School: Hatboro-Horsham
Favorite athlete: Brian Dawkins of the Philadelphia Eagles
Favor sports teams: “My favorite sports teams include the Philadelphia Eagles, Philadelphia Phillies, and, of course, I love all of the Hatboro-Horsham athletic teams!”
Favorite memory competing in sports: “Winning the 2008 PIAA Class AAAA softball state championship. The victory was a fairy tale ending to years of hard work and dedication.”
Funniest sports memory: “The funniest thing that has happened to me while competing in sports includes deer and a baseball field fence. Once, during one of our softball practices, a group of deer suddenly appeared and attempted to jump over the baseball field fence. Unfortunately, their attempts failed, and they continually crashed into the fence, but our team commented that the deer’s frantic and aggressive behavior looked like us as we tried to run through the door to a pasta party!”
Future plans: Becoming a registered dietician and become a sports nutritionist for a university athletic team.
Words to live by: “We will either find a way, or make one!” Hannibal
One goal before turning 30: “I hope to be married and to achieve my goal of becoming a sports nutritionist.”
One thing people don’t know about me: “Most people assume that I am very neat, but they have not seen my room! Truly, I am quite messy.”
Sara Dougherty would undoubtedly fit the definition of a quiet star.
Last spring, without fanfare, the speedy leadoff batter hit at a torrid .535 clip during the regular season - .450 overall – for a Hatboro-Horsham softball team that captured the PIAA Class AAAA state championship.
As gifted as the Hatter senior was on the softball field, Dougherty is perhaps even more of a force on the volleyball court where she was left with the sometimes thankless task of playing defense - diving all over the court to bump up kills or making the first touch on serve receive.
Dougherty might not find her way into the headlines, but the senior defensive libero is a player who is valued by her coaches and respected by her opponents.
Consider only the response of Atasha Jordan after her Council Rock North squad saw its season end at the hands of the Hatters in district tournament play.
“Their libero – the ball could be a mile away from her, and she would get it,” Jordan said of Dougherty. “I have to say good job to her because she did a really, really good job defensively.
“It’s aggravating for hitters when someone is digging up everything.”
What was aggravating to opponents was a key to the Hatters’ success this season. Dougherty was in the middle of all the action for a Hatter squad that finished second to Upper Merion in the American Conference standings and upset the eventual district champions to capture the SOL Tournament trophy.
“Sara is a very special athlete,” Hatter coach Diane Lucas said. “She’s an extremely hard worker, and what I most admire about her is she has the ability to make others around her work hard as well.
“She’s very unselfish, she’s a great teammate, she asks very good questions, and she always wants to learn about the game. Even though she’s very talented and very skilled, she realizes there’s always room for improvement.”
A defender all of her career, Dougherty has a nose for the ball and routinely turned big kills into good passes to setter Lauren Schmickle.
“A really good dig gets your team fired up just as much as a good hit,” she said. “It’s essential to have good passing so you can run your plays, so you can have that big hit.
“It’s almost behind the scenes sometimes, but you have to have that attitude that every ball is going to be up. It’s a really competitive type outlook.”
Lucas knew she could always count on Dougherty to keep the play alive if it was humanly possible.
“Sara was always ready for the ball,” she said. “Sometimes, especially with big volleys, girls will get caught up in their transition, but Sara was always right there. She was running up, running back, and she never seemed to get fatigued. She was always ready for more.”
Dougherty – a tri-captain – brought a special style of leadership to the squad.
“She’s a big competitor, and she wants to win, but she also was the one in the huddles who would be telling teammates what they needed to hear,” Lucas said. “There’s a fine balance between being a very good teammate, being respected and also being able to push people the way she was able to.
“People understood – Sara is competitive, but we have to listen as well.”
Dougherty actually grew up playing soccer and softball. She didn’t begin playing volleyball until eighth grade, and there was nothing to suggest she was onto anything special.
“Eighth grade was the first year we had volleyball at Hatboro-Horsham,” she said. “I just figured I would try it. It looked like fun, and some of my friends played it, so I thought I’d try something different.”
That ‘something different’ turned into Dougherty’s passion.
“I really liked the fast pace of volleyball,” she said. “Softball can get a little slow sometimes. Volleyball requires so much athleticism. You always need to be quick and ready to play.”
This fall she opted to give up travel softball in order to focus on volleyball. It was not an easy decision for someone who had played softball year-round for as long as she could remember.
“I was upset when I told my coach,” she said. “I felt bad leaving them, but I don’t really regret it at all.”
Dougherty will play softball this spring for the Hatters, and she will always treasure the memories of a magical junior season that culminated with a state crown.
“That was amazing,” she said. “You can’t really describe it. I was playing with a lot of these girls since I was nine years old. It was bittersweet because it was the ending of something that was basically my whole life all those years.
“It was perfect. It was a perfect ending.”
The Hatters saw their volleyball season end recently when they fell to district runner-up Unionville.
“The season was really special,” Dougherty said. “We didn’t make it to states, which was our ultimate goal, but we had a really fun ride.”
The relentless defensive specialist plans to continue her volleyball career at the collegiate level, but academics will always come first
“The one reason you go to college is for the academic part,” Dougherty said. “I’m not going to play volleyball when I get older, so I have to make sure I pick the good college and get the good education.”
A distinguished honor roll student, Dougherty, who is ranked 12th in a senior class of 431, is pursuing a career as a registered dietician with her sights set on becoming a sports nutritionist. Her list of potential colleges includes James Madison, Rhode Island and Delaware. She will be a recruited walk-on.
“I really didn’t think I would have a shot playing volleyball because I played softball my whole life, and I had the (softball) skills,” she said. “With volleyball – I love it so much, and that’s one of the main things you need. You can always get better, but you have to have the love and desire to play.”
And Dougherty has plenty of both.
