‘It’s such a blessing.’ Here’s what the Dolphins are doing for local flag football teams

Coral Park senior Melissa Nieves hasn’t always been able to afford top-notch cleats or uniforms to use when she plays for the Rams’ flag football team.

Resources can be hard to come by for young programs like Coral Park’s especially in a year where fundraising has been tougher due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

But on Wednesday afternoon, Nieves was smiling when she and her teammates got a new set of gear to use courtesy of the local NFL team.

Coral Park was the latest stop this week for the Miami Dolphins, who through their Junior Dolphins Girls Flag Donations in conjunction with Nike, have been on a five-school tour donating an assortment of gear to South Florida flag football teams.

“It’s pretty amazing,” said Nieves, an honors student at Coral Park who also plays soccer and volleyball. “So many of us wanted to get new cleats and we couldn’t afford it. They didn’t have my size, but they are shipping them to me. It’s such a blessing what they’re doing for us.”

The gifts included a branded Nike swag bag and cleats as well as new practice uniforms.

The Dolphins also handed out shirts to members of Coral Park’s football team and coordinated with SEED Miami to have one of their food trucks stop by the school to give out free meals.

The Dolphins visited two Palm Beach county schools last week — Olympic Heights in Boca Raton and Dwyer in Palm Beach Gardens, the alma mater of Miami backup quarterback Jacoby Brissett. After stopping at Miami Sunset on Tuesday and Coral Park on Wednesday, they will conclude their tour on Thursday at Homestead High.

“We just felt especially with COVID this year that it was important to get out and support our student-athletes,” said Rashauna Hamilton, a Senior Director of Community Relations and Youth Programs with the Dolphins. “We had a wonderful partner in Nike who provided uniforms for these players. Girls flag football is a growing sport and we wanted to do our part to help it grow here in Miami-Dade County.”

Coral Park is in its sixth season carrying a flag football program and has 25 players on its roster. That’s half the amount the Rams usually start a season with, according to athletic director Emilio Condis, who said raising funds for their athletic programs has been more challenging this season due to the pandemic.

“The uniforms especially were a big help, and the cleats too because a lot of these girls haven’t been using them when they’re playing,” Condis said. “Just to have a pro team like the Dolphins interested in them and helping them be able to play is going to be huge. These kids are watching the team their parents watch all the time come out here and do something like this. It’s going to create more interest.”

The Dolphins, who have also hosted a flag football jamboree for local high schools in recent years, continue to help one of the state’s fastest-growing sports.

Flag football has been a state-sanctioned sport by the Florida High School Athletic Association since 2003 with Fort Lauderdale and Miramar winning state titles in 2003 and 2006 respectively. Over the past 18 years, it has expanded to a two-classification sport with 281 schools statewide listed as having a program at the start of the season.

The sport was added by the Greater Miami Athletic Conference and Miami-Dade County public schools in recent years allowing programs like Coral Park and others which had only fielded teams as a club sport to play in the state series.

“It’s awesome that flag football is getting the recognition it’s getting,” Coral Park flag football coach Benjamin Ferreiro said. “It’s taken some time here in Dade, but it’s coming along. From having a GMAC tournament to having multiple games every week and now pretty much every public school has a team now … it’s great to see.”

Nieves has appreciated any chance to play after having her junior season cancelled due to the pandemic. Although she won’t get to use the new gear the Dolphins donated as much, she was grateful her younger teammates returning next season would get that chance.

“Our seniors [from last season] would have really appreciated something like this,” Nieves said. “We’re finishing the season on a high after this.”

This story was originally published April 22, 2021 at 10:08 AM.