Commitment and perseverance are paying off for Anna Anderson, who is now taking another big leap in her flag football career.
Anderson has signed to play flag football at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The Park Hill High School class of 2025 graduate is set to become the area’s first student-athlete to sign for an NCAA Division I flag football program in a power four conference.
After a standout freshman season at Ottawa University, where she was named conference player of the year and NAIA All-American after leading the Braves to a conference title, Anderson will move to Lincoln to become a charter member of the newly launched women’s flag football program. The team is funded to play its first season from January to May 2027, with the NCAA planning to make it a championship sport in 2028.
Anna Anderson has signed to play flag football at Nebraska after a standout freshman season at Ottawa.
The move comes with some familiarity for Anderson, who starred as the team’s quarterback. She joins the Cornhuskers alongside a pair of teammates from Ottawa, but more importantly, it comes with a solid foundation with trustworthy leadership from the Sowers sisters.
Liz Sowers, who was Anderson’s head coach at Ottawa, was named the head coach at Nebraska. She is joined by her sister, Katie Sowers, who will serve as the associate head coach.
“That is probably the biggest game-changer,” Anderson said. “That’s kind of the reason I went to Ottawa. They’re two just amazing coaches. They’re all-in. Their everyday life is football.”
“They know how to win, and they know how to put us in good situations,” Anderson said. “Definitely learning from them is an amazing experience. I can’t wait to keep playing for them and keep learning more and more as I’m around them, because they know so much about football.”
Upon hearing that the Sowers sisters would be moving to Nebraska, it became an easy decision once the question was posed to Anderson. She will move to Nebraska alongside as many as three teammates from Ottawa.
“It really didn’t take much convincing,” Anderson said. “Even if the season isn’t an actual season yet, it’s going to be a good experience and I just want to keep learning from them. They played a huge part in that.”
The Sowers sisters bring an experienced dynamic to the coaching staff. Liz Sowers won five NAIA national titles at Ottawa while Katie Sowers served as her twin sister’s assistant at Ottawa after previous stops coaching in the NFL with the Kansas City Chiefs, San Francisco 49ers and Atlanta Falcons.
For Anderson, her new home in Lincoln is the latest chapter of her journey, which previously included time with the USA U17 National Women’s Flag Football Team. It is a journey of taking every opportunity that comes her way.
Anderson has been playing some form of football for nearly a decade, beginning with a local YMCA flag league when she was in fifth grade. Continuing to play flag as long as it was available, which included the first year Park Hill offered the sport in her senior year, she also spent time in high school as a member of Park Hill’s tackle football team, where she featured as an all-conference kicker.
Anna Anderson was an all-conference honorable mention kicker in 2024 with Park Hill’s tackle football team.
Her time with the high school team, where she played under head coach Andy Sims, taught her a level of discipline she hadn’t previously experienced. She credited that exposure as a formative step in helping shape the way she approaches the sport today.
“The program was very disciplined,” Anderson said. “When I started playing flag, I was like, ‘this is kind of easy compared to tackle.’ Just because it’s a lot more chill, and just a laid-back feel for sure.”
Park Hill’s flag team consisted of around 60 players for the program’s first season in 2025. It was just the start as flag football continues its build as an emerging sport.
“It was just something fun for girls to do,” Anderson said. “But I really did see it as more of an actual sport. Going into college, it was a way higher level of competition. Everybody’s all-in, compared to high school, where everybody’s just kind of doing it for fun.”
While Sims and the Sowers sisters have been instrumental coaches, the support from her family has also been hugely influential. Anderson’s father and grandfather, who both played football, have found a unique way to stay connected through the game they all love.
Anderson is hoping to make a career out of flag football. She has hopes of featuring for the United States at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, where flag football will debut. Plans for the development of a professional flag league are also in the works, although Anderson just wants to help the sport’s development any way she can, whether that is as a player, coach or program administrator.
“It’s an everyone sport, not just for guys,” Anderson said. “Changing the game. Paving a way for younger girls so they have opportunities.”