Inside the Huddle | 'I'm A Part of Something Bigger Than Myself': Jackson Makes History, Overcomes Adversity in Journey to Illinois

The first chapter of Camille Jackson’s basketball story starts in, of all places, a Build-A-Bear Workshop.

What started as a field trip with her kindergarten class turned into a life-changing experience for Jackson, who has gone from knowing nothing about the sport to playing Big Ten basketball in her second season at Illinois.

“Everybody got clothes, dresses, jeans, jackets, and all that stuff. I got a WNBA jersey,” Jackson said. “I didn't know what it was. I asked my mom, and she told me what it was. I got into camps, really liked it, and then started watching more basketball.”

Inspired by Derrick Rose and the Chicago Bulls, Jackson continued to invest in her basketball endeavors. Though she frequently trained at a local gym with her parents, she took the next step by joining an AAU team, Illinois X-CITEMENT, in fourth grade. 

That was when she met Xaver Walton, who served as her coach all the way through high school. Jackson made an impression on her eventual coach before the pair even first interacted after everyone at their local gym insisted Walton introduce himself to the up-and-coming star.

“I need to make sure you meet Camille Jackson,” people at the Kroc Center, a community center on Chicago’s South Side, constantly told Walton, who ran a youth basketball program.

Initially thinking Jackson was much older than a fourth-grader because of her size and natural abilities, Walton approached the Chicago native two days after first noticing her at the gym. Once the pair finally connected, their bond was almost instant.

“She was definitely way more skilled than the average fourth-grade female basketball player,” Walton said. “She already had super athletic talents, she was very well-coordinated and stronger, and she was taller than the average fourth-grade young lady. She actually knew the game of basketball quite well.

“I knew she was special from the first day I saw her in fourth grade. When I found out she was a fourth-grader, I explained to her mom from the very beginning, ‘Your daughter already has an edge against every kid in this class because of her athletic ability.’ That was the start of a very positive and successful basketball journey with Camille.”

Basketball has always been Jackson’s focus, and it is the only sport she has ever played in a competitive manner. After joining Walton at Illinois X-CITEMENT in 2014, Jackson not only knew the sport was for her, but it was also her path to college athletics.

“Coach X always told me I was gonna go to college, so I never really thought about it,” Jackson said. “It was just like, ‘Keep playing, and good things will happen.’”

Everything seemed to be going perfectly for Jackson. She was playing well against high-level competition, enjoying the sport, and bonding with her coach and teammates. Realizing in middle school that she had what it took to play college basketball, Jackson pushed herself to be the best player and teammate she possibly could.

But, while playing in a youth basketball tournament in Michigan in eighth grade, Jackson’s journey took its first of many twists and turns. Attempting to steal an opposing team’s pass, Jackson felt something pop in her shoulder. Jackson soon received the news that she had torn her labrum in her right shoulder.

Undergoing surgery in August between her eighth- and ninth-grade seasons, Jackson made her return to the court four months later in December.

Jackson opted to attend Butler College Prep in Chicago’s Pullman neighborhood, where Walton also served as her head coach. Walton raved about Jackson’s arrival before she even entered high school, as he knew she would make an immediate impact on the girl’s basketball program.

“When it was time for Camille to leave elementary school, we had a plan, and her parents truly bought in,” Walton said. “At the time, she was the highest-rated player in the Chicagoland area going into freshman year of high school.

“I remember telling the players in my first year, ‘Hey, we have a young lady who's looking to come to Butler for her high-school career. I promise you, she's gonna give us a blueprint to show you ladies what hard work is and what it can do for you.’”

After Butler lost in the final four of the Noble League tournament in Jackson’s freshman campaign, the Lynx secured the league title during her sophomore season. But, after dealing with some personal off-court adversity, Jackson questioned her desire to even pursue college basketball. Though she had the physical abilities, she was not in the right headspace to continue to reach the goal she first set for herself back in elementary school.

“She didn't have the desire to push herself as much as she did when she was younger, just because of all the other things that had happened in her life. I totally understood that. I was crushed, but I never tried to go overboard and try to push her back to that trajectory,” Walton said. “I realized that young lady had gone through a lot of stuff. There was so much that happened, so I understood why basketball wasn't as big to her as it used to be.”

Not only was she struggling mentally, she was also ailing physically. Her shoulder continued to bother her during games, and it would routinely pop out of its socket while she played, forcing her to find a spot outside of the spectators’ view to pop it back in place without anyone noticing.

“That was always my biggest physical limitation, but it wasn't bad to the point where I couldn't play,” Jackson said. “The only thing worse than the physical part was just the mental part behind it, especially dealing with it for so long.”

