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Siena Heights to start Michigan's first women's college flag football team
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- Siena Heights to start Michigan's first women's college flag football team
Siena Heights University, a private college in Adrian, plans to start a competitive women's flag football team, becoming the first Michigan college to adopt the sport .
The inaugural season is set to kick off in spring 2025, as Siena Heights officials look for a head coach and field a team for its 28th varsity program.
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"Our goal is to compete at the collegiate level, not just club. I'm sure some of the bigger schools have club flag football, but ours will be in a competitive nature at the same level of our other sports teams once we have enough teams to compete," said Sue Syljebeck, athletic director for Siena Heights University.
Samantha Bartelotti, senior woman leader and athletics operation manager at Siena Heights University, gets flags ready before a press conference Nov. 1 announcing the college's new women's flag football team with Josh Reilly, the college's sports information director.
Samantha Bartelotti, Siena Heights' athletics operation manager, is recruiting a coach and players for the team.
Bartelotti and Syljebeck took the lead on a feasibility study for the university soon after the initial conversations of adding the program began in August. As a former soccer player for the university, Bartelotti said she is impressed with the attitudes and athleticism of flag football players.
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"I would say you have to be quick, you have to be strong, you have to know what you're doing," Bartelotti said.
Siena Heights seeks to fill 12 to 15 roster spots for the team's first year. The roster then will expand to 25 in its second year, Bartelotti said. The school is offering athletic and academic scholarships as it builds the team. Ten students have inquired about playing for the team, and Bartelotti is looking to recruit high school students from the Great Lakes region, where she says no other college offers the sport.
'It's just groundbreaking'
The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) ― the governing body of athletics in which Siena Heights participates ― formed a partnership with the NFL in 2020 to expand flag football into colleges, said Austin Bennett, director of championships for the NAIA. Fourteen schools joined the initiative to add flag football to their programs that first year. Today there are 23 participating schools and Bennett said that eight more are starting this spring. He also said that the NAIA has a pipeline of 60 more schools looking to start up within the next three to five years.
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"I think it's just groundbreaking and I'm so excited to be a part of it and so excited to see it grow and so thankful for Siena Heights and their leadership to take this on and start a program," Bennett said.
For Siena Heights, adding a flag football team fits into the school's pioneering history.
"Siena Heights College actually, we're a university now, but started off as a women's school, a women's university and then it became co-ed," Syljebeck said "Our school has always been one that's been outfront," she said, pointing to its mens' volleyball program and eSports program.
Growth potential
After seeing the NFL invest in growing the sport, Siena Heights president Douglas Palmer said he felt the timing was right for the university to start a flag football team. Two weeks before Siena Heights officially announced its new program, Palmer became aware that flag football would be a part of the 2028 Olympic Games, further solidifying the decision to add the sport.
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"Siena Heights is an institution that was founded for women's education," Palmer said. "So anything we can do to expand opportunities for women, I think, is worth doing."
From left, Siena Heights President Douglas Palmer, Siena Heights Athletics Operations Manager Samantha Bartelotti, junior Gia Diaz, senior Emily Broman and Siena Heights Athletic Director Susan Syljebeck pose for a photo Nov. 1, after a press conference announcing the college's plan to start a competitive women's flag football team.
Palmer said he expects the new team to be a recruiting tool for the university, which has 1,882 students.
As the sport gains traction in high schools, Siena Heights officials want the new team to offer a sense of continuity for players who want to compete at the college level.
"We have girls now playing in grade school ... or high school and then what do they do after that? They have to stop playing because there's nothing for them," Syljebeck said. "And so now, this is going to be a great opportunity for girls in sports, women in sports to have this, to be able to continue to play."
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Eric Guzmán covers youth sports culture at the Free Press as a corps member for Report for America, an initiative of The GroundTruth Project. Make a tax-deductible contribution to support this work at bit.ly/freepRFA .
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan college to start state's first women's flag football team
