Stay True to Who You Are
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Episode Summary
Todd Merkow sits down with Jody Jackson — longtime Fox Sports Arizona broadcaster, current Diamondbacks reporter, and sports mom of two — for a conversation that moves easily between the press box and the bleachers, between the professional world of sports media and the deeply personal world of raising a pitcher and a quarterback in the competitive youth sports landscape of the Phoenix metro.
Jody grew up in Hollywood, Florida as an only child of parents who were in their 40s when they had her. She describes herself as competitive but without a killer instinct — someone who played softball, tennis, and soccer in middle and high school but found her real athletic home in baton twirling. She started at five years old in the Candy Cane Parade in Hallandale, Florida, and by the time she got to the University of Miami on a partial scholarship, she was twirling in the Orange Bowl Parade and the Fiesta Bowl Parade. She laughs about the fact that whether you're five or twenty, you're still in a parade. Baton, she says, is more than it looks — quick-twitch athleticism, repetition, discipline, and a lot of hours in the Florida heat. It was her sport, and she was good at it.
After graduating from Miami, Jody cold-called a sports radio station in South Florida and got a job the summer of 1995. She credits the late Andrew Ashwood for giving her and three other kids a chance. From there, she moved through Buffalo and eventually landed in Phoenix, where she's been for roughly 30 years — first at Fox Sports Arizona, now with the Diamondbacks. She met her husband Chad at a tailgate at ASU in 2002. He was a former ASU football player whose father had coached at the college level, and who would go on to spend nearly 30 years in the NFL as a Director of College Scouting. She knew going in that he was an athlete. She did not know he was going to coach every sport their kids played.
Connor and Caitlin grew up in South Tempe, both attending Corona del Sol. Connor played baseball, basketball, golf, and football — eventually choosing football exclusively when the baseball program's culture made it clear that football players weren't entirely welcome. Caitlin played volleyball, basketball, and softball, eventually choosing softball when club volleyball's schedule collided with her school season. Both were multi-sport athletes well into high school, and both, Jody says, were genuinely good — not just because of natural talent, but because of the character to work hard and pay attention to detail.
Chad coached both kids through their early years. He's a big man — six-three, 270 pounds — who looks intimidating and coaches with a loud voice, but who has an instinctive ability to make kids laugh and keep things fun. Jody describes watching him do country song lyrics at the plate to get Connor to relax, and watching every kid he ever coached send him a note at high school graduation saying they'd never forget those years. He was the coach who made it fun. Jody is clear that she was not that person. She was the one sitting in the stands, trying not to say anything.
The club volleyball section of the conversation is one of the most relatable in the series. Jody describes the tryout process — the information sessions, the private lessons to get in front of coaches, the politics of switching clubs, the girls crying in the parking lot when the numbers went up, the parents paying by credit card on the spot. She describes sitting in the volleyball stands and feeling uncomfortable because everyone around her was critiquing every play, and she just wanted to watch. She eventually found her footing in club softball, where the culture felt different. But the tryout experience — the money, the politics, the emotional weight on 11- and 12-year-old girls — is something she describes with the kind of clarity that only comes from having lived it.
The adversity section is where the episode gets most useful for parents. Connor's defining moment came in a playoff game his senior year — down in Tucson, against a defense that had two ends going to Washington and Oregon and two defensive backs headed to Pac-12 schools. He threw three interceptions, came out of the game, and then had to go back in. Brent Strom, the D-backs pitching coach, was in the stands and told Jody afterward: your boy's demeanor is incredible. He looked the same no matter what. Jody says Connor teaches her about life — he just carries on. Whatever is going on around him, he continues.
I didn't know how much that game affected her until she wrote her college essay about it. She described the heart beating, the pulse, the anxiety — feeling like people were mad at you. I was surprised it hit her that hard.
