July 09, 2025
Sara Gauntner's 20-year career at Carnegie Mellon as a coach and administrator has been marked by creativity, passion and staunch refusal to settle for the status quo.
“I’m not a complacent person,” said Gauntner, the associate director of athletics and director of recreation. “Every time we build something, I feel like we need something more. When we’re cutting the ribbon on a building or starting a program, I'm already planning the next one: Where do we want to go from here? What will be the next trends? What new equipment will we need and where will it go?”
The fitness facilities at Cohon University Center and Tepper Building were upgraded in 2016 and 2018, respectively. The state-of-the-art Highmark Center for Health, Wellness and Athletics opened last year. The amount of brick-and-mortar construction is not the only way to measure growth.
“Everything is almost completely different now from when I started here,” Gauntner said. “We have more of everything — more facilities, more staff, more participation, more student-athletes, more clubs, more intramurals, more classes.”
Part of Gauntner’s job is making sure fields, courts and workout spaces are available for the dozens of Group X classes, club sports, intramurals, physical education programs and 19 NCAA Division III varsity teams. She also formulates forward-looking strategies in response to the evolving needs and interests of the students, faculty and staff.
“It's fun to work with someone like Sara who is constantly dreaming of how we can move forward and provide more opportunities for our community,” said Josh Centor, associate vice president of student affairs and director of athletics, physical education and recreation. “We've come so far during the last couple of decades and we see many more opportunities to grow.”
The calculus of expanding programs can be tricky, even when it involves something as simple as pickleball.
Pickleball — a hybrid of tennis, ping-pong and badminton — is the fastest growing sport in America. With interest soaring, pickleball clubs at Carnegie Mellon have been prowling the past several years for more places to play on campus.
“You have to be creative with what you have,” Centor said. “You can't just build a new building every time something develops.”
Attuned to the demand for pickleball, Gauntner wanted to create space for players … but where? A cluster of six courts has a large footprint, as a standard court is 20 feet wide and 44 feet long. An outdoor location might conflict with CMU’s thriving tennis community. In Pittsburgh’s often slushy climate, an indoor space is optimal for year-round use.
“I had a pickleball dilemma,” Gauntner said.
Working with student government and fundraising, Gauntner found a solution. In June, the floor in Wiegand Gym was refurbished and lined for six pickleball courts. This fall, a ceiling-to-floor curtain will be installed to allow three courts to be in play while volleyball or basketball is active on the other half of the gym.
“It’s not as grand of a project as a new fitness center, but it's exciting because people have been clamoring for pickleball,” Centor said. “Sara is extraordinarily talented with a remarkable work ethic. She's somebody that is not constrained by a ‘what we've always done’ mentality. With Sara, it's always about, ‘What else can we do and how can we get there?’”
Growing up in Natrona Heights, Gauntner was a multisport athlete. Her neighborhood’s youth league didn’t sponsor a softball team, so she played baseball. “I was better than my brothers,” Gauntner said. “They’d get mad about it and my dad was like, ‘She's just better than you. Deal with it.’”
Swimming was Gauntner’s favorite sport. She swam for Sylvan Park Pool’s summer league team and at age 15 coached the novice (8-and-under) group. “I caught the fever for coaching,” she said. “I couldn't get enough of it, so I coached the summer league team for eight weeks and then I swam through high school.”
One of her mother’s treasured keepsakes is a snapshot from the 1980s that foreshadowed Gauntner’s love of coaching. Gauntner, then about 8 years old, is kneeling at a starting block with her little brother, John, before a race. Gauntner’s arm is around John’s shoulders, pulling him in close as she speaks.
“I’m in his ear, telling him what to do,” Gauntner said.
Did he win the race? “Oh, yeah, I think so,” Gautner said with a smile.
After graduating from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Gauntner was a teacher and swimming coach at Penn Hills High School. After six years, she was ready to move on. “I loved teaching there and loved the kids, but I’m someone who always wants more,” Gauntner said. “So I moved to Georgia.”
In 2004-05, Gauntner coached at Swim Atlanta, a year-round, nonprofit club, and taught in the Fulton County School District. That led her to a job at Carnegie Mellon as an assistant swim coach and director of aquatics.
Surprised by meeting so many people at CMU who couldn’t swim, Gauntner in 2009 launched a learn-to-swim program for adults. The inaugural class included a 75-year-old woman who had a bucket-list item in mind.
“She was cute as a button,” Gauntner said. “When I asked why she wanted to learn to swim, she said, ‘I want to go off a diving board before I die.’ At the end of our sessions, she jumped off that diving board and I was in the water to catch her.”
Gauntner moved into administration in 2009 and was promoted to associate director of athletics and director of recreation in 2016.
“One of my coworkers once asked why I left coaching,” Gauntner said. “I said it was because I could go from having 70 athletes (on a team) to helping thousands of people. I wanted to make a difference in wellness, physical fitness, emotional health, whatever. I wanted to be part of that and help it grow. And that's what we've done.”
