Scott Forbes delivers immense praise for Jackson Van De Brake after unlikely return for 2025

North Carolina veteran Jackson Van De Brake has had an interesting career so far for the Tar Heels, and he’ll be back to lead the team as a captain during the 2025 campaign.

It was a close call, with Van De Brake needing NCAA approval for an additional year of eligibility to be able to play this spring.

He got it.

“If you could have just seen, I mean he made the choice to come back here with it looking doubtful that he would play for us,” coach Scott Forbes told D1Baseball.com. “And he led us all fall. We vote for leaders, I like to see what the team thinks, then we meet as a staff. We don’t necessarily have to name captains, but if we feel like we have one or two guys that are, that they deserve that, we’ll name them. So we named Jackson Van De Brake and Jake Knapp our captains again.”

A second-team All-ACC player during the 2023 season, Jackson Van De Brake watched as he lost his regular role to talented freshman infielder Gavin Gallaher.

Still, he didn’t pout or get down on himself.

“I don’t think when I was his age I could have handled it the way he did,” Forbes said. “So that’s a credit to him and the way he was raised. Last year same thing. Unbelievable teammate.”

Van De Brake started 20 games out of the 48 he played in, limited a bit. He hit .213 and became more emotional heart and soul of the team than devastating bat or red-hot glove.

However, Forbes sounded grateful that he had a veteran who knew how to uphold the standard for the program. In fact, he had several, but Jackson Van De Brake was unquestionably one of the ones out front.

“Obviously the culture they know, our standards. So you don’t really have a choice, but you do individually,” Forbes said. “You could try to hide it. But they really were phenomenal teammates. I know being around the game enough whether or not they’re bought in. They were bought in. They helped us win, they helped us get to Omaha. And they’ll have the satisfaction that they made that right choice and some of them finished their career in Omaha. We didn’t win it all but we still finished in Omaha, and none of them had been.”

As for Jackson Van De Brake himself, Forbes is expecting a big year in 2025. This is what he came back for.

“So Jackson, yeah, he always plays though. He’s a JUCO kid, wasn’t recruited, didn’t play on travel teams. He’s one of those guys that will fight you, in a good way,” Forbes said. “We don’t want him going after the pitcher again like he did against Gardner-Webb, but again that’s part of baseball at times. But he’s that guy. And you need those guys.”