The Player
When Coach Nikki first started playing flag football at Loma Linda Academy, she played rusher. But she always had a love for offense as a player, so she worked hard to beat out the starting halfbacks and became one of the most effective blockers for the Roadrunner offense.
In the early 2000s, she was recruited by a fellow Loma Linda alum to play 11-person tackle football for the WPFL/WAFL as a running back. Her first season was with the California Quake, with whom she won their Super Bowl against the Jacksonville Dixie Blues. She later played two more seasons with an offshoot team of the California Quake called the Long Beach Aftershock.
All in the Family
Coach Nikki was practically born and raised into the game of flag football. Not only did her father play during his high school and college years in the 1970s, but her mother also coached and developed flag football programs throughout the 1980s and into the early 1990s.
Coach Nikki continued to stay in the game by coaching her younger sister, Mana. She and Mana carried on their family’s love of football by playing together in recreation leagues and later coaching Nikki’s youngest daughter, Matea, together.
As Matea moved into high school and continued to play at Loma Linda Academy, she joined SoCal Reign, based in Ontario, California, and developed into the club’s 17U starting center. At the end of her senior year in high school, Matea competed in the 2025 NFL Flag Football Championships in Canton, Ohio. Coach Nikki and the whole family traveled with Matea and SoCal Reign to support the club and to represent La Sierra University at the college showcase held during the competition.
As Coach Nikki moved to the international stage with the evolution of the game, she leaned on her family’s long-standing history with the sport by coaching both her sister and her daughter for the 2025 Asia-Oceania Continental Championships in Ningbo, China.
Coaching The Next Generation
As an athlete with a fierce competitive nature, it was hard for Coach Nikki to hang up her own cleats. But that never stopped her determination to stay close to the game of flag football and to build a new platform through coaching the next generation of female athletes.
With her constant faith in God to place the right opportunities in front of her, and with the unwavering support of her husband, parents, and sister, Coach Nikki is rapidly growing her reputation as a passionate advocate for women’s sports—especially for young Samoan females wanting to break into the game of flag football.
Coach Nikki assists with the coaching and development of the 12U and 14U SoCal Reign girls. She routinely goes on scouting trips and college showcases for La Sierra University, looking to grow their women’s flag football program and encourage young women to pursue a solid college education in the process. After the IFAF Asia-Oceania Continental Championships in China, she began working to start a club in Southern California to develop young Polynesian female athletes for future national team representation, in hopes of continuing American Samoa’s rise among the top flag football teams in the world.
