Belgreen senior signs with NWSCC to play flag football in new program

RUSSELLVILLE – Multisport athlete Dacota Green plays basketball, softball and volleyball at Belgreen High School. Soon, she’ll be taking on a new challenge — playing flag football for Northwest Shoals Community College.

She has accepted a scholarship to be part of the school’s first team in the sport. Green has played basketball since seventh grade, softball from grades seven through nine (plus as a senior) and volleyball during her senior year.

It might seem like an unusual transition, but when NWSCC coach Jamie Jeffreys attended some of Belgreen’s sporting events and saw her play, he thought she’d be right for the part.

“Basketball is kind of similar as a contact sport to flag football,” Green explained. “The coach came and watched some of my basketball and softball games.”

Green said that while Jeffreys hasn’t seen her play flag football, she has some experience with the game.

“We had a little game here where we got teams together every year,” Green said of her high school experience with the sport. “We do a powder puff game, and we won it this year.”

SCHOOL SUPPORT

Green’s father, Chad Green, is a girls basketball coach at BHS and has been his daughter’s coach.

“I’m super excited for her,” he said about her flag football scholarship to NWSCC. “She gets to go to Northwest for two years and get a free education.”

Her softball coach at BHS, Sander Tverberg, also shared his enthusiasm for her future.

“Dacota is a great player to have on our team,” he explained. “Her leadership, work ethic, grittiness and the toughness she has brought to the team this year after taking time off from the sport has helped us grow and improve.”

Tverberg said Green’s attributes will be “an asset to any team in any sport,” adding he’s “excited for her to get to play collegiately,” noting he has “no doubt” that she will be successful.

FUTURE PLANS

Outside of playing flag football in college, her future plans include finishing at NWSCC and transferring to Athens State where she hopes to graduate and eventually become a kindergarten teacher.

At BHS, Green is the president of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and has been a part of the Mosaic Mentoring program. In years past, she has been in Youth Coalition, Beta Club and been a student ambassador.

A NEW ADVENTURE

Green said she was “very excited” to receive the offer.

“I’m excited to start a new adventure,” she continued. “I’ve played sports my whole life, but this is something new. When I play flag football, what I like is the adrenaline rush and the contact part of it.”

Green said he’s seen a lot of growth in his daughter over her years of playing sports.

“She’s definitely a leader,” he continued. “She’s a hard worker. Her work ethic is good. She works hard in the weight room, and she does a good job putting in extra time in her sports to become better.”

He said he’s enjoyed being able to coach her and have her around.

“I’m going to miss her next year, but I’m proud of her,” he added. “I’m proud she’s going on to this.”

Green described his daughter as a competitor.

“She plays volleyball, she plays softball, she plays basketball – this gives her a chance to compete at the college level. I think it’ll be a lot of fun for her.”

Jeffreys cited Green’s leadership qualities as well as her “tremendous academic background, great leadership and competitive spirit” – all qualities he said that drew him to her right away when seeing her play.

“I expected her to come in and be a leader for us,” he added. “We’re very excited to have her. She’s just a great example of what we want to be and what we want to stand for, and I’m really excited to get to work with her.”

ABOUT THE COACH

Jeffreys is a graduate of Sulligent High School. He is a native and current resident of Hamilton, Ala., as well as an ordained minister who recently became a Hospice chaplain. In college, called Livingston at the time he attended (now West Alabama), he was the head of intramurals, and there were flag football programs for men and women.

His major areas of study included physics and political science, and he has taught “pretty much every science that high schools offer at one time or another,” in addition to “quite a few history classes,” as well as government and economics.

He said he’s proud of flag football being a new program at NWSCC, noting he’s “thrilled” to be a part of it on the ground level. He has worked in several high schools in Alabama and Mississippi.

“We’re very excited at Northwest,” he said. “I’m excited to be a part of the program. Nine schools in the state elected to start women’s flag football this year at the junior college level.”

Jeffreys said he has had a lot of high school experience over the years, noting he has coached “not only football, but pretty much every major sport that’s offered.” He said there’s a rich history of sports for women and girls in the area.

“I feel like those kind of skill sets transfer really well to flag football,” he continued. “There’s a lot about spacing and movement, so we felt like this gives us a good base. The college is highly supportive, and we’re really excited to see where this goes. I think it’s one of the fastest growing sports in the country.”

Jeffreys said he retired after 37 years in public education, having coached for 25 of those years. In addition to being an ordained minister and recently taking on the role of a hospice chalain, he said he’s excited to get back to coaching and looking forward to this new challenge.

“I see this as just another way to impact lives, another type of ministry for me,” he explained. “When this opportunity came along – I’ve always been interested in having the chance to build and establish a program.”

Jeffreys said once he met the people at NWSCC, he knew they shared the same vision and got really excited about it.

“I’m just looking forward to it. This team we’re bringing in, they’re going to be our founders, and it’s going to be very enjoyable and exciting to help these young ladies on with their lives and be competitive and start their academic careers at the college level.”

Jeffreys said he expects the team to have between 15 and 17 players in its first team. “To get started this year, we have a spring recruiting cycle,” he added. “We’ll start back in the fall with a new recruiting cycle.”