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Just months after the NCAA's January 2026 decision to designate women's flag football as an emerging sport, Jesse Siordia was named the first head coach for the new program at Eastern Michigan University. In the May 14 announcement tapping Siordia, university Vice President Scott Wetherbee said: "Jesse ... understands how to grow the game, develop student-athletes, and build a culture that competes for championships."
Siordia recently stepped away from Siena Heights University in Adrian, where he founded Michigan’s first women's collegiate varsity flag football team, playing as part of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics. Known as the NAIA, the association represents about 250 smaller colleges across the U.S. and Canada. Sienna, a private, nonprofit university, closed at the end of the 2025-26 academic year, but Siorda led the Saints that year to the NAIA's 2026 National Collegiate Flag Football League National Championship. Sienna was in its second year of competition.
Siordia grew up in San Antonio, Texas, and served in the U.S. Navy for 23 years before finding his love for coaching. He coached at a number of levels as director of operations for the UnderArmor Under the Light youth flag football program, taking its travel team to multiple championships, before starting the college-level program at Adrian.
Q: Why did you and Eastern think now was the right time to introduce women’s flag football?
A: EMU was rumored to be bringing it on board and be the first (large conference school with a team). A couple things were delayed, and Nebraska got the jump on us to say they were the first. (Nebraska announced in January, coinciding with the NCAA's decision.) The team at Eastern was something that was in the works for a while between a number of big players and it was something that seemed right and the university was ready to do it.
Q: What have been some of your biggest challenges of starting a brand-new program?
A: Everything has moved at lightning speed. Usually, kids start signing in the November and February timeframe, so getting hired in May made it a little difficult, especially transitioning from NAIA to the NCAA, with all of the rules and regulations you have to learn. (The NCAA represents about 1,100 schools in three divisions and has stricter rules regarding recruiting and competition.)
Q: What are some of the skills or qualities you want to ensure this team is developing before the season starts?
A: Most of our girls are seasoned players. I brought eight girls from my previous team at Sienna Heights and then everybody else has been girls that we have either played against when we were in the NAIA or that I had coached in the past. The biggest thing is chemistry because half the team hasn’t played with each other. Learning how to work together and understanding their new teammates and how they function.
Q: What kind of culture do you want to bring from past schools or newly establish within this program?
A: The respect for yourself and your teammates and others. Everybody has a bad day and some do a good job of not showing it or wearing their emotions on their sleeve. Having that compassion for everyone and speaking to people the way you want to be spoken to. You never know when someone is having a bad day, so just understanding and respecting each other.
Q: What is the most important thing this team needs to accomplish during the offseason?
A: Our season was recently bumped up by two months because we are playing at the College Football Playoffs in Las Vegas alongside the College National Championship. So we went from starting first week of March to mid-January. There is no time to waste. From the players to the coaches to the equipment staff, everyone is feeling the pressure of getting everything in and doing their part to make all of this work. It is basically just fast-tracking everything and being flexible. We are relying a lot on our senior leadership to be able to lead the team if coaches need to hang back for meetings or other things.
Q: What would make you and the other coaches look back on this season and say it was successful?
A: We have two big events: We have the College Football Championship in January and the Fiesta Bowl Flag Football Classic at the end of the year (April 2027). Winning one or both would be great. That would mean bringing a championship to the school in year one and that would be huge.
Right now, we are looking what we have and making sure we are ready for next year because if the NCAA does vote it in as a national championship sport we want to take every advantage of this year to get ready for next year. Staying competitive, playing together, and learning from every mistake and moving forward is what we are trying to accomplish in year one.
Q: What do you hope the university community learns about women’s flag football through the installment of this program?
A: The sport has actually been going on for a very long time. I am originally from San Antonio, Texas and I was in the military, mainly stationed down south. When I was stationed here in Michigan, I was retired and working for NFL Flag. I witnessed the girl’s game growing like wildfire in Florida, Arizona, New York, and other states. So, I tried myself. I said, let’s see if we can get the girls game going here and it never took and never took. Soccer and Lacrosse were always king and now here we are and everyone is like, “Wow this is great,” but we are six years behind. It is one of those things where I am glad the ball is rolling, but we are really behind the 8 ball right now, but they are starting to show up and organizations are starting to embrace the sport and know that it is the real deal. The exposure just has not been there, and hopefully — I am praying — the state sanctions the sport in high school because 38 states have already done it. I will keep pushing and busting down every door I can to continue to grow the sport. The more the community can get behind it will really help us grow.
EMU is among 17 NCAA Division 1 schools with varsity status women's flag football programs. Dozens of others are considered club teams.
Eastern's team is one of four varsity-status programs invited to play in a flag football showcase tournament Jan. 22-24, 2027, in Las Vegas, just before the Jan. 25 National College Football Championship game. In addition to the four varsity teams, eight club teams have been invited to the showcase, which will be held in the West Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center.
The other teams playing in the varsity division are the University of Nebraska, California Polytechnic State University and Manhattan University. The club division programs invited to the showcase are: the University of Arizona, Arizona State University, California, Clemson University, University of Michigan, University of Oklahoma, University of Southern California and the University of California, Los Angeles.
