Ouachita Baptist University Women's Softball

2026 marks Jeff Jackson's third season as the head coach for the Ouachita softball program. Since his arrival in the summer of 2023, Jackson has coached four All-Great American Conference selections, three GAC Elite Scholar Athletes, nine Academic All-District honorees, and one NFCA/Rawlings Gold Glove Award winner. He has also been instrumental in the ongoing improvement efforts to the Ouachita softball facilities, including the addition of an artifical turf halo that stretches from first base to third base along the backstop of Langston Field. Prior to taking over at Ouachita, Jackson had a successful 13-year coaching career at the 18U and high school levels. From 2010-2023, Jackson coached competitive fastpitch softball in the Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas metroplex. He started as the head coach for the Fort Worth Batbusters in 2010, took over the Impact Gold 18U team in 2015, and then led the DFW Athletics 18U team from 2017 to 2023. During Jackson’s tenure with those three squads, 100 percent of the young women under his mentorship received both athletic and academic scholarship offers to play collegiate softball. Also throughout his softball coaching career, Jackson served as head high school coach at Fellowship Christian Academy in Kennedale, Texas for the 2019 and 2020 seasons, where he was named the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools Class 4A Coach of the Year in 2019. He mentored eight all-district players and two all-state players during those seasons, and led the 2019 team to an undefeated district championship and an eighth-place finish at state. Jackson has also served as a volunteer director for the Mansfield Girls Softball Association, where he was responsible for all aspects of tournament and gameday operations and served as the primary fundraiser for the organization. He was also the founder and general manager for Full Count Academy, where he managed the day-to-day operations of the athletic training facility. Jackson is already familiar with Ouachita after making the trip from the DFW metroplex to Arkadelphia and other Great American Conference member institutions many times from 2017 to 2020. Jackson’s daughter, Natalie, graduated from Ouachita in 2020 with a bachelor’s degree in secondary education and biology. She was also a three-year starter for the Tiger softball team. Jackson is a 2003 graduate from the University of North Texas, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration. He and his wife, Misti, have been married since 1996. Misti has been a pre-K teacher for over 20 years. In addition to Natalie, the couple has another daughter, Katie, who is a nurse at Baylor, Scott, & White Hospital in Marble Falls, Texas. Natalie is currently a teacher the media coordinator at Creekwood Church.