Employee Spotlight: Sara Weides, Senior Manager, Implementation & Accounts

Sara Weides is a Senior Manager of Implementation & Accounts at NBC Sports Next working on SportsEngine Motion and TeamUnify. She is based at the headquarters in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Sara has been with SportsEngine since 2016. She started as a market development representative for the SportsEngine HQ brand.

However, shortly after starting, SportsEngine acquired the company TeamUnify, a premier administrative software tool in the swimming space. Sara, being an avid swimmer herself, knew that she wanted to be involved with part of the business and after ten months of working on HQ, she transitioned to an account manager role. 

Before coming to NBC Sports Next, Sara was a head coach for the Minnetonka Swim Club, a club in the western suburbs of Minneapolis with over 300 youth athletes. While coaching here, she helped develop several NCAA student-athletes, including multiple D1 scholarship recipients and three 2016 Olympic Trials Qualifiers. 

After years of coaching and the desire to spend more time with her family on nights and weekends, she was excited to find a company that believed in work/life balance and just as importantly, supported the youth sports community. "To know that I would be giving back to the world that had given so much to me both as a participant and a coach was very exciting," Sara shared.

A typical day for Sara starts with a daycare drop-off. Once she settles into her home office or the Northeast Minneapolis offices, she gets started by catching up on emails. Leading a team means Sara spends a good portion of the day in meetings. "I spend a lot of time working with other leaders in the business to ensure that we are delivering on the expectations of both our internal stakeholders and team members and the community of customers that we serve."

In addition to keeping a pulse on the rest of the business, Sara has to control what is happening with her team. "I spend a lot of time with my team of eleven account managers & onboarding specialists," said Sara. "I want to make sure they have what they need to be successful. I want each of them to feel successful and like an important part of the growth of our business. Without my team's dedication and hard work, we wouldn't be the leader in our industry."

One thing in particular that Sara loves about working with SportsEngine is that so many people are active in the youth sports community. "From coaching to volunteering to sitting on boards, all the way down to networking events, the office is full of people that are active in the communities we serve," she said enthusiastically. "On a daily basis, you can see the coaches that we have on staff filing out to make it to practices. If you have some free time, there is always additional opportunities to volunteer in the community. And you will not be the only employee there! There's something for any of the local peeps to participate in–I love it!"

When asked to describe herself as a haiku, Sara paused momentarily and said, "Oh, gosh. Is it ok if I do it in a few more words?"

Sure, Sara, go for it: 

I AM

A sister/wife/mom/daughter/friend.
A collegiate athlete turned coach–turned sports tech expert.
A passionate connector–I love connecting with youth sports organizations and connecting them to one another–especially if I can make that a fun and authentic connection–and if I can make people smile or laugh, all the better.

I BELIEVE

In family and grow through faith.

I AM NEVER

Too busy to share a story or an iced coffee.

Quick Facts

Alma Mater	University of Wisconsin, Madison. Go Bucky!
Favorite Sport (who do you cheer for?)	Badger Football & NCAA Football
Olympic medal you'd like to win	Volleyball! I am SO bad a volleyball, but it would be cool to do!
Little known facts about you	I can navigate almost a dozen US cities without a map! (most of the time, ha) NOTE: Sara was too humble to share, but she was also a 2008 USA Olympic Trials qualifier & participant!
Social Media	LinkedIn