by By Dan Ninham,, contributing writer
Cale Jackson is an enrolled member of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe and lives in Inger, MN. He played for the Team Mni-Sota U19 boys’ basketball team for NAIG. Jackson will be a junior at Deer River HS.
“In third grade I started playing basketball because all my friends were playing basketball,” said Cale Jackson.
Over the years up to high school Jackson eventually seen the benefits of putting in the quality time to get better.
Jackson was named to the sophomore all state first team by prep hoops.com. He was also named Northern Lakes All Conference the past two years and All Iron Range Conference honorable mention the past two years.
“Being Native American I feel like I’ve always been skipped over my whole life and I use that as my motivation to work even harder to become the best I can be for myself in the future,” said Jackson. “My highlight at NAIG 2023 was winning the semi-finals game against the ‘favorite’ Ontario to go to the gold medal game.”
“Being able to represent Minnesota and Leech Lake was a blessing,” said Jackson. “I’m so grateful and thankful for the opportunity to be able to compete with myself and others. I felt like the whole ‘Rez’ was behind me and supporting me and that just made me feel so relaxed and calm and helped me compete to my best.”
Jackson’s high school coach was also his Team Mni-Sota coach at the NAIG 2023. “David Olson-Iverson was my high school coach at Deer River HS and that made it so much better,” said Jackson. “He knows how good of a player I am individually and how good our team was.”
“Cale was picked up as a shooter/scorer for Team Mni-Sota,” said David Olson-Iverson, Team Mni-Sota 19U head boys’ basketball coach at the NAIG 2023. “I’m not sure if anyone else knew what a playmaker he is, in addition to his scoring talents. Not only is Cale a great shooter, but he is also a great rebounder and anticipator. Cale was an X-factor in the tournament for Team Mni-Sota.”
“When other teams put their best perimeter defenders on Jack Brown and Gerald Kingbird Jr., Cale would make other teams pay by scoring in bunches. Cale had multiple games of 20 or more points. Cale would do whatever was asked of him,” added Coach Olson-Iverson.
“Pete Nez was there making sure we were all okay and feeling good to go out and play to win,” added Jackson.
Pete Nez was the assistant coach for the 19U MNI-SOTA boys’ basketball team. He talked about his athlete: “Cale was our youngest and quietest on the team. He had a very high IQ for the game. He never backed down from the physicality of the way a lot of the Canadian teams played. He had to help and was switched on to a post player and held his own. He is also a great scorer. He could shoot and drive and finish at the hoop.”