The injury issues impacted her performance at USA Basketball U16 team trials. One of 30 girls left from an original pool of over 200, Jackson made it to the last day of scrimmages before suffering a concussion. The next year, while competing for a spot on the U17 team, Jackson once again advanced to the final round of cuts before her shoulder popped out of place.

Despite coming up just short of securing a spot on the team, Jackson says the experience of playing with and against some of the top players and coaches in the country was extremely beneficial. It also provided her with a sense of reassurance that she could compete with anyone in the nation.

“That experience showed me more of the technical sides of basketball, like the importance of talking. That was a really big thing. Learning how to talk to your teammates, how to be more technical within basketball, and not just running hard and putting the ball in the basket; it's more than that,” Jackson said. “Having so many great coaches around and knowing the things that they want and expect out of elite players, there was a lot to learn from that.”

Returning to Butler for her junior and senior seasons, Jackson was named a two-time Noble League Girls Basketball Athlete of the Year after leading the Lynx to a conference title in each of her final three high-school seasons.

Amassing 1,402 points, 676 rebounds, 523 assists, 327 steals and 100 blocks over the course of her time at Butler, Jackson received one of the biggest honors in her school’s history. Her No. 0 was retired by the program’s girl’s basketball program, making her the first female student-athlete – and second athlete ever – in Butler College Prep history to earn that elite and exclusive status.

After working with Walton from fourth grade through high school and constantly training together around five days a week throughout the span of those eight years, Jackson made an impact on her coach and teammates that continues to this day. Walton made it an utmost priority to retire her number, and he decided to surprise her with the news at an end-of-year senior banquet.

“She was always a humble kid. She was never about self-promotion, wouldn't make a post about a great game or anything, so I always tried to make those posts about her and keep her name out there in the atmosphere,” Walton said. “When I tell Camille Jackson's story, I say that she's a young lady who has triumphed over a lot. I love Camille Jackson. I know my wife, my daughters, and the community at Butler loves her.

“In all of my time, Camille Jackson is the only – and I say only, with capital letters – player to never show me an attitude in anything. No matter how much I yelled at her, no matter how much I talked about her, she would always look me in the eye and say, ‘Yes, Coach.’ I said some tough things to Camille Jackson over the years to try to motivate her and keep her at the top of the chain. I always got on her when she messed up, but she's the only girl to never show me an attitude.”

A three-time Noble League champion, three-time all-state selection, two-time Noble Player of the Year, and McDonald’s All-American nominee, Jackson became the first student-athlete in the 23-year history of the Noble Schools network to accept a scholarship from a Power-5 school in any sport when she announced her commitment to the Fighting Illini in the summer of 2021.

Wanting to “stay home” and represent Illinois, Jackson feels honored to lay the groundwork for future Noble student-athletes who want to compete at the Power-5 level one day. Even as she made history and etched her name in the program record book, her team-first mentality paved the way for generations to come.

“It was never about, ‘What can I do to make sure I get these accolades.’ It was more about, ‘What can I do to make sure the people around me are getting better?’ I just knew that if I kept doing what I was doing, something would come out of it.”

There were still bumps in the road for Jackson before she arrived in Champaign, though. Continuing to deal with right-shoulder problems, her injury got to the point where she could not even reach down to close a car door without her shoulder popping out of place.

What started as a muscle tear turned into the muscle fraying away at the bones in her shoulder, and she underwent surgery for a second time the summer before her freshman year at Illinois. Staying in touch with head coach Shauna Green, who was entering her first season at the helm of the program, for the entirety of her road to recovery, Jackson remained committed to the Fighting Illini despite all of the changes within the program.

“I was telling her about my injury coming into the school, and then she was saying, ‘We're still here and nothing's changed as far as your scholarship or anything like that,’” Jackson said. “It was mostly just trying to get to know each other, and I still felt supported. I didn't feel a lack of support anywhere, so I decided to stay.”

Jackson has persevered through on-court and off-court adversity in her journey to Champaign, but her love for the sport is still strong in her second year with the Orange and Blue. 

“I feel like the biggest thing that I value the most is knowing that I’m a part of something bigger than myself. It's not all on one person. It's not all on me; it's not all on anyone else,” Jackson said. “It's also about knowing that somebody has my back and knowing that I’m responsible for somebody else's back in some way. 

“I feel like that selfless aspect of basketball is something that is really important, at least for me, knowing I can be a part of something that is going to give back to me. It's almost guaranteed that you're going to have to rely on somebody else, and it's guaranteed that you're going to have to help somebody else. I really like that part of it.”