Coach Sarah Dawson completed her undergraduate degree from the California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo (B.S. in Biology, concentration in Human Anatomy). After completing her degree, she began working in a laboratory in the Biotechnology field. Concurrently, Coach Sarah found a coaching job at the age group level at a local team. After working in both positions for two years, Coach Sarah went back to school at Cal Poly- SLO to pursue her M.S. in Physical Education and Sports Studies with an emphasis in Sport Psychology. While a student in her graduate program, Coach Sarah became the Head Girl’s Coach at San Luis Obispo High School and was the Head Senior Coach at the San Luis Seahawks. The San Luis High School girls' team were League champions, both years under Coach Sarah and she brought many CIF qualifiers to CIF who placed in the top 16.  

After obtaining her M.S., Coach Sarah began coaching with the Nadadores in September 2009. She began as an assistant coach within the SR division, 13/14 Gold, all 11-12 Division groups, and worked within the Novice program. Within 4 mos., Coach Sarah was offered the 11-12 Division Director position and continued in that role through the next 8 years. In that time, Coach Sarah brought numerous athletes to the National top 10 times, many in the top 3, SoCal Swimming record-holders, and broke most team records in the 11-12 Division, both in SCY and LCM over her tenure. In September 2017, she was offered the Head Age Group Coach of the Mission Viejo Nadadores and continued in that role, along with her directorship until she stepped off the deck in August 2019 to focus on her family. Coach Sarah was awarded the Age Group Coach of the Year in 2018 from Southern California Swimming and was named in the top 50 Age Group Coaches in the United States in 2019. 

As she focuses on family, Coach Sarah has taken on a new role within the Mission Viejo Nadadores organization, being named Team Operations Director in January 2020. Coach Sarah currently oversees all team competitions, team culture (I.e., events), coaches’ well-being with an emphasis on work/life balance, working collaboratively with organization partners, and developing the vision of the Nadadores from its historic past and its important role in the future.  

Coach Sarah has two children who are on the Nadadores competitive team and can often be seen on the deck with her husband of 12 years.