Indian Springs’ Nabors named Gatorade Player of the Year
Jackson Nabors, a rising senior soccer player at Indian Springs School, recently won the Gatorade Player of the Year award for the state of Alabama. The award recognizes the most elite athletes in the nation for their athletic excellence, academic achievement and exemplary character. There are 607 state winners chosen, one from each state and the district of Columbia in seven different sports.
Nabors still doesn’t know who nominated him for the award. His athletic director gave him the information on the second-to-last day of school. He was in Los Angeles when he found out that he won after his parents sent him a text message letting him know.
“It was 6:30 a.m., and I looked over at my phone and happened to see it,” he said. “I was thrilled and excited and very blessed to have won that award.”
Nabors, 17, has been playing soccer for 12 years. He said he loves it because all of his best friends play with him, and they love to win. He played left back position for 10 years, but his coach, Rik Tozzi, switched him to striker this year. He thought it was a good move for the whole team, and it worked out. Nabors earned a state-best record of 52 goals and 23 assists for the 2020-21 soccer season.
J.J. Williams, a professional soccer player in the Birmingham Legion club, works one-on-one with Nabors to help him train for games. He learns how to better turn, strike a ball, receive a ball and better positioning off of the ball from Williams.
The only challenging thing Nabors has encountered in soccer is creating a schedule for homework and other commitments so they don’t get in the way of practices.
“But even that’s not bad, I love doing that. I’ve been doing it since sixth grade.” he said. “I’ve found a good routine.”
Outside of soccer, Nabors works with two organizations that help serve his community. When he was a sophomore he volunteered with the YouthServe, attending service events around Birmingham to help as many people as possible. More recently he joined Youth Philanthropy Council, an organization that gives participants $20,000 to give to nonprofits in Alabama and also allows various opportunities for service projects.
The Indian Springs team won its fourth state championship this year with a 2-0 win against Russellville on May 7. It is the first one Nabors has participated in, and he scored both of the winning goals.
The Gatorade Player of the Year Award gives Nabors $1,000 in grant money to donate to a local or national youth sports organization of his choosing. He said he is looking at two local options: NorthStar Soccer ministries and TOPSoccer. NorthStar teaches unprivileged children to play soccer, and TOPSoccer works to encourage the physical, mental and emotional growth of children with special needs through soccer.
The main thing Nabors said he has learned from playing soccer is how to be a good leader. He is one of the older players on the team this year. He said some of his teammates couldn’t even kick a ball at first, so a big part of growth for his whole team is learning how to win together and how to lose together.
Nabors hopes to continue playing soccer in college. He is considering five different schools: Sewanee University, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Princeton University, Amherst College and Davidson College.