The 15th annual Chicago Football Classic (CFC) is a weekend of activities focused around the game on Sept. 29 featuring Albany State University and Kentucky State University at Soldier Field; but football isn’t the only important sporting event this weekend featuring young athletes.
The CFC golf outing held Sept. 28 at Flossmoor Country Club will feature two of the youngest and accomplished golfers in the nation. Fourteen-year-old Erica Jackson and her 12-year-old sister Myah call themselves the Birdie Sisters. Erica caught the golf bug when she was four years old; Myah learned to play shortly after.
“Myah used to go and watch Erica practice,” recalls their dad Eric Jackson. “Myah would listed to Erica’s coaches and so when Myah started playing, she advanced a little faster.”
The Birdie Sisters have won local, state, national and international junior golf championships and train with their dad as their coach. Jackson says he has a different approach to coaching his daughters versus being a father to them.
“Sometimes it is extremely difficult,” described Jackson. “When I’m dad at home, I try to be really laid back and humorous. When we’re on the course, I have a different approach.”
The Birdie Sisters hail from the South Side and are products of the Chicago Public Schools system. Myah resumes school at Skinner West Classical School and Erica begins her freshman year at South Shore International College Preparatory High School where a new golf team is launching.
The girls will take part in about 40 tournaments this year with one of the highlights playing at the 2012 Doral-Publix Junior Golf Classic in Florida. Without endorsements Jackson isn’t just the coach, he’s also the banker.
“For the past 10 years we have had to pay about 95 percent of the costs for the girls to golf,” adds Jackson. “We don’t mind. We are a dedicated family to our girls.”
The Birdie Sisters will be welcomed with open arms at the CFC golf outing.
For more information or for ticket sales for the CFC, please go to www.chicagofootballclassic.biz
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