Flag Football Player of the Week: Seckinger’s Nalani Gainey

Nalani Gainey, a senior quarterback and middle linebacker at Seckinger, is GHSF Daily’s flag football player of the week. Gainey has passed for 590 yards and nine touchdowns, rushed for 366 yards and seven touchdowns and intercepted six passes, returning four for touchdowns, while leading her team in flag pulls with 33 through seven games. Seckinger swept its two games last week, beating Cedar Shoals 27-6 and Lanier 26-0, to improve to 6-1. “She is genuinely the best player I’ve ever seen play the game,” Seckinger coach Lauri Springer said. “She’s incredibly shifty and agile, so it’s very hard to pull her flag. On defense, she is everywhere. Her football IQ is so high, so she anticipates everything and has elite hands to pick it off.” Gainey, who is 5 feet, 5 inches, also is a star basketball player. She is the GHSA’s 11th-best high school point guard, according to the Georgia website Sandy’s Spiel. Earlier this month, Gainey got an offer from Lees-McRae College to play both sports. The player-of-the-week award is sponsored by Sports Turf.