Layton Jackson enters his second season as Assistant Director of Athletic Communications at Lipscomb University. He is the primary contact for the volleyball, women’s basketball, baseball and tennis programs.
A 10-year veteran in athletic communications, Jackson has had previous stops at schools from the NCAA Division II and III ranks.
He spent the 2023-24 academic year in his home state of Alabama as the Assistant Athletic Director for Athletic Communications at the University of West Alabama, where he was the overseer of the Tigers’ 16 varsity programs. He served as the primary contact of the football, volleyball, women’s basketball, baseball, women’s tennis and rodeo teams.
Along with covering a first team All-American on the track, he also covered the UWA women’s rodeo team that won the College National Finals Rodeo in 2024.
Spending the previous eight years at the NCAA Division III level, Jackson was the Director of Athletic Communications at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee for six seasons.
He was a part 12 Southern Athletic Association (SAA) Tournament Championships, as well as a women’s tennis doubles team that won the NCAA Division III national championship in 2023.
He represented Sewanee as a media liaison for three conference championships, two Women's Indoor National Championships with the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA), two NCAA tennis regional championships and the 2021 NCAA Division III Men's & Women's Tennis Championships.
Along with assisting with a website redesign in 2021 with SIDEARM Sports, Jackson overhauled Sewanee’s social media platforms. One key contributor was making the community coaches show, “Coffee With The Coach” live on Facebook and on-demand.
He served for four seasons as the chairperson of the Sports Information Council for the Southern Athletic Association, in which he also served on the search committee for the league's Assistant Commissioner in 2022.
He has participated in several national committees, including All-Region Teams with D3football.com and D3hoops.com and the Associated Press Division III Football All-America Committee.
In 2021, became an advocate for academic support by joining the College Sports Communicators (CSC) Academic All-America® Committee.
During his tenure as a collegiate sports information director, spanning a decade, Jackson has been a part of 73 Academic All-District® representatives and two Academic All-Americans®.
Prior to his work at Sewanee, he spent two seasons as a graduate assistant at Belhaven University in Jackson, Mississippi. He was the lead statistician for all 17 sports, as well as serving as media contacts for the volleyball, baseball, women’s basketball, cross country/track and field and men’s and women’s soccer teams during his two seasons at the NCAA Division III institution.
Working with the Blazers from 2015-17, Jackson also portrayed his voice as the play-by-play broadcaster for the baseball program on the Blazers Sports Network. He also was the voice during the Blazers’ softball run at the National Christian College Athletic Association (NCCAA) postseason in 2016, including calling play-by-play at the NCCAA World Series for the Green and Gold.
Prior to his time in Mississippi, he worked as an intern at the Gulf South Conference in Birmingham as its Sports Information Coordinator during the 2014-15 academic year. He was the primary media contact for the volleyball, tennis and golf programs at the Division II conference. He also assisted with media for the conference cross country, basketball and tennis championships. He also assisted with updating the conference record books.
Prior to the GSC, Jackson spent nine years at his high school alma mater, Parkway Christian Academy in Birmingham as the school’s Sports Information Director.
In 2003, he was diagnosed with Perthes Disease, a disease affecting the left hip, limiting his mobility to walk. He was able to go through a total hip replacement in 2022.
Unable to play sports, he wanted to help out in athletics in any way he physically could. During his freshman year of high school, the junior high boys basketball coach gave him the opportunity to keep the scorebook for both the girls and boys teams.
After the basketball season ended, the athletic department took notice of the work he did with the basketball program. Because of this, he escalated in the spring semester by becoming the varsity baseball statistician.
Highlights of his career include statistician for the football, basketball and baseball teams. He was able to be courtside for his high school at the 2009 Alabama High School Athletic Association (AHSAA) Class 1A State Championship, in which Parkway Christian finished as the state runner-up in boys basketball.
Outside of the athletic department, Jackson has sung in multiple choral ensembles, including community choirs like the Nashville Community Choir and the Sewanee Chorale, as well as church choirs at Brentwood United Methodist Church, Livingston Methodist Church (Ala.) and the First United Methodist Church in Center Point (Ala.). During his collegiate career, he has performed with the Samford University Chorale and A Cappella Choir, as well as the Jefferson State Chorus and Singers as an undergraduate student.
He obtained his Bachelor of Science in Sport Administration from Samford University in May 2015. He also holds two associate degrees from Jefferson State Community College in Arts and Religious Studies.
