She puts her poms pons away. This time she picks up her black leather combat boots, lacing up each hole one by one. The biggest day of her life is almost here. Her bags are packed, her hair is cut to her jawline, the time is counting down. She says goodbye to cheer teams, but they know she’ll be
back to visit.

“She was a good coach, I’m going to miss her,” sophomore Mika Olacio said. “She pushed us a lot.” Her duty now won’t be coaching young girls to cheer — it will be to serve the country. Cheer coach April Jackson is now getting ready to pursue something she’s been waiting to do her whole life. She signed up to be in the Navy.

“I’m carrying on the family tradition,” she said. “Everybody but my dad and uncle were in the Navy.” Jackson was prom queen and played many sports such as cheerleading, which she did for 10 years.

After graduating from Linden, she went to Delta College for three years. She was unsure and kept switching her major, which caused her to take more classes and it became expensive. Then she realized she didn’t like college.

“I decided it’s time to do what I wanted to do which is be in the Navy,” she said.

On Feb. 10, she will depart to Sacramento to spend the night in a hotel. The next day she’ll leave to Great Lakes, Ill. Jackson will spend six months over there: nine weeks at boot camp and the rest at school, studying to be a machinist mate. A machinist mate is a person who controls and maintains the ships’ steam turbines and gears used to make it move forward.

“I’m very excited,” Jackson said. “I’m so excited I have a countdown on my phone.”
At boot camp, she will have to adapt to her environment. She will be sharing a room, shower and bathroom with 60 girls. Her workouts are six days a week and there will be constant yelling. Once she begins, she will be considered an E3 seaman, which explains that she enlisted and her entry rank. The saddest part about leaving, she said, will be leaving behind her autistic nephew, whom she has raised since he was a baby. She fears that her departure will disrupt his schedule and that he will forget her. After she’s gone, the cheer teams will be left in the hands of the varsity coach, Yvette Broderick.
“(It’s) sad, because she got really close,” freshman Jordyn Garcia. “She’s like a mom to us.”