Souhan: Sara Wiley-Strength Personified

[Ignatius L Hoops]

Strength personified, Sara Wiley powered many athletes, teams on way to honor

Sara Wiley, the Gophers' assistant athletic director for Olympic Athletic Performance and a performance coach on staff, was recognized publicly last week, after years of being an influential, behind-the-scenes MVP.

www.startribune.com

Sara Wiley played softball at the University of Evansville. "I wasn't very good,'' she said. "I was better at training than playing.''

One day she walked into the weight room and the athletic department's first-ever strength trainer made her an offer she could have refused. "He said, how about you intern for me, and I won't pay you a thing, but I'll give you a T-shirt?' " Wiley said. "I said, 'Sure, that sounds great.' "

She never got the T-shirt, but that was the start of a career that led, this week, to her receiving the Breaking Barriers Award at the National Girls & Women in Sports Day at the Minnesota Awards annual celebration.
[...]
Wiley would play for the Minnesota Valkyrie, a women's football team, and work closely with the likes of Whalen, Amanda Zahui B. and a slew of excellent volleyball players.

 

[Gopher68]

She and ronni have been instrumental in the volleyball program.

 

[Ignatius L Hoops]

She and ronni have been instrumental in the volleyball program.

From her Gopher Sports Bio:

Coach Y has worked with numerous teams while at Minnesota and has coached a multitude of All-American and All-B1G student-athletes and B1G Championship teams (VB: 2002, 2015, 2018; SB: 2015, 2017, 2018), NCAA Final Four teams (WBB: 2004; VB: 2003, 2004, 2009, 2015, 2016, 2019) and a Softball College World Series team (2018). She has also coached B1G Volleyball Player of the Year athletes (Nicole Branagh, Cassie Busse, Daly Santana, Sarah Wilhite, Samantha Seliger-Swenson and Stephanie Samedy), B1G VB Defensive Player of the Year athletes (Paula Gentil, Malama Peniata, Christine Tan and Jessica Granquist), B1G VB Setter of the Year and Freshman of the Year Samantha Seliger-Swenson, NCAA VB National Player of the Year Sarah Wilhite, B1G Softball Player of the Year athletes (Sara Groenewegen & Kendyl Lindaman) and B1G Women’s Basketball Player of the Year athletes (Lindsay Whalen & Amanda Zahui B.). Numerous Gopher athletes that have trained with Coach Wiley have gone on to achieve significant success in the WNBA, professional volleyball, professional softball, USA Volleyball and the Olympics.