N.C. Police Officer’s Low-Cost Youth Football League Creates Confidence in Kids

By John Dell

Source News & Record, Greensboro, N.C.

Kruz Carson, one of the many kindergarten-aged children playing flag football on Saturday at Old Town Park, had one question after the championship game ended around 10:30 a.m.

“I want to play another game,” Kruz said to his father, Jermaine, who is also an assistant coach. “Why can’t we play again?”

That’s how much fun Kruz and around 300 other children ages 5 to 18 had in the six-week season of a league that was started four years ago by Winston-Salem police officer James Singletary. Kruz didn't want the season to end.

It was Singletary, who along with his wife, Charity, who have seven children so they are always looking to keep them active. So, Singletary created a league out of the blue, and it’s thrived because it doesn’t cost much and is organized thanks to his tireless efforts.

“When I first started the league, I sort of modeled it after NFL Flag Football, but they charge $150 per kid and if you are like us with multiple kids that can be expensive,” he said. “So, my goal when I started was to have a free league and we did that for the first three years, but this year we charged just $20 per kid, and it’s worked out and there have been no complaints.”

The players in the league range from kindergarten to high school, divided up in the various age groups with 15 different divisions. All of them get a team t-shirt and all they bring each Saturday is their desire and a water bottle. They also leave their devices at home.

“You don’t see any phones here because it’s all about football and learning teamwork and learning how to play together,” Singletary said. "After my son gets done in his game, he'll probably be looking for his phone, but he doesn't know I've locked it up in my truck."

Linwood Davis, the president of the Winston-Salem Police Foundation, said the foundation helps police officers who want to engage in community activities, and Singletary goes above and beyond his duties as a recently promoted lieutenant.

“It’s for the community,” Davis said. “The foundation is a way to show support for the police. And one of our pillars is youth engagement and we are happy to help James with this league that just keeps growing.”

This is the fourth year of the Big Dawgs League, and this year, Singletary added a high-school division for both boys and girls. The foundation helps pay for the infrastructure of the league as well as for officials for each of the games.

“James has done an absolute tremendous job, and it gets the kids engaged with football and with the local police officers,” Davis said. “This helps so that we can have good outcomes for our youth as they grow up.”

Khalani Gregg is Khalih Prince’s 7-year-old daughter who is in kindergarten at Clemmons Elementary. Prince is a single mom who loves the fact that her daughter is learning so much from being on a team and working together.

“She goes to the after-school program at the Boys & Girls Club and Mr. Singletary’s kids are in that program as well,” Prince said. "But with that and this football league, she loves it all."

While the league is about having fun, it also creates confidence for children in trying to improve from week to week.

“Her confidence level is higher than it was and she’s outgoing anyway, but she just loves this and she’s competitive,” Prince said about the coed kindergarten division. “She gets right in there and isn’t afraid to play with the boys and that’s only going to help her in life as she gets older.”

All day on Saturday, the league played championship games, gave out trophies, and celebrated as one community.

“James is always doing something at the Boys and Girls Club and he and his wife are so active there,” Prince said. “And this league is also something that benefits so many kids.”

Singletary, who played football and basketball at Glenn High School, went to play football at Western Carolina. It was soon after graduation from college that he got his first job.

“One of my favorite jobs I had before I became a police officer was working at the Boys and Girls Club there on Reynolds Park Road,” Singletary said.

He works the northern part of Winston-Salem on the midnight shift as a police officer but said putting together the youth football league is something he loves to do. He admits sleep is overrated and it's at about this time of the year when it can catch up to him.

“I’ve been trying to grow this league for years,” Singletary said. “And I think this year it’s really taken off. We compete with AAU basketball and other sports, so some kids missed a few of our games, but we just keep going.”

Singletary says without the help of the foundation to offset costs and the help of others in the community, the league wouldn’t be a success.

“It’s $20 each for the kids and that’s with help from the foundation and others in the community,” Singletary said. “I have another guy who I was just talking to at the gym the other day, and he agreed to come out here and offer families free food while watching the games. so those are the kind of people who have helped us with this thing.”

Without the low cost of joining the league, Singletary said it’s doubtful a lot of the children would ever get a chance to play organized football.

“These kids probably would never have a chance to play flag football because the prices are so high, so we make it affordable,” Singletary said.

Singletary said in his own family, he sees how children can be on their devices too long instead of being outside and doing something constructive. “Keeping kids busy is so important,” he said.

As Singletary was making sure the games were on time and talking with referees, he stopped in his tracks and turned serious when asked why he created a youth football league.

“The thing I like the most is people coming out watching their kids or it's aunts and uncles and grandmothers and grandfathers who are all out here having a good time,” he said. “It’s a family atmosphere and the kids learn football as well. I love it.”

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