Southern Arkansas University Athletics

Sara Wooley was a two-sport star at Southern State College, excelling in both Women’s Basketball and Volleyball under legendary head coach and Arkansas and SAU Sports Hall of Famer Dr. Margaret Downing. Wooley, a native of Stamps, Arkansas, was an integral part of multiple Riderette basketball and volleyball championship teams in the mid-1970s.
 
A member of three-straight Arkansas Women’s Intercollegiate Sports Association (AWISA) Basketball Championship teams (1973-74 to 1975-76), Wooley would earn All-AWISA honors over her final three years. As a senior in 1976-77, Wooley and the Riderettes nearly made it four AWISA titles in a row as they placed second at the AWISA Basketball Championships.
 
That same season, the Riderettes finished third at the AIAW Region 4 Championships and posted an enduring program-record 20 wins. An All-AIAW Region 4 selection, Wooley shot 48.7% from the floor and added an 84% (21-of-25) shooting clip from the free-throw line, while averaging 19 points and eight rebounds per game in that postseason alone.
 
Wooley finished her playing days on the hardwood with 772 points and averaged 8.3 points per game in 93 career games played. At the end of her career, Wooley was among the top career scorers in program history and helped lay the foundation for successful years to come.
 
In her three years as a member of the Riderette Volleyball team, Wooley was a part of two AWISA runner-up teams in 1973 and 1975 as well as the program’s second-ever AWISA Championship Title in 1974.
 
After her time at SAU, Wooley went on to be a women’s basketball graduate assistant coach at Arkansas State University for the 1977-78 season. A year later, Wooley was tabbed as the head coach and spent three seasons at the helm racking up 57 wins and a .633 winning percentage. Her win total is currently the fourth-best at A-State while her winning percentage ranks second.
 
Wooley then went on to be the head coach at East Texas Baptist University in Longview, Texas where she spent six seasons and totaled 80 victories, the second-most in program history.
 
Following the 1986-87 season, Wooley retired from coaching and went to work the next 25 years at Eastman Chemical in Longview.