One of the nation's fastest growing sports – and a pathway to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics – sits at the corner of Huron River Drive and Hewitt Road, at Scicluna Field, although few know about it.
That's the home of Eastern Michigan's women's flag football program, which will launch as a varsity sport in just a few months.
"They've been told most of their life that, 'You're going to be a cheerleader and you can't play football, that's for boys' and they're out there doing their thing.'" said Jesse Siordia, who was hired in May 2026 as the first women's flag football coach in Eastern Michigan history.
EMU is the first school in the state to announce a varsity
women's football program amid a surge in interest over the past few years, both in Michigan and nationwide. The sport will get its time in the spotlight at the Summer Olympics in 2028
"There's another branch of football that has hasn't been explored or touched," Siordia said.
It's a quick rise for the sport that has been sponsored in Michigan high school play by the Detroit Lions since 2022. Both men and women will complete in Los Angeles in 2028, with NFL players expected to make up the bulk of the men's teams.
The NCAA classifies women's flag football as an emerging sport; with only seven active Division I programs, there's no official championship system set up. But multiple D-I schools' varsity and club teams competed in the Fiesta Flag Classic in late April, with UCF taking down Florida in the title game.
Rather than the 11-on-11 version of tackle football played by the Lions, high schools and other colleges, the typical flag football game is seven-on-seven, according to the latest data from Collegiate Flag Football, and played on a field 40 yards wide by 80 yards long.
"The center is eligible; they can go out for passes," Siordia said. "We're a little unique in this sport, where you have to think outside the box when it comes to play-calling."
The sport features four 12-minute quarters and is non-contact with each player wearing a belt with two flags attached to each hip. Tackles are made by pulling flags, and there are no field goals or extra-point kicks.
Otherwise, the rules don't drastically differ from those of regular football, with each offense getting four downs to gain 10 yards.
"What's made me successful in this sport, coaching tackle football, seven-on-seven and flag is mixing everything together and seeing what works," Siordia said. "Because I don't have a line in front of me, we can do a triple reverse. You can get really crazy because the rush is coming from the 1-yard line."
Siordia, who coached at Siena Heights University before its closure and won a National Collegiate Flag Football League National Championship in 2026, has been a staunch advocate for the sport. He has held several previous football roles at Waterford Kettering High School and Walled Lake Western in Commerce Township.
"There are other organizations that, especially through the high schools, like in Gibraltar and Brighton, that know about us and so now they're getting the girls ready. Like, 'I got girls for you, coach, in the next couple years.' I'm like, 'Hey, man, keep doing what you're doing.'"
The first roster for EMU includes 23 student-athletes made up of nine Michiganders, six players from other states and two international players.
The Eagles have two players on the roster that have represented their national teams in the past, including quarterback Lia Cruz and linebacker Ainhoa Garcia Velasco. Cruz, a member of the United States' 2022 U17 team, won the World Cup while earning MVP honors for the tournament. Garcia Velasco, meanwhile, most recently played on the 2024 Spanish team that captured a European title.
EMU's squad is scheduled to kick off its season in January at the College Football Playoff National Championship in Las Vegas, showcasing the sport to a national audience.
Jalen Williams is a trending reporter at the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at jawilliams1@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: The Olympic sport growing in plain sight at Eastern Michigan
