Siaha Burley (born July 16, 1977) is an American former

arena football Indoor American football, or arena football, is a variation of gridiron football played at ice hockey-sized indoor arenas. While varying in details from league to league, the rules of indoor football are designed to allow for play in a smaller ...

wide receiver and former head coach. He played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

UCF The University of Central Florida (UCF) is a public research university whose main campus is in unincorporated Orange County, Florida. UCF also has nine smaller regional campuses throughout central Florida. It is part of the State University ...

and was also the head coach of the Jacksonville Sharks from 2017 to 2019 before returning to the team for 2022.

High school years

Burley attended Westwood High School in Mesa and was a

letterman Letterman may refer to: * Letterman (sports), a classification of high school or college athlete in the United States People * David Letterman (born 1947), American television talk show host ** ''Late Night with David Letterman'', talk show that ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

, and

track Track or Tracks may refer to: Routes or imprints * Ancient trackway, any track or trail whose origin is lost in antiquity * Animal track, imprints left on surfaces that an animal walks across * Desire path, a line worn by people taking the shorte ...

. In football, as a

senior Senior (shortened as Sr.) means "the elder" in Latin and is often used as a suffix for the elder of two or more people in the same family with the same given name, usually a parent or grandparent. It may also refer to: * Senior (name), a surname ...

, he was an All-City and an All-State selection as a wide receiver and as a

defensive back In gridiron football, defensive backs (DBs), also called the secondary, are the players on the defensive side of the ball who play farthest back from the line of scrimmage. They are distinguished from the other two sets of defensive players, the ...

College career

Before Burley transferred from

Mesa Community College Mesa Community College (MCC) is a public community college in Mesa, Arizona. It is the largest of the 10 community colleges in the Maricopa County Community College District, the largest community college district in the United States in ter ...

to the University of Central Florida where he played football, he played in the Arizona Football League. While at UCF, he led the team in receiving for two straight years. He also led the team in punt returns. His college

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

was

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

quarterback

Daunte Culpepper Daunte Rachard Culpepper (born January 28, 1977) is a former American football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 11 seasons, primarily with the Minnesota Vikings. He played college football at UCF and was selected ...

Professional career

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

and

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

, Burley spent his first two AFL seasons with the

Orlando Predators The Orlando Predators were a professional arena football team based in Orlando, Florida and member of the Arena Football League (AFL). The team was most recently owned by Orlando Predators LLC, a company owned by David A. Siegel, and played its ...

. Following the 2001 season, he was named to the AFL All-Rookie team. In

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

, Burley played just one season for the

Los Angeles Avengers The Los Angeles Avengers were an Arena Football League team based in Los Angeles, California, from 2000 through 2008. They folded on April 19, 2009. History The Los Angeles Avengers played their home games at the Staples Center, which is also th ...

recording nine touchdowns. In

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

and

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

, Burley played for the Arizona Rattlers for two seasons. In 2005, the Arena Football League's Writers Association named Burley the Offensive Player of the Year. He set a franchise record with 45 touchdown receptions for the season and was named to the All-Arena Second Team. In

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

, Burley played for the

Utah Blaze The Utah Blaze was a professional arena football team based in Salt Lake City, Utah and competed in the West Division (AFL), West Division of the Arena Football League. Home games were played at the EnergySolutions Arena. In 2013, the team did ...

where he started all 16 games. He ended the season ranked first in the league with an average of 120.9 receiving yards per game and second in the league for touchdown catches (44) and average receptions per game (8.5). He set expansion team records in total receiving yards (1,934), receptions (136) and receiving touchdowns (44). He was also named to the All-Arena Second Team for the second consecutive year. In

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

, Burley had a record-setting year with the Blaze, breaking league records for receptions (166) and receiving yards (2,129) and was named Offensive Player of the Year for the second time in his career. He also finished second in the league with 49 touchdown receptions and averaged 12.8 yards per catch. He averaged 24.6 yards on kickoff returns. In

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

, he recorded 114 receptions for 1,386 yards, and 33 touchdowns. He also carried the ball once for a loss of eight yards. On defense, he recorded two tackles and returned one kickoff three yards. After the season, on November 10, 2008, he was released by the Rattlers.

Coaching career

Burley became the wide receivers coach for the

Arizona Rattlers The Arizona Rattlers are a professional indoor American football team based in Phoenix, Arizona. They are currently members of the Indoor Football League (IFL). The Rattlers were founded in 1992 as an expansion team in the Arena Football League ...

in 2011 under head coach

Kevin Guy Kevin Guy (born December 6, 1972) is an arena football coach and former wide receiver and defensive back who is the head coach for the Arizona Rattlers of the Indoor Football League (IFL). He played his college football at the University of West ...

. In 2013, Burley was named the

offensive coordinator An offensive coordinator is a member of the coaching staff of an American football or Canadian football team who is in charge of the team's offense. Generally, along with the defensive coordinator and the special teams coordinator, this coach re ...

for the

Chicago Rush The Chicago Rush were a professional arena football team based in Rosemont, Illinois Rosemont is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. Located immediately northwest of Chicago, as of the 2010 census it had a population of 4,20 ...

. In 2014, Burley was named the offensive coordinator for the

. After two seasons with the Predators, Burley was named the offensive coordinator for the Rattlers on December 2, 2015. After the Rattlers left the AFL for the

Indoor Football League The Indoor Football League (IFL) is a professional indoor American football league created in 2008 out of the merger between the Intense Football League and United Indoor Football. It has one of the largest number of currently active teams amon ...

, Burley joined the

Cleveland Gladiators The Cleveland Gladiators were an arena football team based in Cleveland, Ohio, United States, and members of the Arena Football League (AFL). The Gladiators played their home games at Quicken Loans Arena, which they shared with the Cleveland Cava ...

in the same position for the 2017 season. On May 23, 2017, Burley left the Gladiators early in the 2017 season to become the head coach of the

Jacksonville Sharks The Jacksonville Sharks are a professional indoor football team based in Jacksonville, Florida, playing their home games at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena. Beginning in 2017, the Sharks began play as charter members of the National Arena Leag ...

, a team that had left the AFL to start the new

National Arena League The National Arena League (NAL) is a professional indoor football league that began play in 2017. It consists of teams based on the East Coast of the United States. Teams' typical payroll budget is $600,000 per season, while players are paid $ ...

. He won two championships with the Sharks before leaving the team after the 2019 season when they could not come to terms on a contract extension. He was re-hired by the Sharks as head coach for the 2022 season.

Personal life

. The couple have three daughters, Sia Jonet N’lae, and Saniyah . He has three brothers, Solomon, LaRue and Nigel.

Notes

External links

Arizona Rattlers profile

Stats at ArenaFan
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Burley, Siaha 1977 births Living people Sportspeople from Mesa, Arizona American football wide receivers UCF Knights football players Orlando Predators players Los Angeles Avengers players Arizona Rattlers players Utah Blaze players Orlando Predators coaches Arizona Rattlers coaches Chicago Rush coaches Mesa Thunderbirds football players Cleveland Gladiators coaches Jacksonville Sharks coaches