Sarah Hopkins-Chery has put the Bobcats in the national spotlight and enters her sixth season as head coach of the University of California, Merced women’s basketball team with an overall record of 94-58 and a California Pacific Conference record of 47-17. Since Hopkins-Chery took over in 2015, no other active coach in the conference has more wins or conference tournament appearances. Having never missed a conference tournament, Hopkins-Chery has also guided the Bobcats to a pair of Cal Pac Tournament Championship trophies, two NAIA National Tournaments, a regular season conference title and four straight winning seasons.
The winningest coach in program history, Hopkins-Chery has had the Bobcats ranked inside the Top 25 on multiple occasions and as high as No. 22 back on January 9, 2019. Hopkins-Chery has coached 15 All-Cal Pac selections, five honorable mentions, five All-Americans, four Cal Pac Defensive Players of the Year, two Cal Pac Freshman of the Year and a Cal Pac Player of the Year. The same year Courtney Danna was selected Cal Pac Player of the Year (2015), Hopkins-Chery was named the Cal Pac Coach of the Year after sweeping the conference slate with an 8-0 record.
Having established a fast-paced offense and an aggressive defense, Hopkins-Chery’s team has ranked among the best in the NAIA in turnover margin four of the past five years and have been one of the highest scoring offenses two of the last three years. Nearly every program team statistical record has also been accomplished with Hopkins-Chery at the helm.
In 2019-20, Hopkins-Chery coached the third highest scoring duo in Cal Pac history as Mia Belvin (17.96) and Haylee Owen (15.78) combined for nearly 34 points per game. The duo earned All-Cal Pac First Team honors and guided the Bobcats to a sixth straight Cal Pac Tournament appearance. UC Merced finished the year 15-13 overall, 9-5 in conference play. While Hopkins-Chery’s guards were a nightmare for opposing defenses, the Bobcats defense nearly had a program-best year and held opponents to just 60.6 points per game. That number shrunk to 55 points per game on Hostetler Court. The 60.6 PPG is the second lowest mark in program history, a couple points short of 58.3 from 2014-15. Hopkins-Chery picked up two Top 25 wins over the course of the campaign, first on the road at No. 21 Oregon Tech and second at home against No. 20 Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. It was the first season in program history where the Bobcats took down two Top 25 opponents in the same season. The 2019-20 season also saw the end of the careers for Hopkins-Chery’s first recruiting class of Belvin, Kylee Scheib and Shelby Bohlmann. All three leave UC Merced ranked inside the programs Top 10 list of a statistical category.
The 2018-19 season was one for the record books as the Bobcats won a program-record 23 games (23-7) and earned their highest ever ranking at No. 22 in the Women’s Basketball Coaches’ Top 25 Poll. The Bobcats advanced to their fifth straight conference tournament, the longest active streak in the Cal Pac. From December 1-January 10, the Bobcats put together a program record 10 game winning streak that included wins over GSAC opponent William Jessup University and Cal Pac co-regular season champion Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (AZ). The Bobcats also beat the co-regular season champion University of Antelope Valley Pioneers 76-73 on February 14, marking the Bobcats highest ranked win in program history. Antelope Valley was ranked No. 10. During the season, the Bobcats ranked among the countries best in nearly every major statistical category, including points per game (75.5), rebounds per game (42) and assists per game (15.3). The Bobcats also had individuals lead the Cal Pac in steals per game (Mia Belvin), blocks per game (Mia Shannon) and had four players earn all-conference accolades. Hopkins-Chery also coached Mia Belvin to her second Third Team All-American honor and developed Rainah Smith into the California Pacific Conference Freshman of the Year.
In 2017-18, Hopkins-Chery's team began the year nationally ranked 24th and they answered that recognition by winning a then program record 19 games (19-11) overall and 10 (10-4) in conference play. The Bobcats secured the #3 seed in the Cal Pac Championships and scored a program record 99 points and took down Embry-Riddle (AZ) 99-84 in the semifinal game. The win advanced Hopkins-Chery to her third straight, program's fourth conference championship game, where they dropped a 65-54 contest. Once again, Hopkins-Chery added to her strong resume by landing four players on the all-conference teams. She also developed Mia Belvin into the California Pacific Conference Defensive Player of the Year and third team NAIA All-American.
