Swimming and Diving

To contact Sara Gildea, please call her in her office at 440-826-2387 or email her at sgildea@bw.edu.

In 2010-11, Gildea led the B-W men to a 7-5-1 regular season mark and a third-place finish at the 2011 OAC Championships. Four Yellow Jackets were individual champions and a total of 11 athletes earned all-conference honors.

Gildea was accepted into the ASCA (American Swimming Coaches Association) Fellows Class in 2009. The ASCA Fellows Program is a leadership through advocacy program designed to train and help coaches become leaders and agents-of-change within swimming.  She is working on a project called PP&E (Preserve, Protect, and Expand) Collegiate Swimming with specific assignments for one year that started at the World Clinic in September in Fort Lauderdale. Gildea also was a camp coach at the Auburn University Swim Camp from May 31 to June 19.

Gildea came to B-W from Mercyhurst (Pa.) College North East. She coached for two plus years at Mercyhurst and helped the Saints advance to the NJCAA (National Junior College Athletic Association) Swimming and Diving Championships.  In addition, Coach Gildea had two swimmers win individual NJCAA national titles and she coached 16 individual NJCAA All-Americans.

Before becoming the head coach at Mercyhurst North East, Gildea graduated from John Carroll University with a Bachelor of Science degree in psychology and business in the spring of 2003. While at JCU, Gildea competed individually in the 100 and 200-yard breaststroke events and on the medley relay teams and helped the Blue Streaks to a pair of OAC titles (1999-2000 and 2000-2001).

Gildea is a native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and is a member of the USA Swimming and American Swimming Coaches Association. She also swam for the Allegheny North Swim Club in the United States Swimming Organization for 10 years and was the head coach of the Igomar Swim Club, ages 5-18.