Sarah Stair has enjoyed plenty of success as a coach, but she and those she has affected are most proud of how she has been able to mold young girls into quality adults.
Those efforts were rewarded in late June when the former Columbus Christian volleyball and softball coach was selected as this year’s female recipient of the Jack Cramer Ideals of Athletic Competition Award. At Friday’s Cramer Awards ceremony, those who knew her best sang her praises.
“She is one of the most competitive and hard-working people I know, yet that competitiveness does not override her first priority of building up the kids and developing character,” said Steve Hunnicutt, whose three daughters played volleyball for Stair. “Her players learn individual athletic skills, strategy of the game and mental and physical toughness, but they also learn how to treat other people. This includes supporting and helping your fellow teammates, as well as appreciating and respecting your competitors and the officials.”
Columbus Christian superintendent Kendall Wildey, who was Stair’s other presenter, said he had a coach who not only built young people’s physical attributes and their physical health, but a coach that not only instilled in them how to think critically in tough situations and work through those situations to most of the time come out on top, but also how to deal with it when they didn’t.
“A coach who not only is interested in honing their skills, but a coach who is interested and has worked with their minds and their hearts in order to instill in them trust and fairness, courage and honor,” Wildey said. “Sarah Stair can teach those virtues to the young ladies she coaches because she lives those every day of her life.”
A volleyball and softball player at Fort Wayne Concordia Lutheran High School, Stair went on to play softball at University of Indianapolis. After moving to Columbus, she first got into coaching with an 8-and-under Parks and Recreation softball team.
“It was an incredibly fun experience,” Stair said. “Then, just being able to follow my daughters, to be able to coach their friends and other girls in the community, to be able to build up the lives of young women has been an absolute honor and joy.”
Stair was assistant volleyball coach at Columbus Christian for six years before serving as head coach the past four seasons. She also was Wildey’s assistant softball coach before taking over for him this spring and was able to coach her daughters Hannah and Emily in both sports.
“When I first started coaching, I knew that I did not have quite as much experienced knowledge about some the skills and how to teach some of them,” Stair said. “So I jumped into them — ‘I’m going to order DVDs. I’m going to go to clinics. I’m going to go to conventions. I got a head coaching certification. I’m going to have a premium membership on ‘The Art of Coaching Volleyball.’ How much research can I do, because these girls deserve that.’ These girls deserve for me to know exactly how I’m doing, and I’ve seen the Lord really use that and bless that throughout.”
Despite fielding a small team both in stature and in numbers, Stair led the Crusaders to runner-up finishes in the Indiana Christian School Athletic Association volleyball state tournament each of the past three seasons. She resigned as Columbus Christian’s volleyball and softball coach in May, but continues to coach at The Academy Volleyball Club in Indianapolis.
“I have a somewhat stressful day job at times, and I love just being able to leave and go coach,” Stair said. “I get to go build into the lives of these girls and make a difference. I don’t take that lightly. It’s a huge honor that I do not take lightly … We had success, wins and losses, in that category. But more than that, I see the success of my players, the people they become, the character that has been built, and I feel humbled to have been a small part of that.”
