Her Fifth Gear: Dr. Sarah Hillyer

 Building Confidence, Community and Change - One High Five at a Time.

Sport Can Be Transactional — But It’s Meant to Be Transformational
From a hoop hung in her childhood bedroom to her global work across more than 100 countries, Dr. Sarah Hillyer has seen both sides of sport. When reduced to transactions, it loses its magic. But when embraced as transformation, it changes lives, communities, and the world.

Sarah grew up in Kentucky in the shadow of Title IX and basketball was everywhere. With the accessibility and popularity, it was an immediate draw to the sport. “I don’t even know if I can find a picture without a ball in my hand.”

She attributes her father to being very instrumental in her early days of the sport. When she was just five years old, her dad drilled a Nerf basketball goal on her wall to practice and encouraged her to participate in their local Elks hoop shoot contest. What she didn’t realize is that she was taught to shoot free-throws ‘granny style’ and in turn felt humiliated even before the contest started. However, with her father’s encouragement, she sank 24 of 25 shots and advanced through several rounds that followed.

That moment planted a seed: being different is not a failure but refusing to try is. For it’s better to try your own way than to never try at all.

Early on she was taught, “if I missed a shot, or made a mistake, it was never ever termed a failure.” Her father wanted her to learn from her mistakes, and never give up. Being coachable, and learning to take feedback knowing that the person giving feedback has her best interests in mind was a critically important takeaway Sarah understood at a very young age.

From Adversity to Advocacy

That resilience opened the door to a scholarship to play for Virginia Tech, an educational opportunity her family could not afford at the time.

However, it also brought challenges. The pressure to perform and conform to her coach’s requirements pushed Sarah into unhealthy patterns with food, training, and self-worth. After mustering up the courage to let her parents know of the battle she was dealing with, once again, her father reassured and emphasized her worth as a person regardless of her success in sport. “My dad said he didn’t love me for what I did, but for who I was,” Hillyer said.

Sarah emphasizes the importance of surrounding yourself with the right people. Even if you feel powerless, you have the power to surround yourself with people who pour positive things into you and others. “Never sacrifice your values, or your self-worth, or the hope and dignity that you have,” Hillyer said.

Instead of letting that adversity define her, she transformed it into purpose. She realized that sport could either break people down or build them up – and she chose to build.

Clarity emerged: sport itself is neutral – it becomes a superpower in the hands of those who use it for good, and a weapon when misused.

Hillyer vowed to use her experiences to change the narrative. She pursued sports psychology and coaching, determined to prove that you don’t have to break athletes down to build champions. Her philosophy mirrored the “Ted Lasso way” decades before the show existed: lead with empathy, respect, humor, and humanity.

As a coach, Hillyer took her teams far beyond the playing field. Her university women’s softball team spent weekends not just competing, but traveling several hours to help play games inside women’s prisons and lead chapel services. What began as competition transformed into connection. Through laughter, friendship, and an almost decade long pen-pal project, players and incarcerated women found hope, healing, and a deeper appreciation for our shared humanity.

This, Sarah says, was the turning point: sport at its best doesn’t just build skills – it builds community, dignity, and opportunity.

Motivated by her experiences, Hillyer founded Sport for Peace in 1994 and later the Center for Sport, Peace, and Society at the University of Tennessee. Through partnerships with the U.S. State Department, espnW, and organizations across 115 countries, she has trained and empowered women leaders to harness sport for social change.

Her work has seeded programs in Iran, Iraq, and beyond – places where introducing something as simple as softball opened doors for cross-cultural dialogue, community-building, and the advancement of women’s rights.

Iran made the offer to invite Hillyer to help grow the Islamic Federation of Women’s Sports. This was not only dangerous but also daunting, considering the country had not invited an American woman to do anything sports related in the past 20 years. The goal was to develop a women’s sports system that was appropriate to their Islamic traditions, culture, and faith and then export this program to other nations that were Muslim-majority. From 1999 to 2008, Sarah partnered with Global Sports Partners, dedicating a month each year in Iran to coaching and laying the foundation for the country’s first fast-pitch softball league.

Beyond the basic communication differences, something else stood out in particular while working in Iran – the segregation within families between male and female. “A daughter growing up in a home has very little in common with her father or brothers or uncles, and they are truly segregated,” Hillyer said. She wanted to prove that the power of sport has an impact to bring people together at all levels: the individual, family, and community level.

Sarah’s journey reflects the dual truth of sport: in the wrong hands, it can cause harm; but when guided by compassion and vision, it can change lives. For her, the power of sport is measured not in wins or losses, but in the confidence of a young girl, the resilience of a community, and the stories of women who rise and lift others with them.

Even now, Sarah continues to live by the lessons sport has taught her. She uses water and movement to remind herself of weightlessness – the freedom sport brings. She incorporates kettlebell work into her routines as a reminder of the weight and burdens still carried by women and communities around the world. For her, every rep is more than fitness; it’s a metaphor for resilience, balance, and responsibility.

The tank tops from Goal Five are Sarah’s favorite to wear, and she particularly enjoys The Mesh It To Me Tank for her kettle bell workouts.

Dr. Sarah Hillyer’s journey embodies the heart of Her Fifth Gear: stories of women who carry the lessons of sport into every part of life. Sarah’s life reminds us that sport is more than competition – it’s confidence, connection, and community.

She turned adversity into advocacy. She continues to move – on the court, in the water, and through her work – so that other women and girls can rise, play, and lead.

As Sarah puts it, “Sport is my superpower. And every day I choose to use it for good.”

High Fives!