Sara Gauntner’s Blueprint for CMU’s Rec Programs: ‘More of Everything’
By Rob Biertempfel
“I’m not a complacent person,” said Gauntner, the associate director of athletics and director of recreation. “Every time we build something, I feel like we need something more. When we’re cutting the ribbon on a building or starting a program, I'm already planning the next one: Where do we want to go from here? What will be the next trends? What new equipment will we need and where will it go?”
The fitness facilities at Cohon University Center and Tepper Building were upgraded in 2016 and 2018, respectively. The state-of-the-art Highmark Center for Health, Wellness and Athletics opened last year. The amount of brick-and-mortar construction is not the only way to measure growth.
“Everything is almost completely different now from when I started here,” Gauntner said. “We have more of everything — more facilities, more staff, more participation, more student-athletes, more clubs, more intramurals, more classes.”
Part of Gauntner’s job is making sure fields, courts and workout spaces are available for the dozens of Group X classes, club sports, intramurals, physical education programs and 19 NCAA Division III varsity teams. She also formulates forward-looking strategies in response to the evolving needs and interests of the students, faculty and staff.
“It's fun to work with someone like Sara who is constantly dreaming of how we can move forward and provide more opportunities for our community,” said Josh Centor, associate vice president of student affairs and director of athletics, physical education and recreation. “We've come so far during the last couple of decades and we see many more opportunities to grow.”
The calculus of expanding programs can be tricky, even when it involves something as simple as pickleball.
Pickleball — a hybrid of tennis, ping-pong and badminton — is the fastest growing sport in America. With interest soaring, pickleball clubs at Carnegie Mellon have been prowling the past several years for more places to play on campus.
“You have to be creative with what you have,” Centor said. “You can't just build a new building every time something develops.”
Attuned to the demand for pickleball, Gauntner wanted to create space for players … but where? A cluster of six courts has a large footprint, as a standard court is 20 feet wide and 44 feet long. An outdoor location might conflict with CMU’s thriving tennis community. In Pittsburgh’s often slushy climate, an indoor space is optimal for year-round use.
“I had a pickleball dilemma,” Gauntner said.
Working with student government and fundraising, Gauntner found a solution. In June, the floor in Wiegand Gym was refurbished and lined for six pickleball courts. This fall, a ceiling-to-floor curtain will be installed to allow three courts to be in play while volleyball or basketball is active on the other half of the gym.
“It’s not as grand of a project as a new fitness center, but it's exciting because people have been clamoring for pickleball,” Centor said. “Sara is extraordinarily talented with a remarkable work ethic. She's somebody that is not constrained by a ‘what we've always done’ mentality. With Sara, it's always about, ‘What else can we do and how can we get there?’”
Growing up in Natrona Heights, Gauntner was a multisport athlete. Her neighborhood’s youth league didn’t sponsor a softball team, so she played baseball. “I was better than my brothers,” Gauntner said. “They’d get mad about it and my dad was like, ‘She's just better than you. Deal with it.’”
Swimming was Gauntner’s favorite sport. She swam for Sylvan Park Pool’s summer league team and at age 15 coached the novice (8-and-under) group. “I caught the fever for coaching,” she said. “I couldn't get enough of it, so I coached the summer league team for eight weeks and then I swam through high school.”
One of her mother’s treasured keepsakes is a snapshot from the 1980s that foreshadowed Gauntner’s love of coaching. Gauntner, then about 8 years old, is kneeling at a starting block with her little brother, John, before a race. Gauntner’s arm is around John’s shoulders, pulling him in close as she speaks.
“I’m in his ear, telling him what to do,” Gauntner said.
Did he win the race? “Oh, yeah, I think so,” Gautner said with a smile.
After graduating from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Gauntner was a teacher and swimming coach at Penn Hills High School. After six years, she was ready to move on. “I loved teaching there and loved the kids, but I’m someone who always wants more,” Gauntner said. “So I moved to Georgia.”
In 2004-05, Gauntner coached at Swim Atlanta, a year-round, nonprofit club, and taught in the Fulton County School District. That led her to a job at Carnegie Mellon as an assistant swim coach and director of aquatics.
Surprised by meeting so many people at CMU who couldn’t swim, Gauntner in 2009 launched a learn-to-swim program for adults. The inaugural class included a 75-year-old woman who had a bucket-list item in mind.
“She was cute as a button,” Gauntner said. “When I asked why she wanted to learn to swim, she said, ‘I want to go off a diving board before I die.’ At the end of our sessions, she jumped off that diving board and I was in the water to catch her.”
Gauntner moved into administration in 2009 and was promoted to associate director of athletics and director of recreation in 2016.
“One of my coworkers once asked why I left coaching,” Gauntner said. “I said it was because I could go from having 70 athletes (on a team) to helping thousands of people. I wanted to make a difference in wellness, physical fitness, emotional health, whatever. I wanted to be part of that and help it grow. And that's what we've done.”