University of Minnesota Athletics
Wiley Receives Breaking Barriers Award
2/1/2023 6:52:00 PM | Athletics, Softball, Volleyball
Associate Athletic Director for Olympic Athletic Performance Sara Wiley was honored today in conjunction with National Girls & Women in Sports Day
University of Minnesota Associate Athletic Director for Olympic Athletic Performance Sara Wiley was honored today in conjunction with National Girls & Women in Sports Day.
Wiley, who has spent nearly 30 years helping Minnesota student-athletes better themselves, received the Breaking Barriers Award at the National Girls & Women in Sports Day - Minnesota Awards annual celebration.
Gopher Athletics has a storied history of producing talented athletes who perform well in college and at the professional level. Since 1994, one woman has been behind many of those athletes, preparing them for taxing seasons and tough competition.
That woman would be Wiley.
She joined the Minnesota staff in 1994 as an assistant strength and conditioning coach in the Women's Athletic Department. Since then, she has ascended the ranks within the department, and in 2020 was promoted to the Associate Athletic Director for Olympic Athletic Performance. In her tenure with the Gophers, she's worked behind the scenes with a multitude of All-American and All-B1G student-athletes as well as six B1G championship teams and seven NCAA Final Four teams. She also worked with the Minnesota softball team when it made its Softball College World Series appearance in 2019.
Wiley has coached elite athletes such as Sarah Wilhite, Samantha Seliger-Swenson, Lindsay Whalen, Amanda Zahui B. and Stephanie Samedy – among others – and numerous athletes under her watch in college have achieved incredible success in the WNBA, professional volleyball and softball leagues and at the Olympic level.
In July 2008, Wiley was named the 2007-08 National Strength Coach of the Year by the National Strength Coaches Association to become just the second female in the 40-year history of the award to be honored.
Wiley, who played rugby with the Minnesota Valkries from 2005-10, served on the advisory board for the MN Chapter of the National Strength and Conditioning Association for four years, and she helped design the Human Performance curriculum at Globe University, where she has also served as an adjunct instructor. She has spent her career breaking barriers for herself within the strength world, and giving Gopher female athletes the opportunity to go out and break barriers by working with them to ensure they are performing to the very best of their abilities.
Wiley, who has spent nearly 30 years helping Minnesota student-athletes better themselves, received the Breaking Barriers Award at the National Girls & Women in Sports Day - Minnesota Awards annual celebration.
Gopher Athletics has a storied history of producing talented athletes who perform well in college and at the professional level. Since 1994, one woman has been behind many of those athletes, preparing them for taxing seasons and tough competition.
That woman would be Wiley.
She joined the Minnesota staff in 1994 as an assistant strength and conditioning coach in the Women's Athletic Department. Since then, she has ascended the ranks within the department, and in 2020 was promoted to the Associate Athletic Director for Olympic Athletic Performance. In her tenure with the Gophers, she's worked behind the scenes with a multitude of All-American and All-B1G student-athletes as well as six B1G championship teams and seven NCAA Final Four teams. She also worked with the Minnesota softball team when it made its Softball College World Series appearance in 2019.
Wiley has coached elite athletes such as Sarah Wilhite, Samantha Seliger-Swenson, Lindsay Whalen, Amanda Zahui B. and Stephanie Samedy – among others – and numerous athletes under her watch in college have achieved incredible success in the WNBA, professional volleyball and softball leagues and at the Olympic level.
In July 2008, Wiley was named the 2007-08 National Strength Coach of the Year by the National Strength Coaches Association to become just the second female in the 40-year history of the award to be honored.
Wiley, who played rugby with the Minnesota Valkries from 2005-10, served on the advisory board for the MN Chapter of the National Strength and Conditioning Association for four years, and she helped design the Human Performance curriculum at Globe University, where she has also served as an adjunct instructor. She has spent her career breaking barriers for herself within the strength world, and giving Gopher female athletes the opportunity to go out and break barriers by working with them to ensure they are performing to the very best of their abilities.
Remembering Tom Moe
Friday, February 27
National Girls and Women in Sports Day
Wednesday, February 04
Cub Plays of the Week
Wednesday, September 24
Cub Plays of the Week
Thursday, September 18