New Graceland women’s flag football coach, Lara “Gus” Guscott ’08 is what every team dreams of when starting a new athletics program. Guscott grew up in Wales and Canada and graduated from Graceland University with a double major in Sociology and English. She played varsity soccer while at Graceland and coached JV women’s soccer until she went on to earn her Juris Doctor in 2011 from University of Kansas School of Law and has practiced law for the past 10 years. But law is not the only thing Guscott has been practicing.
Guscott caught her first pass at women’s tackle football try outs in 2009. She went on to play for the Kansas City’s professional women’s team that competed under different monikers as part of the Independent Women’s Football League (IWFL), Women’s Football Alliance (WFA), and Women’s National Football Conference (WNFC) and was a receivers coach at the Kansas City Chiefs Girls Flag Football camp. She was an All-American in 2011 and 2012 as a slot receiver and in 2016 as a kicker. In 2012, she was the offensive player of the year with 47 receptions, 17 TDs, and 1,005 all-purpose yards (829 receiving) in her ten-game season. Guscott also represented Canada at the 2013 IFAF (International Federation of American Football) Women’s Football World Championship in Finland and is currently playing in her final season with the Kansas City Glory.
“What makes women’s football unique is that a lot of its superstars did not grow up playing the game in an organized fashion. They caught passes from their brothers in their backyards and wowed the crowds in powderpuff and charity games. Now, there are national teams and talk of flag football being played at the Olympics this decade,” said Guscott. The emergence of women’s flag football provides an exciting opportunity for female athletes to take on a new challenge in uncharted territory.
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Graceland’s entry into the world of flag football shows its commitment to getting more women into its classrooms, onto football fields across the country, and into impactful careers upon graduation. As a proud Graceland graduate, I can say that from the moment I set foot in Lamoni as a 17-year-old freshman from Northern Alberta, Canada (who had never even visited campus), I felt an unrivaled sense of belonging despite being a campus minority in terms of nationality, gender, and sexual orientation.
Starting a women’s flag football program shows prospective and current students as well as alumni, benefactors, and competing postgraduate institutions that “The Power of Together” is not just a catchy slogan, it has been and will remain The Graceland Way for years to come. Iowa has a strong history of blazing its own trail by giving girls the opportunity to participate in a wide range of sports. Graceland will earn a place in that history by fielding Iowa’s first collegiate flag football team, and I am brimming with pride that I have been entrusted to lead the Yellowjacket women onto the gridiron in the spring of 2023!” – Lara Guscott ’08
Graceland is thrilled to welcome Lara Guscott as its first flag football coach and kicks off the new program when the new academic year starts in fall 2022. There are over 11,000 high school women’s flag football programs in the United States and fifteen colleges/universities after just one year at the NAIA level and Guscott is actively recruiting athletes. If interested, please upload your recruiting information and get connected with the Yellowjackets today.