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TUSKEGEE, AL — Senoia resident Jaida Gibson is a member of Tuskegee University’s first-ever NCAA women’s soccer team. Their inaugural season is being chronicled in a new docuseries titled “Unveiling History.” Filming gets underway July 31, and continues through the team’s historic first season.
Gibson joins a roster of players from across the country building the program from scratch at Tuskegee. Founded in 1881, Tuskegee added men’s and women’s soccer to its athletics program for the first time in its 145-year history in 2026, competing in NCAA Division II play with home matches at historic Abbott Stadium.
The docuseries, billed as a mashup of Hard Knocks, Welcome to Wrexham, and Friday Night Lights, will follow the players, coaches, and administrators through the challenges of standing up a first-year program — including a shortened recruiting timeline, budget constraints, and sharing practice and game space with the football team and marching band.
“As the Senior Woman Administrator, I am especially excited about the impact this program will have on young women who aspire to play collegiate sports,” said Deputy Athletic Director Deborah Jones-Rodgers. “It creates more opportunities for women to compete, earn scholarships, develop leadership skills, and pursue their academic and athletic goals.”
The docuseries is created, written, and produced by veteran TV/film writer-producer Brian Egeston, whose credits include feature films, multiple television series, and more than 100 produced episodes of television.
“After more than 18 years in coaching, I understand what it takes to build a program. This is the second program I’ve had the privilege of helping start, and I know both the challenges and the opportunities that come with building something from the ground up,” said Women’s Head Coach Emmanuel Stephens. “Soccer changed my life. Growing up, I often played in environments where very few people looked like me, yet this game opened doors I never imagined possible. I wouldn’t be where I am today without soccer. To now help create those same opportunities for young women—especially at an HBCU—is incredibly meaningful. My hope is that years from now our players will look back and say Tuskegee helped change the trajectory of their lives, just as soccer changed mine.”
About Tuskegee University
Founded on July 4, 1881, Tuskegee University is a private, historically Black land-grant university in Tuskegee, Alabama. It was established through the efforts of Lewis Adams, a formerly enslaved businessman and community leader, and local banker George W. Campbell, with Booker T. Washington serving as founding president until his death in 1915. The campus sits on 450 acres, with an additional 4,500 acres of forest, agricultural, and research land adjacent to the Tuskegee National Forest.
Today, Tuskegee enrolls nearly 3,000 students from across the United States and more than 30 countries. In 2026, the university added men’s and women’s soccer to its athletics program for the first time in its history — a new chapter for an institution built, since its founding, on the idea of creating opportunities where none existed before.
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