SENIOR SPOTLIGHT: Sara Sears

The Heart Of A Competitor

Samford senior outside hitter Sara Sears is a self-proclaimed competitor. She says she’s always been good at sports and had never had a losing season in anything until she got to college.

Since her freshman year, Sears has been an integral part of the Samford volleyball team. For her first two years, the outside hitter played in every set of every match. After her freshman year, she ranked at the top of the single-season attempts list (1,199) and seventh on the single-season kills list (426).

After her sophomore season, she held two spots on the single-season attempts list – number one with 1,199 in 2005 and number six with 1,082 in 2006 – and was still ranked seventh on the single-season kills list with 426 in 2005. In the second to last match of her junior season season, against Eastern Kentucky, the first match played in the Pete Hanna Center, Sears entered the Samford 1,000 Kills Club with her first kill of the match on the third play of the match. She is one of only six former Bulldogs who are members of this prestigious club.

Sears now ranks third on the all-time kills list and second on the all-time attempts list. She holds three spots on the single-season attempts list – first with 1,199 in 2005, sixth with 1,082 in 2006 and eight with 1,044 in 2007.

Sears has played sports all of her life. She started playing basketball in second grade and volleyball in fourth grade. Her family has always been extremely involved in her sports life, her father coaching her in basketball and her mother coaching her in volleyball.

The two sports were always her favorites, never picking one over the other. But when it became time to choose, Sears knew she had a better chance to play volleyball in college. A school change was a must for her if she wanted to be noticed, so in high school, she moved to Bayside Academy while also playing for the Eastern Shore Volleyball Club. Bayside Academy’s varsity volleyball team has earned 14 school titles and won its seventh consecutive 2A state championship in eight years in 2005.

Sears caught the eye of former Samford head coach Michelle Durban during her senior season and Durban quickly recruited her to play at Samford. Sears joined five other freshmen as the largest recruiting class Samford volleyball has seen in recent years, a class that outnumbered its veteran players.

Sears and her teammates worked hard for three years, seeing their blood, sweat and tears produce nothing compared to their goals. Finally in her junior season, the Bulldogs boasted the first winning season in Samford volleyball’s 21 years, a 16-13 record. Now, as a senior, and with a new coaching staff, the girls are enjoying a record-breaking season, the best-ever season for the program.

With a win over Chattanooga in the Pete Hanna Center on Oct. 29, 2008, the Samford volleyball team notched the most wins for a Bulldog squad in the history of the program. And there are still three more weeks of volleyball to be played.

“Getting back to having that winning season is really great,” Sears said. “We’ve all worked so hard. Especially our class, coming in, and we saw it building and building and nothing ever came of it. We’ve always had so much talent but nothing ever came of it. And now finally, we all saw it turn over, and there is a big change in the mentality, and now we are actually seeing results from all of our hard work. It’s finally paying off.”

Through all of the ups and downs of her volleyball career, Sears has had lots of support surrounding her. Former coaches and friends from home have been a part of her support system, but Sears says she could not have done anything without the support of her parents and family. The Sears family is present at most, if not all, Samford volleyball matches.

“They are everything to me. I honestly don’t know what I would do if they weren’t here,” Sears said.

When Sears came to Samford, she was torn between two majors. The artist in her wanted to concentrate on graphic design but the athlete in her was curious about the medical field. Sears finally decided to major in fitness and health promotion.

During the last summer, Sears interned with the Lakeshore Foundation, the local Olympic and Paralympic Training Site. She worked closely with members on a day-to-day basis and helped with camps being run by the organization.

“I loved it,” Sears said. “It was awesome. I met so many cool people. The people that work there are awesome and then the people that are actually members there are awesome. A couple of people there I became really good friends with and I still keep in touch with. Two of them went to the Paralympics this year.

“I never really knew what to expect. The whole atmosphere is amazing. It was really humbling too. You go there and see people working really hard and are happy about life. They have really accepted everything about their life, and then you go back to school and hear people complain about stuff that is not even worth it at all. It just really puts things in perspective.”

Sears said that she is not really sure what she wants to do with her degree right now. She says she is thinking about going to occupational therapy school or becoming an emergency medical technician for a while. Either way, she wants to help and serve other people.

It is not surprising that the thing self-proclaimed competitor while miss most when she is gone is the competitive atmosphere.

“I’m going to miss being part of a team and all the hard work that goes into it,” Sears said. “Just knowing that all the sweat and tears was going toward the same goal.”

(Sara is also Harry Connick, Jr.'s cousin, which I find quite fascinating. HCJ is my favorite. He came to practice one day but I, unfortunately, wasn't there due to family business.)