USC Upstate is fielding its first-ever women's flag football team, and the man in charge of building it from nothing has already done it twice before — once in the Alaskan cold, once on the Kansas plains. Noah Harris, who grew up in Indianapolis and once dreamed of playing in the NFL, is now the inaugural head coach of a Spartanburg program that Big South Conference officials say puts USC Upstate at the front of a national wave sweeping college athletics.
Harris started playing football in sixth grade, a hobby that eventually carried him to Kentucky Wesleyan, where he transitioned from cornerback to safety with help from his college coaches, according to WYFF. After college he joined the Indoor Football League and played for the Fairbanks Grizzlies in Alaska, working multiple jobs just to pay his bills while chasing that playing career, the station reports.
It was in Alaska where Harris's coaching path really began. He started teaching in the state and eventually taught math and physical education at the State of Alaska's Family Centered Service, all while coaching the newly formed girls varsity flag football team at West Valley High School in Fairbanks and also coaching basketball. Before moving to the college ranks, Harris compiled a 40-9 record over five seasons at West Valley, winning three Interior Conference titles, according to Southwestern College Athletics.
A Pandemic-Era Decision to Coach Full Time
The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 pushed Harris to reflect on his career goals, and he decided that coaching, not basketball, was his true calling — flag football, specifically, was calling him. That same year he accepted a coaching position at Pratt Junior College in Kansas before joining Southwestern College, where he spent three years building that program's flag football team from the ground up, per the station's report.
Harris brought some of those Southwestern College players with him when he moved to South Carolina, giving USC Upstate's brand-new roster an experienced core to build around. USC Upstate Athletics announced Harris's hire as the program's inaugural head coach, according to USC Upstate Athletics.
Recruiting a Program From Scratch
Harris said his recruiting goal is straightforward: find young women who want to be great, per the station's report. He has spent the months since his hiring recruiting flag football talent from across the country.
Harris has said he is motivated by teaching young women and serving as a father figure to his players, and he expects fans will be excited once they see the team play. The USC Upstate flag football team will begin competing in the spring, and fans will come out to games, per the station's report. Harris is building USC Upstate's new program for Upstate South Carolina sports fans.
USC Upstate's Place in a Fast-Growing Sport
USC Upstate Athletics announced the addition of women's flag football as the university's 18th varsity program, timing the announcement with National Girls & Women in Sport Day. USC Upstate belongs to the Big South Conference, which became the first NCAA Division I multi-sport conference to sponsor flag football after Commissioner Sherika A. Montgomery announced its approval as the conference's 19th sponsored sport, with its first varsity championship planned for spring 2028, according to NCAA.org. Five full Big South member institutions — USC Upstate, Charleston Southern, Gardner-Webb, Radford, and UNC Asheville — have committed to sponsoring the sport, and the schools received support from the National Football League, as reported by the Associated Press.
The launch comes amid rapid national growth for the sport. The NCAA added flag football to the Emerging Sports for Women program in January.
Girls' participation in flag football is growing. The sport is gaining traction nationwide.
Youth participation in flag football is growing rapidly, part of a surge the Associated Press notes is projected to push 60 NCAA institutions to offer teams this spring. Flag football is also set to make its debut as an Olympic medal sport at the LA28 Games, adding another layer of stakes to the programs now taking shape across the Big South Conference and beyond.
