Amid a sea of Spartans in green practice uniforms, aligned in columns before warmups, one Tennessee high school football player stood front and center towering above the rest. He starts the chant, followed in unison by claps from his teammates, then stretching begins.
Antwan Jackson wasn’t always a leader, but his talent left him no choice.
Standing 6-foot-6 and 250 pounds, Jackson, a four-star defensive end committed to Ole Miss, preferred to lead by example.
Yet, when White Station coach Coley Thornton took over the program in 2025, he challenged his marquee edge rusher to grow in that role as the 2026 TSSAA season began.
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“Antwan is not a natural leader. It’s just something we’ve asked him
to do,” Thornton said. “He’s a team-first guy, but he never had to be a vocal leader. And when you look like him and you walk in a room full of guys who don’t look like him, he has more influence than any coach would ever have.”
Jackson typically leads the defensive line group without a position coach in the early portion of practice. On Wednesday, he went first during a three-point stance drill, then turned toward his opposite starting edge rusher, Jalen Bryant.
Jackson stood next to the tackling dummy and gave Bryant pointers during his rep, doing everything he could to be a resource to his teammates.
“What I’ve learned is I really can’t tell people what to do. I try to just motivate them with my words,” Jackson said. “I try to lead by example on the field, make plays and when they see me making plays, they’ll make plays.”
According to Thornton, Bryant has been exceptional through Week 3. He is one of several defensive players receiving more action as teams game-plan away from Jackson.
The program is young and going through change. Year 1 under Thornton featured a program with just 33 total players. White Station struggled to maintain a varsity roster, let alone add JV and freshman teams.
As a collective, the Spartans are seeing a culture shift. A year later, the program has 94 players, Jackson and Bryant were tasked with more leadership responsibilities than ever to build the foundation for the future.
“We play a lot of young guys and a lot of inexperienced guys, and it’s super important for guys like [Jackson] to not make excuses,” Thornton said. “Success to me is to keep as many kids as possible in the program and build them and develop them where they turn into guys like [Jackson] and [Bryant].”
The Spartans haven’t had a winning season since 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic, let alone since Jackson’s freshman year. Despite sitting at 1-2 ahead of their Week 4 Region 8-6A matchup at Southwind (3-0), Jackson is optimistic about what’s ahead.
“We worked super hard. Everything looked good. I feel like we just had two bad games,” Jackson said. “Coming into this week, we had another good day of practice, so I feel like we’re just going to be ready for Friday.”
Jackson committed to Ole Miss in July. His mother and two older sisters helped give him the confidence to go with his gut while the 17-year-old sifted through offers from a dozen SEC programs and 11 other FBS schools.
“It was for sure a big weight off my shoulders,” he said. “Toward the end, when I was getting ready to commit, it was a lot of coaches talking to me, calling me every day.”
Jackson is joining two other marquee linemen from the Memphis area heading to Oxford, Mississippi: MASE defensive tackle Jamarkus Pittman and Southwind offensive tackle Antonio Keefer.
Pittman and Jackson visited Ole Miss together, and Jackson will face Keefer when White Station faces Southwind on Sept. 11.
Until the trio reconnects in Oxford, Jackson is focused on helping the Spartans galvanize a new culture before he’s gone.
“Even when we just got scored on coming off the field, I always try to keep the guys’ energy up, making sure nobody has their head down,” Jackson said. “Teams want to run away from me and game-plan away from me. Even then, I still have to find a way to make plays.”
Reach The Commercial Appeal's high school writer, Ryan Myers at ryan.myers@commercialappeal.com and on the X platform @RyanMyers_23.
This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: How Ole Miss football commit Antwan Jackson is leading a culture change at White Station
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