Columbus East’s Jackson Watkins reacts after smacking a triple to center field against Whiteland April 1 at Columbus East High School.
Tommy Walker | For The Republic
Coming from a family of baseball and softball players, Jackson and Lola Watkins learned how to play the sport through their family and through each other.
Jackson, a senior at Columbus East, and Lola, a sophomore have been a big part of the lineup for their respective teams this year. Both are hoping to make noise next week as the softball and baseball posteasons begin.
It all started when Jackson first picked up a bat and starting playing baseball at 4 years old. He grew up a baseball fan of the Cincinnati Reds watching the games on TV. Two of his favorite Reds to watch were Brandon Phillips and Joey Votto.
“(Phillips) was very smooth in the infield making crazy plays. I’ve always grown up playing middle infield, so that’s what I wanted to be like,” Jackson said, “and also Joey Votto hitting, I’m a lefty, too, so watching his swing is really nice to watch.”
Columbus East’s Lola Watkins looks to put the ball back in play after making a catch against Hauser April 14 at Hauser High School.
Tommy Walker | For The Republic
Lola, on the other hand, got started in the sport by first playing baseball with Jackson. When Lola was 10 and couldn’t play baseball anymore, she was faced with an early decision. One that was an easy one for her.
“I had to either choose not to play or play softball, so I moved to softball and that’s how I got into the sport,” Lola said.
Jackson and Lola are both in the starting lineups for the Olympian baseball and softball teams. Lola has been the leadoff hitter for the softball team.
Jackson and Lola’s parents were former athletes themselves. Their father Bo was a multisport athlete at Bloomington North and went on to play college football at Hanover. Their mother Leslie was a softball player at East.
“My parents played in high school. My dad likes coaching it,” Jackson said. “It was always a given that I was going to play baseball. I also played other sports like football and basketball, but I solely focused on playing baseball this year. It was from a young age and always playing. I always loved it.”
Saying the summers are busy for the Watkins family might be an understatement. Jackson and Lola have two younger siblings that also play travel ball. Their sister Georgia is a seventh grader at Northside Middle School, and brother Hudson is a fourth grader at Rock Creek Elementary.
It’s not a surprise that the schedule can get hectic for the family traveling up to four different places around the country. When all four play on the same weekend, their grandparents also will also help out.
“With four kids playing travel ball during the summer, it gets really busy,” Jackson said. “I don’t think there is a single day where we ever had off during the summer, not a single weekend.”
Lola Watkins
Lola added, “If my mom or dad can’t make it to either mine or Jackson’s, my nana and papaw always help. It’s kind of like all four going somewhere else because we usually all play on the same weekend.”
Lola had a big year as a freshman last year for East. Her sophomore season of softball probably wouldn’t have happened, but she decided to be proactive.
Lola had an issue with her left knee during basketball season and decided to visit a doctor. It turned out she had osteochondritis and continued to play with a brace. It got to the point where could run as fast or play on her knee, she opted for Laparoscopic OCD surgery in January, which is an approximate three-month recovery time. Lola missed the rest of her sophomore year of basketball due to the surgery.
It didn’t take Lola that long to recover. In fact, she recovered from her injury in two months. She spent an entire month using crutches to help herself move. She rehabbed with her physical therapist twice a week, while also rehabbing at home.
Lola was glad she got her surgery out of the way and is enjoying playing softball this year without missing a beat.
“It was really stressful because I couldn’t put any weight on it, especially with not being able to put weight on it when I was coming back. I had to take a few minutes to learn how to walk and run again,” she said. “In physical therapy, we would do stuff that had to do with softball and getting back to it so I could get back to the sport faster.”
Outside of school and travel practice, Jackson and Lola got in plenty of practice time from their father, who would give them both hitting drills, catching drills and fielding drills.
Jackson and Lola saw it as an opportunity to bring in some competitiveness. Even though they don’t compete as much with each other now, they pushed each other to get better.
Jackson Watkins
Jackson mentioned he could never take a second off of baseball with Lola, Georgia and Hudson all putting in the work. He credited them in part of helping him who he is today.
“We had our dad pitching to us, doing many ball drills. We were always competitive. It’s nice that I always had someone to compete with,” Jackson said. “Me and Lola don’t really compete with each other now. We used to compete a lot, but now we really don’t compete with each other. Sometimes when we get home after games, we’ll bicker on who did better, but we don’t compete as much anymore, but we were pretty bad when we would compete in the backyard when we were little. We don’t take it to a bad point where we’re screaming at each other. We keep it pretty humble.”
“My parents did so much for me, and I couldn’t thank them enough for that. They took me everywhere. They taught me everything that I’ve learned,” Lola added. “My mom was my travel coach for three years, and my dad was the one who got me into the sport. He would hit fly balls to me because I could not catch a fly ball, so I didn’t know where to play, but then he spent a whole summer hitting fly balls and that’s how I got really good at outfield, and now that’s where I play.”
After his time at East, Jackson will continue playing baseball at Jackson College in Michigan. It first drew him in when former Olympians Ethan Ianni, Harry Major, Logan Christophel and Blake Borkhardt play or have played baseball there.
“I talked to them all about (Jackson College) and they all had good things to say and had a good culture over there. I really thought that I would improve the best at Jackson,” Jackson Watkins said. “It feels most like East, honestly. It felt like home there. I know the coaches really well.”
Jackson won’t have to travel next week as the Olympians will host the baseball sectional. East will play in the semifinal round against Franklin at 6 p.m. May 30.
Lola begins her softball sectional play on May 28 when they take on crosstown rival Columbus North in the semifinal round of the East Central Sectional.
“We have so much capability that sometimes just doesn’t show in the game, so that’s why our record is lower, but if we just show up and be who we are, then there’s no doubt that we could come prove ourselves because we have so much capability and so much talent on the team,” Lola said.
