Chris Snyder has been a college coach for 25 years, most of it with football.

When he accepted the job of women's flag football coach at Kansas Wesleyan, he knew he would need to make some adjustments. He wasn't wrong. 

The degree of change, though, was greater than he expected.

"Embarrassingly, yes, it has been a little bit," he said. "There's stuff that (assistant) coach (Alexa Mansur) and I will talk about and I'm like 'there's no way that works from a schematic standpoint.' Not to make it sound bad but some of it is backyard football like the formations you can do. That's probably the biggest thing; what you can do in flag, compared to football. Different concepts."

Snyder, who continues as an assistant to football coach Matt Middleton, replaced Melinda Nguyen in November and began a crash course in Flag Football 101. It's gone well thanks to Mansur and the athletes.

"I've picked it up pretty quickly having (quarterback) Chihiro (Iwata) and a couple of the receivers – what worked last year, what didn't," he said. "This has been good for us. It's been a collaborative effort, a lot of ideas coach and I share, but talking to some of the key players too."

Snyder said overall it has been a smooth transition.

"Initially in November there was a lot of building trust with the girls, so they knew I was serious and I might have some knowledge of football," he said. "They've known about Alexa caring and being passionate about this program, but I think over that time they've seen it with me too.

"It's actually been a lot of fun, and the ladies have made it a lot of fun. They're a great group. There's already was a great culture as far as accountability, communication, showing up early, being prepared."

Iwata's return after a superb 2025 season makes the task easier. She passed for 4,628 yards and seven touchdowns and rushed for 352 yards and seven more scores.

"Everything they've said about Chi is accurate; she's an unbelievable talent," Snyder said. "I think what kind of gets lost is she's such a great quarterback but she's also an unbelievable individual. She's an unbelievable teammate; she's one of the hardest working players. There's a lot of things we do a little differently offensively and that's because we have her at quarterback."

Other returners expected to play key roles include Nyjah Green, Ava Duerr, Aliyah Wood, and Jazmine Whitfield.  

"Green is an incredible two-way athlete, one of the most explosive players," said Mansur, who was a defensive standout for KWU before becoming the assistant coach this spring. "Duerr is a big one, at least defensively, offensively as well. Wood is a dawg on both sides of the ball as well – corner, receiver, always on the scouting report for other teams."

Two international transfers will likely play prominent roles as well. Tomoyo Yagi was Iwata's teammate the Japanese National Team; Laura Hernandez Sanchez is a member of the Spanish National Team.

"Yagi is a freshman, but she's just a killer on both sides of the ball," Mansur said. "Hernandez Sanchez is a workaholic. I always see her in the weight room after hours off the field, she's always getting extra work."  

"Depth is a big thing for us," Snyder said. "We really can bring in a second wave of receivers with Chi and still be pretty good defensively. We have a lot of those girls on defense who also will be big contributors for us on offense. Everybody's playing, everybody's contributing, everybody's bought in a little more." 

The Coyotes, who were 15-7, 8-1 in the Kansas Conference a year ago, open he 2026 season against Hesston at 1 p.m. Saturday at JRI Hospitality Stadium and Graves Family Sports Complex. Snyder said he's eager to see what he has, what works and what needs to be addressed.

"The girls have been here since August," he said. "They've been practicing and lifting so that's a long time to not play a game. They had three scrimmages in the fall but then you're back to the weights and study tables and meetings and practices, but you're going against each other. I think we're all really excited, I don't think Saturday can get here fast enough."