DECATUR — With the spring basketball and volleyball seasons over, MacArthur's Quincenia Jackson had some free time in her schedule and decided to take on a new challenge. Jackson has traded the gymnasium for the soccer field as the Generals new soccer goalie.
“My best friend asked me to play and so I thought I might as well. They thought I should play goalie so I had my first practice (last week). It went well,” Jackson said.
No matter how her soccer career pans out, Jackson’s legacy will be as one of the greatest basketball players in MacArthur and Decatur Public School history. She is the all-time leading scorer in program history and with her selection as 2020-21 Herald & Review Macon County Player of the Year, she is a three-time Macon County Player of the Year (2018-19, 2019-20, 2020-21) and since the H&R awards begin in 1977, she is just the second girls player to win three Player of the Year Awards, joining Eisenhower's Raisa Taylor who won in 2004-05, 2005-06, 2006-07).
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Jackson finished her short 11-game season with 1,518 career points and she could have been approaching 2,000 points if she had the 20 more games of a typical season.
“I was sad about it with the short season but I was just thankful that we got a season to begin with because I would have hated to end my senior year with no basketball at all,” she said.
Jackson led her Generals team to a 10-1 record and the Central State 8 Tournament championship. The season was dedicated to their late coach Michael "Dubb" Williams, who died in July, and it brought the team together under a single goal.
“The loss of Dubb, not only did it affect us for those couple of months, it still does. Every now and then we have teammates posting about how they miss him. Sometimes I get into my feelings too when I see pictures. It hits hard sometimes that he is really gone,” Jackson said. “It really sucks to lose somebody so close to you, especially a coach. Somebody that you looked up to and that helped you out throughout your basketball career. He made you as successful as you can be and pushed you.”
Assistant coach Sean Flaherty moved into the head coaching position and his coaching this season made him the H&R’s Macon County Girls Basketball Coach of the Year.
“It was great. Nobody can actually fill Dubb's shoes but Coach Flaherty came close to it and he knew what had to be done with the team,” Jackson said. “He got to know us very well from last season and he knew what to do to have us accomplish what we wanted.”
For Flaherty, Jackson was the rock that he and the rest of the team could depend on.
“It is her quiet demeanor. Even when things would go awry and teams would make runs on us, she would keep the even keel for us,” Flaherty said. “I think that was very important for us. When you see one of your leaders lose their heads, they are going to follow suit.”
Jackson and her senior guard teammate Taya Davis developed an incredible on the court connection in their freshmen years that grew stronger and stronger. Although they haven’t announced their college basketball plans, both girls are courting Division I offers.
“I don't know what it was, we instantly connected on the court somehow,” Jackson said. “Outside of MacArthur, we had never talked before our freshman year. We played one game together and that was an all-star game at the SkyWalker Complex in 8th grade.”
In the Generals single loss of the season, Sacred Heart-Griffin flustered the team in a commanding 16-point victory, 48-32. But in the CS8 championship rematch, MacArthur turned the tables and won by 20 points, 60-40.
“When we went back over there, (Quincenia) was business-like. When she is like that, the rest of the team is business-like as well,” Flaherty said. “We refocused amazingly. We pretty much dominated the whole game and I couldn't have been prouder with how the girls came out in a hostile environment at SHG. It shows how good and talented this team could have been if we could play all the way through.”
Given a season with a state series, the Generals would have likely been regional champion for a third consecutive season, something that has never been done before. Jackson isn’t sure how she’ll be remembered as a player but she’s glad that MacArthur’s program is back in the limelight.
“I think it is too soon to think about. I’m glad that with the help of my teammates we have changed the MacArthur girls program completely around. I think (next season) is going to be a great season for them as long as they work as hard as they did during this season,” Jackson said. “I really enjoyed my four years of basketball here and I would not want to go anywhere else other than MacArthur. The team, the coaching staff, the athletic trainers have made it all one big family.”
PHOTOS: 60-40 MacArthur girls win over SH-G for the tournament conference champions
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