A special thanks goes out to the Parks & Recreations Director Kevin Warner who had a vision to bring flag football back to Natchitoches. Warner assigned the task to Davin White, Assistant Principal at Natchitoches Central High School and Athletic Coordinator for the City of Natchitoches.
“It’s Kevin Warner that deserves all the credit,” said White. “I just made his vision come true. Covid made things tougher and we had some hiccups but I think it’s going to do great going forward.”
Coach Diane Dodd, the only female flag football coach in her division, has been coaching Parks & Rec sports for the past 4 years. She’s moved from baseball to softball, to soccer to basketball. When Coach Dodd found out last minute that flag football was given a green light, she was just wrapping up her Fall Ball season in baseball and realized only one of her players had actually signed up to play flag football.
She asked if she could sign up her entire 10u baseball team. The request was approved because they were not a school team (school teams are no longer allowed to participate in Parks & Rec sporting events). Coach Dodd was able to convince all of her baseball parents that flag football would be fun for their sons, even though 75 percent of them had never played before.
Flag Football has been Coach Dodd’s passion since she was a little girl playing in the streets of Los Angeles. It followed her all the way to the Los Angeles Lasers (L.A’s all women professional tackle football league).
Coach Dodd dumped all of this passion into her flag football team several times a week and in the end they were co-Champs in their age group.
“Who said Girls can’t coach (and win) at football,” Coach Dodd said. “Y’all better watch out next year, I’m bringing my softball team and my girls are some amazing athletes. Once again, a special thank you to the Directors of Parks & Rec Kevin Warner and Davin White for bringing this awesome game back to this town.”
Pictured is Coach Dodd’s 10u team: The Panthers and the sisters of the players/cheerleaders.
The winners of each age group are:
6u – The Ravens
8u – The Chargers
10u -The Bucs & The Panthers tied for 1st place.
12u- The Rams
