{"id":14910,"date":"2011-02-18T01:43:20","date_gmt":"2011-02-18T08:43:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/?p=14910"},"modified":"2017-06-10T11:11:31","modified_gmt":"2017-06-10T18:11:31","slug":"the-peterson-principle-21811","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/?p=14910","title":{"rendered":"The Peterson Principle 2\/18\/11"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Brandon Jackson at a Muir practice last July <\/p><\/div>\n

I was making my football rounds last summer when I stopped by Muir High School. I walked on the field, greeted Coach Ken Howard and asked him if I could talk to him in a few minutes after I snapped some shots.<\/p>\n

I wanted to get some pictures of the guys I\u2019d been hearing about. Guys like Cameron Palmer, Shawn Wilcox and Robert Morales who anchored that big front line, and guys like Karl Holmes and Tairen Owens \u2013 skill position guys who have speed to burn. I wanted a few shots of quarterback Jeff Davis and receiver Kevon Seymour who were going to make the high powered offense go. \u00a0<\/p>\n

I got most of my pictures and was about to get a few more when suddenly one of the players walked up to me.<\/p>\n

\u201cHey how are you doing? Why don\u2019t you take a picture of me?\u201d said the kid with a big smile on his face.<\/p>\n

Some of the players continued with their drills while others smiled or posed for the camera while I walked around to different stations during the July workout. But none of them approached me; nobody except this one kid- this effervescent grinning kid.<\/p>\n

My first thought was anybody that works that hard for a picture deserves one. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOk what\u2019s your name?\u201d I said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBrandon Jackson,\u201d he replied proudly, standing tall, shoulders upright, in his Muir Football shirt.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat position do you play?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cI play linebacker and special teams. Make sure you put that in your story.\u201d Jackson said confidently, the grin still covering his face.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And then I snapped the picture. Jackson stood straight in front of me. He was still smiling, maybe not as big as before, but he also had a look of confidence, of self worth, a look that showed he was honored and proud to be playing football for the Muir Mustangs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you,\u201d he said and hustled back to his drills. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Jackson went on to have a solid junior year \u2013 he was the starting linebacker. But he was looking forward to an even better senior season.<\/p>\n

When I asked Howard about him later that day and told him how Jackson came up to me he smiled and said \u201cOh yeah that\u2019s Brandon. He\u2019s a special kid. He\u2019s going to really step up for us next year when a lot of the seniors graduate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jackson was a kid that made an impression. That\u2019s the best way to describe him. I met him once \u2013 for about five minutes \u2013 and left with a lasting impression. I don\u2019t think I saw him without a smile on his face the entire hour I was there. \u00a0<\/p>\n

When the guys back at the office asked me about my trip to Muir I couldn\u2019t help but mention Jackson. \u201cOh yeah they have a big line and yes they have great skill position players. But they also have this kid named Brandon Jackson. Keep an eye on him. He\u2019s special.\u201d<\/p>\n

With a personality that shined like a spotlight and an air of confidence, Jackson was a kid with a bright future \u2013 on or off the playing field.<\/p>\n

But last Saturday night that spotlight was turned off. The lamp was snuffed out. Last Saturday night Brandon Jackson was killed in an apparent drive by shooting in Altadena His life was unnecessarily cut short by gang violence that continues to plague our cities.<\/p>\n

Who knows why? Wrong place, wrong time? Does it matter? What matters is another one of our young men has been wrongfully, criminally sent to an early grave.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

Jackson was 18 years old, with an entire lifetime in his sights; a lifetime filled with dreams and goals and wonderful moments that will now all go unfulfilled because of a nonsensical, ruthless act.<\/p>\n

Howard talked this week about Jackson\u2019s smile, his involvement in school sports and his drive and determination that saw him improve a 1.0 grade point average to 2.7.<\/p>\n

Brandon Jackson made a difference. Brandon Jackson lit up a room\u2026and a practice field. Brandon Jackson made an impression.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s my principle.<\/p>\n

Anyone interested in donating to Brandon Jackson\u2019s memorial fund can contact Deanna Howard at dhoward746@pusd.us<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Tim can be reached at tim@midvalleysports.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was making my football rounds last summer when I stopped by Muir High School. I walked on the field, greeted Coach Ken Howard and asked him if I could talk to him in a few minutes after I snapped some shots.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,3,12817],"tags":[3361,2103,3358,1367,869,1422,51,3356,2102,3359],"class_list":["post-14910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fanview","category-high-school-sports","category-petersonprince","tag-brandon-jackson","tag-cameron-palmer","tag-jeff-davis","tag-karl-holmes","tag-ken-howard","tag-kevon-seymour","tag-muir","tag-robert-morales","tag-shawn-wilcox","tag-tairen-owens"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14910"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14910\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59549,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14910\/revisions\/59549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}