HIGH SCHOOL- THE TALE OF TWO TOOL SETS

Jackson Jobe realized his true upside is on the mound

- ALEXIS BRUDNICKI

The Jackson Jobe high school story has been a thing of fairytale fiction, and all it needs now is its storybook ending.

Jobe left middle school athletic but undersized. When the 18-year-old two-way player was little, his best sport was soccer, but the son of a professional golfer eliminated everything but football and baseball by the time he got to Heritage Hall High in Oklahoma City. Joining the Chargers for his sophomore year, Jobe was a quarterback and safety in the fall, and a shortstop who would head to the mound to close games in the spring. His junior year would have followed the same pattern, if the coronavirus pandemic hadn’t brought his baseball season to an end after four games.

That’s when the tale of the turning tide began. “I was always the guy who would come in from shortstop, had a good arm, good fastball,” Jobe said. “Then one day something clicked. Last February, I got on a weighted ball program, started working on my mechanics, and started getting in the weight room. Then I started my season, got a few games, and everything got shut down, and then I had another three months to work on my size, getting stronger, my mechanics, doing my weighted ball program, and cleaning up my arm path.

“My first outing was at [Perfect Game] National at the beginning of June and I honestly didn’t know what to expect. I came out and surprised everyone, as well as myself.”

Jobe considers himself a late bloomer, having added 12 inches and a lot of strength and size to his frame over the last five years, getting him to the 6-foot-3, 200 pounds he is today. Though he’s still Heritage Hall’s shortstop in every game, he doesn’t start on the hill—and the Chargers’ three-hole hitter—Jobe sees his future in his right arm.