Jeremy Jackson, who has played in only one game since Jan. 19, was dismissed from the top-ranked Spartan hockey team Thursday.
The freshman center from Chilliwack, British Columbia was fourth on the team with 19 points - seven goals and 12 assists - this season, but hasn’t always seen eye-to-eye with MSU head coach Ron Mason.
Mason said Jackson was dismissed for “accountability issues in the classroom and with the team.
“It’s really too bad,” Mason said. “Accountability is something we demand of all the players. We tried to work with him on certain issues and it didn’t pan out. Not too many things changed.
“It was an ongoing situation and I had to make sure I was on top of it.”
Mason suspended Jackson for the Jan. 20 game versus Miami after he missed a team breakfast.
Jackson played Jan. 23 against Lake Superior State, but was suspended for the Jan. 27 contest against Michigan for missing the team’s morning meeting.
Then, in the week leading up to MSU’s series at Northern Michigan, Mason announced Jackson would not travel with the team due to academic problems.
“I’ve got to get him going to classes,” Mason said Jan. 31. “If he does what we want him to do, which is go to class like a normal student, then there’s no problem. It’s up to him.”
Jackson has not been available for comment since the announcement, but he spoke with The State News on Feb. 4.
He said he felt his academic suspension was heavily based on him missing team functions and not on his performance in the classroom. He said he received a 2.9 grade point average in the fall.
“I try to be in class every day, but some days I don’t make it,” Jackson said. “I think that’s normal for most students at Michigan State.”
The dismissal came as a bit of a surprise, considering Mason said last Monday that Jackson “might be practicing by the end of the week.”
Jackson had a closed-door meeting with team captain Rustyn Dolyny and assistant captains Damon Whitten and Adam Hall on Wednesday at Munn Ice Arena. He was visibly upset after the 45-minute meeting, but wouldn’t comment on what was said.
Goodenow will replace Jackson on MSU’s top line with Hall and sophomore left wing Brian Maloney.
Jackson’s immediate plans are up in the air, but it is expected that he will leave MSU and return to his junior team, the Chilliwack Chiefs, to continue playing hockey. The NHL Central Scouting Service projects him as a fourth-round pick in the 2001 Entry Draft this June.
The uncertainty of Jackson’s situation seemed to be weighing on the Spartans as they approached the end of the CCHA regular season.
“He's made some mistakes off the ice and sometimes that distracts from what the rest of the team is trying to do,” junior center Joe Goodenow said after MSU’s 3-2 loss to Northern on Feb. 2.
“With him doing things not necessarily correctly off the ice, it helps our team chemistry a little bit to not have him here. But he is a gifted player, so from that aspect, we miss him.”
