Women’s flag football is the newest sport at Baker, introduced last Spring, looks to start their inaugural season this week. The process of bring flag football to Baker came with hiring Head Coach Willy Perez.

Baker Athletics Interviewed Perez on how he feels about bringing flag football to Baker University and is excited to spread awareness around the Baldwin City area given that Baldwin City has two youth women’s flag football squads of their own.

“The opportunity to create awareness in our town of Baldwin about the vastly growing sport of flag football and how athletes can now play this sport collegiately is super exciting,” Perez said.

As most of the team is from Florida, they have been working hard to build a sense of chemistry to take on the field and have a successful first season.

Freshman Janai Ferdinand sees the upcoming season as a challenge, but the team plans on making it a successful one with all the hard work and dedication that they have put in on the field.

“We all clicked very well on the field and given that we didn’t know each other coming to Baker, even though we lived somewhat close to each other,” Ferdinand said.

Nine of the fourteen players are from big cities in the Orange State, but also include some international athletes that are from countries like Mexico and Venezuela.

Ottawa has led the league with a combined record of 34-3 in the past two years, but KCAC Commissioner Dr. Scott Crawford is excited to see “the Wildcats compete for another conference title and boost the number of collegiate teams adding Women’s Flag Football.”

Only time will tell how well this program will succeed. With that being said, this isn’t just a new territory for Baker but is just as much if not more for Perez and his athletes.

The Women’s Flag Football team sets out to face off against the University of Saint Mary’s (Kan.) at Liston Stadium on Feb. 14.