Rickea Jackson returns to Detroit Edison to have her jersey retired
WNBA star and Detroit Edison alumna Rickea Jackson returned to her alma mater for her jersey retirement ceremony Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2025.
Los Angeles Sparks standout forward Rickea Jackson had her No. 5 jersey retired by her high school, Detroit Edison.Jackson is the first player in the school’s history to receive this honor.She led the Pioneers to three consecutive state championships and is the school’s all-time leading scorer.
Detroit Edison alumna Rickea Jackson remembered a conversation she had with her school superintendent, Ralph Bland, in 2017.
“This is something that before we won our first state championship, I talked to Mr. Bland, like, ‘you know if we win a state championship, we need to retire my jersey,'” Jackson said. “And then we went on to win two more.”
Eight years later, Jackson, arguably the best girls high school basketball player ever in Michigan is a WNBA star for the Los Angeles Sparks, and returned to her alma mater for a ceremony where she became the first player in school history to have her jersey retired.
On Tuesday, Dec. 23, during halftime of Detroit Edison’s girls basketball game against Grosse Pointe South, Jackson, accompanied by 15 family members – including her now sister-in-law, Mayor-elect Mary Sheffield – watched as the school revealed a banner in the gym recognizing her accomplishments.
“It just means a lot, full circle moment,” Jackson said. “I feel like I worked hard to get here, so it’s just been amazing to feel like my hard work is paying off.”
Jackson was the winner of the 2019 Miss Michigan Basketball award, and led the Pioneers to three consecutive MHSAA girls basketball state championships from 2017-19. She finished her career as Edison’s all-time leading scorer with 1,771 points, and averaged more than 22 points and eight rebounds as a senior.
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“It was amazing to accomplish all those things, but the biggest thing with me was building those relationships and winning those championships,” Jackson said. “I felt like that truly meant a lot to me, especially my first championship, when everyone was just doubting us.”
After high school, she played three seasons at Mississippi State before transferring to Tennessee for her final two seasons. She averaged 17.8 points and 6.1 rebounds per game in college, and was named first-team All-SEC in 2023 and 2024.
Following her collegiate career, Jackson entered the 2024 WNBA draft and was selected fourth overall by the Sparks. Detroit Edison said Jackson is the first-ever Michigan charter school alumnus to play in the WNBA, where she has averaged 14 points per game in her two seasons.
Monique Brown, girls basketball coach at Detroit Edison, shared the floor with Jackson during the ceremony, and spoke to the occasion and the work it took to get to this point.
“This is my basketball daughter,” Brown said to the crowd. “We spent so much time together, just in this gym, talking about this very moment. I never thought … I promise you, I never thought it would be so soon.”
Jackson was also awarded the Spirt of Detroit during the ceremony.
With the WNBA preparing up for a return to Detroit in 2029, Jackson said the addition is “well overdue.”
“I was super excited to see Detroit get a new team,” she said. “I’m excited to see what their name is going to be, just my hometown have something I feel they deserve.”
Just as Detroit Edison’s team name is the Pioneers, so too is Jackson. As girls may look to follow a similar path, Jackson’s advice was simple.
“Start with a foundation and repetition is key,” Jackson said. “Whatever it is, just have that set foundation and the repetition will get you to where you need to be in life.”
Eric Guzmán covers youth sports culture at the Free Press as a corps member for Report for America, an initiative of The GroundTruth Project. Make a tax-deductible contribution to support this work.
Contact Eric Guzmán: eguzman@freepress.com; 313-222-1850. Follow him on X: @EricGuzman90.