When Lanai Coleman was hired for an on-campus job as an intramural sports official at Mercer University, she didn’t have any experience officiating. But she soon had a goal: to be named an All-American official in flag football.
“My boss told me that Mercer hadn’t had someone win All-American in a long time for flag football,” she said. “When he told me that my freshman year, I’m like, ‘Yeah, I’m going to make it my goal to win All-American. I’m going to make Mercer notable in the officiating scene again.’”
Coleman, now a junior majoring in psychology, achieved that goal during the 2023 NIRSA National Flag Football Championships, held Dec. 18-20 at Oklahoma State University. At the end of the tournament, the top nine officials were named as All-American.
“It felt really rewarding,” she said. “With these tournaments, they typically have schools that produce a lot of All-Americans, and Mercer was not one of those schools. We were kind of like an underdog.”
Coleman was the first woman from Mercer to receive both a bid to the national championships and to be named an All-American official in flag football, said Todd Thomas, director of recreational sports and wellness at the University.
“It’s a pretty big achievement that not a lot of students from smaller private schools get,” he said.
After she was hired, recreational sports and wellness staff trained Coleman and other new officials how to officiate flag football. In the spring, she officiated intramural basketball, a sport she also plays. She officiated her first basketball tournament during her freshman year.
“It was a great experience. You get constant feedback, which I like. I like to know what I did wrong, so I can improve,” she said. “That led to me wanting to go to a football tournament.”
Recreational sports and wellness staff fully supported her and helped her sign up to officiate high school girls flag football for experience, she said. As a sophomore, she advanced to the collegiate flag football regional tournament, which got her a bid to the national championships.
During the tournaments, officials are critiqued as they officiate games, leading to the All-American designation.
“I was nervous,” Coleman said of officiating during the national championships. “When you get there, you can tell it’s a different level because it’s people who have officiated college sports (who are judging you). It’s these highly decorated people all there giving you feedback. It was a very, very humbling experience because I got to see how much I have to grow to get to the point I want to, and it was very inspiring and encouraging.”
This year, she is a program assistant for recreational sports and wellness. She plans to continue officiating basketball and flag football at Mercer and at the high school level. She also wants to get more students involved in officiating.
“A lot of people love sports, and a lot of people participate in intramurals,” she said. “You can still be active and participate in a sport you love while making money.”
Recreational Sports and Wellness is constantly looking for other students like Coleman to officiate intramural sports. Interested students should contact the department by emailing rsw@mercer.edu.
