EVANSVILLE — Sara Loete believes Harrison High School made a positive impact on herself as a new teacher and coach over a decade ago. Her new role could provide the same influence on others in similar situations.
Loete was approved to be the new Harrison athletic director during the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp. board meeting on Monday, May 4. She has spent 12 of her 15-year professional career at the school in some capacity including the last four as the assistant principal.
An itch to return to athletics always remained. It was her roots as a former athlete and coach.
“I’ve always been involved with sports,” Loete said. “Getting to work with a different group of students has been really positive for me. I love giving back to (the Harrison) community. Harrison feels like home. Getting to be back around the people that taught me how to do my job, how to be a coach and make a positive impact has been helpful.”
The Pekin High School (Ill.) graduate played softball for one year at Bradley before transferring to University of Southern Indiana. She finished her career with the Screaming Eagles ranked third in home runs, plus sixth in RBIs and walks. Loete, a 2022 USI Hall of Fame inductee, graduated with degrees in social science secondary eductation and history with a minor in sociology.
She spent the first eight years of her teaching career at Harrison while coaching softball and volleyball, either as a head coach or assistant. Loete became the assistant principal at North in 2019 before returning to Harrison three years later in the same position. She earned a Master’s in education from Arkansas State in 2014.
Loete was named the interim athletic director in late March. Andre Thomas, the athletic director at Harrison since 2018, moved into another position within the EVSC “supporting student attendance.” Loete said the crash course into the job had been a net positive.
“Coming in right after Spring Break as interim has been interesting,” she said. “I’ve learned everyone is super helpful. Every athletic director around Southern Indiana has reached out to help. I’m really excited to be in that community. Our former athletic directors have been fantastic. It’s felt like a smooth transition into this really busy time.”
Her immediate goal is to grow numbers across all Harrison sports. The Warriors compete in Class 4A in IHSAA team sports and are a long-standing member in the Southern Indiana Athletic Conference. The athletic department has two team state championships (boys golf in 2012 and girls golf in 1988) in school history but success across various sports.
Harrison’s most recent sectional titles came in boys basketball (2024, 2025). Loete is now one of three female athletic directors in the EVSC, joining Beth Hagan at Reitz and Cathy Ferris at Central.
“We have always had a strong athletic program,” Loete said. “Strong traditions. We’ve got really good athletes in the building. My goal is to build our numbers, get our athletes to play sports and be more increasingly competitive. I always want to win sectionals, SIAC and team championships.”
Hya Haywood was approved as the next Harrison girls basketball coach during the same board meeting. She was an All-Southern Indiana Athletic Conference guard at Central before completing her senior season at Monteverde Academy (Fla.). Haywood spent her college career with Western Kentucky, Three Rivers College, Lincoln University and two years at Glenville State College.
She earned an associate degree in arts from Three Rivers and a degree in business administration from Glenville before starting her coaching career at North Junior High. Haywood was most recently a graduate assistant at Columbus State University.
Harrison finished 9-14 last season, its most victories since 2015.
Kyle Sokeland is a sports reporter for the Courier & Press. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @kylesokeland or email at kyle.sokeland@courierpress.com.
This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Sara Loete named Evansville Harrison High School athletic director
Reporting by Kyle Sokeland, Evansville Courier & Press / Evansville Courier & Press
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