A well-known YouTuber named AJ Greene (not to be confused with former NFL player AJ Green) was at the first Woodward home football game of the season on August 18th to record a video about it. The YouTube video from the game was posted on August 24th. In his 23-minute video, he showed clips of some standout plays during the game, as well as points scored. Lots of Woodward students were shadowboxing him at various points in the game, and, at halftime, he threw AJ Greene merch into the student section for students to catch. Woodward played very well in the game, winning 45-8, which was even better considering the national attention the team would get from the video.
AJ Greene hangs out with some Woodward students at halftime. Photo courtesy of Brett Schlossberg
Coach John Hunt, the head coach of the football team at Woodward, felt the recording of the video had a positive impact on the team.
“It was the buzz around, and of course that motivated our players to want to try to have one of our better games and we did have a really, really good game in front of him so that was kinda neat,” Hunt said.
Hunt also thought Greene being at the game gave the students watching the game a better experience at the game.
“It was pretty cool…watching the students interact with him and he did a great job interacting with our students,” Hunt said.
Coach Ryan Davis, the co defensive coordinator of the team, thought the video gave good publicity to the school and the team.
“I think anytime that we can promote our school and promote our student athletes it’s a good look for the school, it’s a good look for the community,” Davis said.
John Rose ‘27 shared his opinions on the video.
“I think it shows that our program is being well run, so that [Woodward’s program being shown off] is just really awesome to see, like, so many people come out and support as well, especially when the famous influencers come out and support our game,” Rose said.
Davis brought up a 7 v 7 game organized by AJ Greene during the summertime; two players on the Woodward football team competed in the game.
“We have two kids that played on his 7 on 7 team: Josiah Abdullah and CJ Heard, so I feel like back in the summertime there was talks of him coming,” Davis said.
AJ Greene said in the video at the Woodward game that the Woodward students being in the 7 on 7 game was the reason he attended the home opener. The presence of AJ Greene at the game brought a different feeling amongst fans at the game. Despite fans being there for the football game, fans were also excited about AJ Greene being at the game.
“We had two shows going on; we had the game and of course we had Greene,” Hunt said.
