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Jackson football’s Brent Eckley named to MOFCA Hall of Fame

Last week, Jackson officially announced that the football team’s 11-year head coach Brent Eckley will be retiring at the end of the school year. Photo by Jay Forness

Over the weekend, the Missouri Football Coaches Association announced that Jackson football head coach Brent Eckley will be a member of its 2022 Hall of Fame induction class.

Coach Eckley and the rest of the Class of 2022 members are officially going to be inducted into the MOFCA Hall of Fame on Dec. 9.

Eckley, who has been a high school football coach in Missouri since 1996, took over as the Indians head coach back in 2012. Since then, Jackson has won a Class 5 State Championship, six district titles, six SEMO North Conference titles and recorded an overall record of  96-23 with no losing seasons.

The Indians state title in 2020 under Coach Eckley was their first in program history as Jackson had reached the championship final three times prior. Jackson has played in two state title games with Eckley at the helm as the other was the year before the Indians won it all (lost to Carthage 27-21 in overtime of 2019 state final).

After Jackson won its first-ever state championship, Coach Eckley was rightfully named the Class 5 Coach of the Year. The Indians also swept the Class 5 Offensive and Defensive Player of the Year Awards that season.

Before coming to Jackson, Eckley coached at Hickman Mills (1996), Warrensburg (1997-1999), Montgomery County (2000-05) and Union (2005-2011).

Three of Eckley’s former quarterbacks rank in the top 10 all-time for passing yards in Missouri high school football history: No. 2 Eric Czerniewski of Montgomery County (11,557 passing yards), No. 3 Jordan Webb of Union (10,533) and No. 10 Cael Welker of Jackson (8,594).

Nick McNeal covers high school sports, college sports and community events for The Cash-Book Journal. He graduated from Southeast Missouri State University with a degree in multimedia journalism and has lived in Cape Girardeau County for the past five years. He can be reached at cbjsports@socket. net.

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