June 7, 2005
ATLANTA – Austin Jackson, a 6-1 point guard who signed a letter-of-intent last November to attend Georgia Tech and play basketball, was selected Tuesday late in the eighth round of the Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft by the New York Yankees.
One of the nation’s top high school baseball prospects as well as one of the top 100 prep basketball players, Jackson is a key member of Tech’s basketball recruiting class out of Ryan High School in Denton, Texas. He was an all-state selection in both sports, earning the honor as a senior in basketball and three times as a center fielder in baseball. He was the 259th overall selection in the MLB draft.
Jackson was ranked 10th among the nation’s senior point guards by Athlon Sports. Overall, he was rated No. 49 by Rivals.com, No. 65 by The Insiders.com and No. 80 by The Sporting News. Baseball America rated him as high as No. 14 among high school prospects.
“Austin is perhaps the quickest and fastest player we’ve recruited since I have been at Georgia Tech, and he has great point guard instincts,” Hewitt when Jackson signed his letter in the fall.
Jackson averaged 22.6 points, 5.6 rebounds and 3.8 assists per game as a senior, following a junior campaign in which he posted averages of 22.5 points, five rebounds and three assists at Billy Ryan High School. He played the off-guard position his final two seasons after playing point guard as a sophomore, when he averaged 15.9 points and six assists per game.
As a baseball player, Jackson hit .410 for his high school career with 18 home runs and 111 runs batted in. That included high-water marks of .423 with five homers and 34 RBI during his junior year at Ryan.
