Sara Bates enters her 10th season as an assistant Men's and Women's Swimming and Diving Coach at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire in 2026-27.
In the 2026-27 season, Bates helped coach the men's team to a 5-1 overall record and a perfect 4-0 record in the WIAC. The women's team gathered a 4-2 overal record and posted a 3-1 record in the WIAC. Both Blugold programs finished in second place at the WIAC Championships. Derek Stadheim and Molly Hosack each earned Swimmer of the Meet honors and Anwen Smith was awarded Newcomer of Year on the womens's side. The men's program picked up nine first-place finishes, eight second-place finishes, and five third-place finishes at the meet. The women's program grabbed 10 first-place finishes, nine second-place finishes, and six third-place finishes.
Bates is an Alumni Diver from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire (1996-2001). During her time on the team, she was voted captain, social chair and hardest worker for the Swimming and Diving Team. She also qualified for Nationals 3 of her 4 competitive years. During her collegiate senior year, Sara started coaching the local high school team and has been coaching in the Eau Claire school district ever since. She has coached middle school teams and both high school teams in Eau Claire. In 2016, she was awarded ‘Coach of the Year’ in the state of Wisconsin three divers competing that year all in the top 16 and 2 in the top 8.
As a collegiate coach, Sara has helped numerous divers to the highest levels of competition even though many of them were not lifelong divers. She has had multiple qualifies for Zones every year and has also had at least one diver qualify for NCAA Nationals every year since she has been the head coach at UWEC. Her highest finisher was 2nd and broke a 20-year-old UWEC pool record at Nationals with a paid panel of judges. She also had a diver compete alongside Olympians at Winter Nationals for USA Diving.
Sara is a passionate, dedicated, and interpersonal coach who is committed to building diving as a whole. She works very closely with her team building confidence, mental toughness and helping them achieve goals and pushing them to be their best on and off the pool deck. Sara belives fundamentals are key and the little things make a huge difference. She knows every diver is different and everyone has their own special strengths and weaknesses and is an expert at bringing out the best in every one of her divers no matter what their skill level is to start.
Coaching Accolades for 8 seasons
- 11 WIAC Conference Championships
- 53 podium finishes at WIAC Conference meet
- 25 NCAA Diving Regional Zones qualifications
- 12 NCAA National Championship qualificatons
- 1 USA Diving Winter Nationals qualifier
- 5 pool records
Updated 4/24/23
