Mia Rivera commits to Our Lady of the Lake for flag football

Flag Football · By Sarah Mitchell · July 10, 2026

Mia Rivera committed to Our Lady of the Lake University’s women’s flag football program on July 8, giving the Saints another early building block for their inaugural roster. The FieldLevel commitment page lists the Salinas, California, product as a 2026 athlete from Team Tsunami Basketball Academy - Team Tsunami Flag, at 5-foot-4 and capable of playing quarterback, wide receiver and safety.

The recruiting trail behind Rivera’s decision is as revealing as the commitment itself. She joined FieldLevel on June 6, 2025, targeted five schools and logged 207 search appearances, 41 profile views, 68 video views and 18 followers before landing at OLLU. In a sport where college programs are still taking shape, those numbers show how much women’s flag football now depends on visibility, repeat exposure and film that can move across multiple positions, not just one showcase weekend.

OLLU’s pitch added real weight to the decision. The university announced on February 9 that women’s flag football would launch as its 22nd varsity sport, making OLLU the second NAIA institution in Texas to sponsor the sport behind Texas Wesleyan. It also said the Saints would be the first college in San Antonio to offer flag football scholarships. The program’s staff already includes head coach Chris Seay and assistant coach Elda Ruiz-Graham, and the school added another assistant women’s flag football coach on June 12 as the inaugural launch came together.

Rivera’s commitment fits squarely into the sport’s wider expansion. The NAIA, working with the NFL, first recognized women’s flag football nationally in 2021 as an emerging sport, moved it to invitational status for the 2025-26 academic year and approved it on June 17 as its 30th championship sport, with championship status beginning in 2026-27. NAIA materials and conference releases say about 60 NAIA institutions are expected to sponsor women’s flag football next season, a sign that OLLU is entering a crowded but fast-growing recruiting market.

Our Lady of the Lake University — Wikimedia Commons — Zereshk via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0)

That market already has dates attached to it. OLLU said its team is set to play its first game on February 10, 2027, and the university’s own coverage of Rivera’s signing noted that she had already signed her letter of intent on May 11, saying she was proud to have people who believed in her and that she had always wanted to play college sports. For Rivera, the scholarship offer and the roster spot came through a recruiting path that is becoming more visible, more structured and more real for the 2026 class.