Sarah Gwin, Austin College, Women's Basketball - Character & Community

Sarah Gwin, Austin College, Women's Basketball - Character & Community

SARAH GWIN OF AUSTIN COLLEGE, a senior guard on the women's basketball team from San Antonio, Texas, has been selected the SCAC Character & Community Female Student-Athlete of the Week for the week beginning October 24.

The SCAC Character & Community award honors the efforts of student-athletes who excel in the field of athletics, and also serve their campus and community.



Life after athletics is a big unknown for everyone who’s ever played competitive sports. For those who work long enough and hard enough to earn a chance to compete beyond high school, often sports are a key part of your identity, as well as one of the focal points of your daily routine. You practice, you lift, you condition, and you compete.

But very few athletes stop to think about what life will look like once you’ve heard the buzzer sound for the final time. That’s what Austin College senior Sarah Gwin is hoping to help her fellow student-athletes reckon with this semester.

Sarah is teaming up with fellow seniors Tyler Hanes, a member of the ‘Roo football team, and Madison Bradley, a former teammate of Gwin’s on the hoops team, to plan an event addressing the very issue of how athletes can often struggle with their identity once they’ve played their last game. It’s an issue Gwin is staring head on as she enters her final year wearing cardinal and gold.

Along with those who will see their eligibility expire, Sarah is also hoping to reach those student-athletes who are forced to give up their passions due to injury. She and her classmates will be putting together an event on November 17, featuring guest speakers who competed in basketball, football, and volleyball while students at Austin College, to help her peers learn how to move on from sports when the idea of their identities being tied solely to being athletes.

In addition to her goal of encouraging her fellow ‘Roos to “look forward into their future and begin the process of finding their purpose in other aspects of their lives,” Sarah will also be taking on leadership roles both within her team and among her peers this year. As the lone senior on this year’s women’s basketball team, and having cut down the nets at the 2020 SCAC Championship, head coach Michelle Filander will be looking to her to lead this season. Sarah is up for the challenge, and has also taken on the task of being one of two members of Austin College’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee’s leadership group, alongside senior baseball player Max Danielsen.

SCAC Trio Compete at ITA Cup
October 17, 2022 SCAC Trio Compete at ITA Cup