The 2016-17 campaign was also strong for Hopkins-Chery as the team finished 17-12 overall and 9-5 in conference. She led the Bobcats to their third consecutive Cal Pac Conference Tournament Championship and brought in the conference's Freshman of the Year (Mia Belvin) and helped Courtney Danna repeat as an NAIA Honorable Mention All-American. Hopkins-Chery nearly helped the Bobcats earn the biggest upset in NAIA DII women's basketball history in the first round of the NAIA DII Women's Basketball Championship when the Bobcats took No. 1 overall seeded St. Francis (Ill.) to double-overtime in the tournament opener. The Bobcats ultimately fell just short, losing 87-83.
In 2015-16 Hopkins-Chery had a dream first season with the Bobcats, leading the team to the first undefeated conference record in school history and topping it off with the team's second consecutive California Pacific Conference Tournament Championship and trip to the NAIA DII Women's Basketball National Championship in Sioux City, Iowa. In addition to the conference championship, Hopkins-Chery saw of slew of honors for her program including NAIA Honorable Mention All-American, Cal Pac Player of the Year, Cal Pac Defensive Player of the Year, three players earn All-Cal Pac First Team, one player earn Second Team, and one player earn Honorable Mention status. For all her accomplishments, Hopkins-Chery was named the Cal Pac Conference Coach of the Year.
Academically, Hopkins-Chery's team has been named a NAIA Scholar-Team three times (2015-16, 2018-19 & 2019-20). As a coach, Hopkins-Chery is tied for producing the most Scholar-Teams in program history.
Prior to UC Merced, Hopkins-Chery coached on the staff at Park University (NAIA, DI) in Parkville, Missouri.
A native of Essex, England, Hopkins-Chery joined UC Merced with plenty of playing and coaching experience. In England, Hopkins-Chery attended Greensward College and attributes much of her stardom in the game of basketball to the Swifts Basketball Club along with Greensward. While with Swifts and Greensward, the teams were 3X national runner-ups and 2X national champions.
She first earned international playing experience with the Under 16 and Under 20 England teams and eventually England’s senior women’s nation team in 2002.
Hopkins-Chery attended and played basketball at Jefferson College where she was an NJCAA Academic All-American Scholar-Athlete in 2005, All-Region Academic Team member in 2005 and a two-time MCCAC Academic All-Conference honoree. Additionally, the Vikings were conference champions in 2004 and 2005 while she was a part of the program.
After two years at Jefferson she transferred to Park University where she became a standout on the women’s basketball team. As a player at Park she helped lead a Pirates squad to the programs first-ever appearance in the NAIA National Tournament in 2005-06 after winning a conference title in the Association of Independent Institutions (AII). Hopkins-Chery was also honored as an AII-Academic All-Conference member and an NAIA All-American Scholar-Athlete in 2006 (the first of three times she received this honor).
Unfortunately, an injury she suffered forced her to retire from her basketball playing career but she quickly turned her sights onto her next adventure: track and cross country at Park University. She ran on a cross country team in 2007 that were conference and regional champions qualifying for the NAIA National Championship meet while she individually earned MCAC All-Conference honors. In 2008 she ran track for Park with a 4x800 team who qualified for the NAIA National Championship meet that year as well.
As a 2007 graduate of Park University with a Bachelor’s of Arts in Psychology she returned to Park to complete her Masters of Arts degree in Communication and Leadership in 2009. In 2012-13, Hopkins-Chery returned to Park University again, this time as an assistant coach where was for the three seasons prior to joining the Bobcats.
The depth of coaching experience she brought to UC Merced also included the State and Regional (Essex and East of England) youth representative teams, the girls head junior varsity and assistant varsity coach at St. Pius X, head coach of Seevic College men's & women's teams., and Native Vision summer camps, to name just a few.
