Sara Hilliard begins her first season as assistant women's wrestling coach at Buena Vista in 2026-27.
Hilliard was head women's coach at Avila University for two seasons (2024-25 & 2025-26) prior to arriving to BVU. During that first season, she helped coach the program's first-ever All-American and had three national qualifiers overall. Her team also landed four runner-up finishes at the conference championships.
Prior to her time leading the women’s wrestling program at Avila, Hilliard spent the 2023-24 season as an assistant with the Eagles, and as an assistant for Team Missouri Women’s National Team and Raytown South High School, a position she had held since 2019. She became one of the first high school women's wrestling coaches in the state of Missouri when she served as an assistant coach at Staley High School from 2012-14.
Hilliard is a native of Lawrence, Kan., and got her start in the sport of wrestling in middle school and was the first female to compete on the boys team at Lawrence Free State High School before graduating in 2005. During her high school career she was one of the top-ranked female wrestlers in the country. She also was one of the first female athletes to compete for Team Kansas.
She competed collegiately in the sport of wrestling at Missouri Valley College and Oklahoma City University and went on to become a three-time All-American. In 2008, she became an Olympic Trials qualifier, a two-time World Team Trials qualifier and the runner-up at the 2008 Senior Nationals.
Hilliard received her Master’s degree in Counseling and Guidance from the University of Missouri-Kansas City and is a Licensed Professional Counselor in the state of Kansas.
