Feel Good Friday: Jake Jarrett

GREAT FALLS — Jake Jarrett is the defensive backs coach at CMR High School in Great Falls. He also serves as a youth education officer at the Cascade County Juvenile Detention Center. It's pretty clear that Jake is all about working to make lives better - and that's even more evident when you discover that he is also a bone-marrow donor. Watch:

In college at Montana State University, Jarrett found himself walking on campus when he was approached by a friend to sign up as a bone marrow donor pending blood work. Without hesitation, he put his name on the list. In May 2021, Jarrett was matched with a patient in need of a transplant based on his blood type.

“I just hope it helps even if they don't reach out just knowing that I did my part and hopefully it helped in the end,” Jarrett explained.

He was flown down to San Diego to go through the transfusion and extraction process. The rest of the coaching staff was fully supportive.

“We were like, 'Whoa, that's a really cool thing,” CMR head coach Dennis Morris said. “It didn't surprise us that he was doing that because he's that kind of guy, but until you know someone who has done something like that, you just don't realize how heroic Jake really is.”

Helping others in need is what Jarrett does best with his full-time job as a teacher at the Cascade County Juvenile Detention Center in Great Falls which presents its own fun challenges.

Jarrett said, “You just have to get those kids to trust you because they're coming from places where a lot of adults around them, they don't really have a great trust with, so that's another cool thing to see the strides those kids make like that.”

When he’s not at the detention center, Jarrett is on the sidelines at practices and games combing through videos or working with kids on the defensive side of the ball.

“The thing people need to know about Jake Jarrett is he's a players coach,” Coach Morris assured. “Kids relate to him. He gets kids hyped and jacked up and ready to go. [There is] a lot of energy he brings to the field.

For Jarrett, coaching allows him to build and maintain connections with the players.

“Just those relationships you get to form with the kids. Seeing them even from last year to this year, just seeing the growth not just in their physical abilities but their mental abilities as well.”