Lisa Horton has been named Slippery Rock University’s first women’s flag football head coach after serving the past three years as an offensive assistant for the men’s football team. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle

Rob McGraw

The search for Slippery Rock University’s first women’s flag football coach did not have to look too far, it turned out.

Lisa Horton, who has spent the last three seasons on The Rock’s football coaching staff as an offensive assistant and tight ends coach under Shawn Lutz, will be SRU’s flag football head coach when the team debuts in the spring of 2028.

“I've had the privilege of working with The Rock men's football team for the last few years and getting to see how special this university is and what it means to the student-athletes that compete here,” Horton said in a news release by the university Wednesday evening. “I am excited to have the chance to share that with a group of female student-athletes that will be eager to blaze their own path at The Rock.”

Lutz called Horton a “terrific addition to our coaching staff” and praised the hire as “an excellent move.”

“We are excited to watch the growth of this sport and see what she can do with it,” Lutz said.

Horton told the Butler Eagle before the 2025 men’s football season her goal was to become a full-time college football coach.

“You see women becoming more and more of a presence in sports, including male-dominated sports,” she said at the time. “You’re judged by who you are as a coach and what you can bring.

“I want to make an impact as a coach, and the college level is where I believe I can make the biggest impact.”

Horton’s tenure officially begins July 1, 2026, giving her a year to recruit and build her coaching staff.

Before and since being an assistant on the men’s football team, Horton has participated in NFL coaching fellowships with the Cleveland Browns and Dallas Cowboys in recent years and is the co-head coach and offensive coordinator with the Pittsburgh Passion women’s pro football team. She’s also the Passion’s flag football head coach and was the Passion’s starting quarterback for 15 years, beginning in 2003.

A Women’s Pro Football Hall of Famer and Minor Pro Football Hall of Famer, she also played for Team USA’s national team and won internationl gold medals in 2017 and 2022.

She’s a graduate of Cleveland State University (2001) and has a master’s degree from SRU (2003).