Izell Reese and RCX Sports bring NFL, NBA, others to youth athletics

Dothan-native works with the pro organizations to provide support to local youth sports programs

RCX Sports Founder and CEO Izell Reese grew up in Dothan and played football for the University of Alabama at Birmingham before his pro career. Photo courtesy of RCX Sports.

When Dothan native Izell Reese finished his football career as a player — first as a walk-on at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, followed by a pro career that started and ended with the Dallas Cowboys, with stints in Denver and Buffalo in between — he wasn’t finished with sports. Far from it.

He hung up his cleats in 2005 and immediately went into youth sports and engagement.

“That was really just to give back and get involved with kids,” he says. “It grew into something else.”

That something else was RCX Sports, the company he founded in 2019 that aligns itself with professional sports leagues to provide children across the country the opportunity to wear jerseys and use equipment branded with pro teams. The company’s mission? To create accessible, inclusive youth sports experiences for all children.

They’re off to a good start, with in-school PE programs, free events like Major League Baseball’s Pitch, Hit and Run, and league play that includes pro affiliations such as NFL Flag (the program that launched RCX), Major League Soccer, NBA and WNBA basketball, NHL street hockey and, in a pilot program that includes Enterprise, the United States Tennis Association.

- Sponsor -

“Between our events and our league play, we’re at 2 million-plus kids that we’re touching and impacting around the country,” Reese says.

TAKING DOWN BARRIERS

Reese himself played in similar leagues growing up in Dothan.

“I played football, basketball, any sport I had an opportunity to play at the local park and rec,” he says. “I also played basketball at the Boys and Girls Club and obviously at school. … These programs were vitally important in terms of affordability and accessibility. I’m a kid that came from humble beginnings, and that was something that gave me the opportunity to fall in love with sports and be able to play and learn all the values that come from sports at a young age.”

RCX partners with many of those same groups — Boys and Girls Clubs, park and recreation associations, YMCAs, school systems, churches and nonprofits — to offer their leagues. The groups buy jerseys and other pro-branded items for their players from RCX. And while many leagues charge athletes a participation fee, RCX is also working to make these leagues accessible to all, through grants from the RCX Foundation to families who are struggling financially.

“We’re trying to take down as many barriers as possible,” Reese says.

NFL Flag is the youth sport that launched RCX Sports. Photo courtesy of RCX Sports.

BUILDING FUTURE FANS

For the leagues involved, it’s an opportunity to build future fans, according to Reese.

“They get more kids playing their sports,” he says. “As a kid, if you put on a Dallas Cowboys jersey as an 8-year-old, that’s something you never forget. … More importantly, these leagues want to see kids playing sports, and multiple sports, for that matter. By locking arms with us and being able to add this experience, it has definitely led to more kids being excited about playing and increased participation. Everybody wins. It’s building fandom, but more importantly, getting kids playing.”

About 15,000-20,000 of those participants are in Alabama, a place that remains near and dear to Reese’s heart. He splits his time between RCX’s headquarters in the Atlanta area and Dothan, where in 2021 he created the Izell Reese Community Center.

That center, built from a shuttered elementary school, is home to Grandview Field, the first-ever NFL Flag-branded field. The field is wide enough for soccer and other sports, and NHL street hockey is played in the parking lot.

“We’re running street hockey in Dothan, which is pretty cool,” Reese says. “I never thought I’d be saying that, that we’d be running a hockey program in Dothan.”

A key part of Alabama’s success with RCX Sports is a partnership with the Alabama Recreation & Parks Association, which brings the sports programs to more than 500 agencies affiliated with ARPA. It’s RCX’s first such partnership.

“What we do is very important in Alabama,” Reese says. “Our kids deserve these opportunities. Even states like Alabama, who don’t have sports teams, can give kids something to experience. … And if I can do these programs in Alabama, which is in the bottom tier of obesity rates of kids, includes a lot of rural communities and no pro teams, I can do them anywhere.

“It’s easy to grab the low-hanging fruit where some pro teams are located, but I’m also trying to address challenges,” he adds. “I know what it’s like in Dothan. I know what it’s like in Hartford, Alabama. I know what it’s like in a major city like Birmingham. I’m trying to touch all of those types of communities, and Alabama’s a great place to do that.”

A goal of RCX Sports is to get more boys and girls playing youth sports. Photo courtesy of RCX Sports.

ACCOMPLISHING GOALS

Reese is well on his way to accomplishing three major goals for NFL Flag, the program that launched RCX Sports and now has more than 700,000 participants, boys and girls, across the country. He wanted to get flag football into the Olympics, make it a collegiate sport for women and make it as big as the Little League World Series.

“Flag is on pace for Los Angeles’ 2028 Olympics, so check that box,” he says. “We’re also going to submit the application for flag to be an emerging sport with the NCAA.”

In addition, the first NFL Flag championship was held in July at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, airing on ESPN, Disney and ABC, and a high-school girls tournament is planned for September.

Reese and his wife, Raven, whom he met at UAB, live in Roswell with their daughter and son. Both children followed in their father’s footsteps and have been involved in sports.

He calls bringing that opportunity to other young athletes his mission.

“I want to continue to do this work, but it doesn’t feel like work,” he says. “I want to continue this mission that I love, giving kids these opportunities that I had growing up. I’m giving these kids a piece of the pros and giving them an opportunity to enjoy and play sports like I did, without all of the financial barriers.”

It’s a dream job for the former pro football player who got his start playing flag and tackle football, as well as other sports, in Dothan.

“It has been a great journey,” Reese says. “I turned something I love to do into a career.”

Alec Harvey is executive editor of Business Alabama, working from the magazine’s Birmingham office.

This article appears in the August 2024 issue of Business Alabama.

The latest Alabama business news delivered to your inbox