir Classic, JHS’s own regional show choir competition.

Additionally, Lindsey advanced the school concert choir program, receiving numerous superior ratings during state assessment and having students selected for all-state choir and all-state show choir. Part of this success was due to Lindsey’s work with sixth-eighth grades, giving growth to the overall choral program.

In 2019, he was named the JHS Teacher of the Year for changing the culture and expectations of what a choral music program can be and for building the most diverse group of students on campus. His main goal every day is for his students to achieve more today than they thought possible yesterday. He holds the “hard work pays off” philosophy, and he always expects students to do their best, simply because they can. At JA, he has observed a culture of mutual respect and a desire for everyone to succeed and be their best.