Sarah Elliott

Classroom

Elliott will graduate a semester early (December 2007) with a degree in family and consumer science. She has an overall grade point average of 3.0. She was named to UK’s Dean’s List (Spring of 2007) with a 3.8 GPA and earned a 4.0 GPA during the 2007 summer term. She has earned all of these academic accolades while battling Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) since the third grade. After graduation she would like to pursue a career in high school or college coaching.

Character

Elliott is a student-athlete who has overcome many obstacles along her collegiate path. Despite playing with chronic pain in both knees that required surgery, she’s worked countless hours in the training room in order to be in top condition on the court. In the classroom, she has battled Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) since the third grade and despite the learning disability has earned academic honors and will graduate an entire semester early. As a freshman, Elliott was struck with tragedy as her best friend and fellow classmate Joelle Lawson passed away after suffering a heart attack. She continues to write the letter “J” on her ankle tape before every game in Joelle’s honor. Despite all of these obstacles, Elliott has stayed the course and never complained. “I used to just want to shrink down because I was so much bigger than everyone and I had a learning disability. With a lot of hard work, I am so much more comfortable with myself now. I’ve had to overcome a lot, but I’ve learned how to succeed.”

Community

Elliott is very active in UK’s “Cats that Care” community service program. She has been a guest visitor at Veteran’s Hospital, helped organize a food drive to benefit God’s Pantry, participated in the Southland Church Clean Up Program and taught character lessons in the Cats Cultivating Character program. She has been a guest speaker at Henry Clay High School and volunteered at Athletes in Action Urban Project Sports Camp. This past summer she traveled to Colorado for the Athletes in Action Prison Outreach Visit. She also is known for periodically donating her own hair to Locks of Love. Elliott adores children and always finds time to talk to them before and after each game. “Her heart is as big as her height,” teammate Eleia Roddy said.

Competition

Elliott is one of four seniors on this year’s team that chose to come to Kentucky to help return the Cats back to the national spotlight. With her help, UK has appeared in three straight postseason tournaments, the most since a four-year string of appearances from 1979-83. The Wildcats charted back-to-back 20-win seasons for the first time since the 1989-90 and 1990-91 teams accomplished the feat. Elliott is Kentucky’s go-to player in the middle. The All-SEC performer is the team’s leading returning scorer and rebounder from last season. She averaged 13.5 points and 7.0 rebounds per game and swatted a school-record 50 blocks as a junior. Standing at 6-6 (the tallest player on UK’s team), the center became the 26th member of UK’s 1,000-point club last season and now ranks 18th on the all-time scoring list with 1,161 career points. With another successful campaign, she could move into UK’s top 10 in scoring. She also is second all-time in blocks (139) and needs just 18 more to break the career record. Despite chronic pain in both knees, she has played in 99 career games with 70 starts. Since her arrival at UK in 2004-05, she has averaged double-figure scoring each season and has been named to the All-SEC second team AP and SEC Coaches (2006-07) teams. She has made many regular-season all-tournament teams and was MVP of the Pepperdine Thanksgiving Classic in 2005. Last year, she tallied 26 double-figure scoring games, including double-figure point totals in 10 of the team’s last 11 games in helping lead UK to the third round of the postseason WNIT. “Elliott can really do something with the ball when she gets it,” Auburn Head Coach Nell Fortner said. “She’s not going to just turn and chunk it. Something good’s going to happen when she gets that kind of position.”