Junior Hailey Jackson is recovering from a head injury caused by a strayed discus thrown by another athlete at track practice on March 19, 2025.
Jackson sustained a traumatic brain injury and a skull fracture.
Head girl’s track coach Cliff Riley stated that he was showing around a new athlete before he heard “look out” and saw Jackson get hit in the head with the discus. He ran to get athletic trainer Tom Burns to help with Jackson’s injury.
During this time, athletes that were near immediately started tending to her injury. Teammate sophomore Savannah Trout assisted by applying pressure to Jackson’s head.
Trout said that it was a “scary” situation because she never thought it would be a reality, but helping Jackson was an easy decision to make.
Brian Soules, head coach of the boy’s track team and girl’s cross country team, coached Jackson in cross country during the 2024 season, and has seen her compete in track over the past couple of years. He says that she has a strong work ethic and tries her best.
“Hailey is a wonderful teammate and is very supportive of everyone on the team,” Soules said.
Riley echoed this saying that Jackson is “sweet” and “works hard” on and off the track.
During her recovery, Poseidon’s Pizza organized a fundraiser on April 5, 2025, that pledged to donate 30% of all proceeds to help financially support Jackson’s medical needs.
The Joe Burrow Foundation and Robin Burrow, mother of NFL quarterback Joe Burrow, guaranteed that they would provide Poseidon’s Pizza for all Boone students if the store sold 200 or more carry-out or online order pizzas during the fundraiser.
A GoFundMe was also organized by a family member.
In track, Jackson runs the 100 and 200 meter dash. She also plays soccer and has played a variety of positions, but says she enjoys playing left or right defense the most.
Jackson is now back in school and working her way back to normal.
“As of right now I can’t do sports or anything like that, so I just miss being able to,” Jackson said.
Her teammate and long time friend, junior Gracie Butler, also misses her presence on the team and says that it’s been lonely without her.
“We would run all the time together, and we would race each other, and it would make us better,” Butler said.
Aside from the running aspect, track practice was a place where Jackson and Butler were able to spend time with each other.
“Being able to hang out with her more and then just talking with her and running with her just made (track practice) fun and memorable,” Butler said.
Jackson says she is happy that she is back at school and can see the people she couldn’t while she was recovering from home.
The multi-sport athlete plans on joining both soccer and track again for her senior year.