Caitlin's story is more interior. As a sophomore pitcher, she had a tough stretch of games — including one where it felt like the whole school was in the bleachers — and blew a lead against a very good team. Jody didn't know how much it had affected her until Caitlin wrote her college essay about it. The essay described the physical experience of anxiety on the mound — the heart rate, the pulse, the feeling of people being mad at you, the weight of expectation. Her coach, Sean Thornton at Corona del Sol, had a great response: he showed her the actual numbers. She was top five in wins at that point in the season. The data was good. The feeling was not the reality. Jody says she told Caitlin: you're handling this. I don't know if you realize it, but you are.
As of the recording, Connor is in the transfer portal after his first full season as a starter at Western New Mexico — nearly 3,000 yards, 30 touchdowns, under 10 interceptions, and a team that went to the playoffs against teams that were also in the D2 playoffs. He's 19, still growing, and Jody believes there will be D1 interest. Caitlin is a senior at Corona, has been accepted to ASU, and recently discovered that GCU has a club softball team — which may change her plans about playing in college.
You are so much more than a player. You are a human being. You bring value to this earth — and it is not about sports. It's about who you are.
The parent advice section is the heart of the episode. Jody's core message is about value — not athletic value, not scholarship value, but human value. She tells her kids: you are so much more than a player. You are a human being. You bring value to this earth, and it has nothing to do with sports or school or any of that. She worries about kids who feel like they have to perform to justify their place in the family, and she's especially pointed about the pressure that comes when a scholarship is treated as a financial necessity. She says: you should never tell your kid that if they can't get a scholarship, they're not going to college. That is a terrible message.
Setting up your chair on the sideline is a special thing. It doesn't happen for everybody. Don't miss it while you're in it.
Her final thought is the one that lands hardest. She used to see parents at games who said they'd miss it — the chairs on the sideline, the bleachers, the whole thing — and she'd think: I'm so busy, I can barely get here. Now that one of her kids is a senior and the other is in college, she gets it. She feels it. Setting up your chair on the sideline is a special thing. It doesn't happen for everybody. Don't miss it while you're in it.
Top 5 Takeaways
Your kid's value is not their athletic performance. Jody's most direct message to parents is also her most important: your child is a human being first. Their value to you, to their family, and to the world has nothing to do with how they play, what level they reach, or whether they get a scholarship. Say this out loud. Say it often. Make sure they know it before the hard moments come.
Don't project a ceiling — or a floor. Jody has watched kids she never would have predicted go on to play at high levels, and she's watched highly touted prospects flame out. Her advice: don't label anything too early, because kids are still growing. The kid who looks too small at 17 may be the right size at 20. The kid who struggles at 14 may find something at 16. Let the process unfold.
Let them handle it. One of the clearest threads in Jody's parenting philosophy is that she and Chad tried to let Connor and Caitlin address their own issues — with coaches, with teammates, with the recruiting process. Connor would talk to coaches directly. Caitlin would think through what she needed to say. The skill of navigating difficult conversations with adults is one of the most important things youth sports can teach, and it only develops if parents step back and let it happen.
The scholarship conversation can do real damage. Jody is pointed about the pressure that comes when a family's financial situation makes a scholarship feel like a necessity. She says she's told her own kids: regardless of finances, you can go to college. There are loans, there are options. The message that you have to perform to earn your education is one of the most corrosive things a parent can communicate — and many do it without realizing it.
Fun is the infrastructure. Chad's coaching philosophy — make it fun, make them laugh, make them feel like they belong — is the thing every kid who played for him remembers at graduation. Not the wins. Not the drills. The fun. Jody's advice to coaches: not all of them are there to go to the next level. Many are just there for the experience. Coach to that.
Be present while you can. Jody's closing thought is the one that will stay with parents longest. She used to see parents who said they'd miss the sidelines and think: I'm too busy to even be here. Now that her kids are almost done, she understands. The chair on the sideline, the bleachers, the games — it's a special thing. It doesn't happen for everybody. Don't be so busy that you miss it.
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