Florida Tech Scholar-Athlete Spotlight Recognizes Women’s Basketball Player Sarah Liberatore

Liberatore is majoring in Entrepreneurship

BREVARD COUNTY • MELBOURNE, FLORIDA – Being a scholar-athlete at Florida Tech takes an incredible amount of hard work and dedication to excel both in the classroom and on the field.

In this Scholar-Athlete Spotlight, we are featuring Panther women’s basketball player Sarah Liberatore, a sophomore who is majoring in Entrepreneurship.

A transfer from Division I Marshall, Sarah averaged 9.8 points per game in 25.5 minutes per game in her first season as a Panther with her season high of 28 points coming in the Panthers’ 81-68 victory over Embry-Riddle on January 11th.

Liberatore was named to the Conference USA Commissioner’s Honor Roll twice and in 2021, was a Conference USA Academic Medalist by virtue of earning a GPA of 3.75 or better.

As Sarah’s first year In Melbourne comes to a close, we talked with her about what made her choose Florida Tech and what she enjoys about being a business student.

■ What’s your major at Florida Tech and why did you choose this? Is it something that you’ve always wanted to do?

So my major is Business Administration with a focus on entrepreneurship and for me in high school, I never knew exactly what I wanted to do.

So, when I went to my old school, Marshall, I just decided I would do business. My dad and my brothers were both business majors, so that kind of gave me a guideline for that.

I think business and entrepreneurship have a broad reach, you have a lot of options and things you can do. So, that also drew me towards it, and then entrepreneurship, I have a creative side so that allows for freedom with that.

■ When you decided to transfer from a Division I program, what was it about Florida Tech that made you want to be here?

Leaving my old school, I knew that I wanted to go to Division II to play basketball.

So, I was drawn to schools in California and Florida. I knew for myself, in order to be happy, I needed to be somewhere where I could enjoy where I was living and those two areas kind of drew me.

I was looking at the Sunshine State Conference for basketball, and it’s a really good conference. Florida Tech, it’s a really diverse school, you meet so many people from all over the world. I really liked that, as well as the athletics program and the coaching staff here.

■ How do you plan to use your degree after graduation?

So like I said before, I’m not exactly sure what I want to do with business yet. Right now, it’s kind of day by day, just trying to see what interests me and go for that. But postgrad, my goal right now is to play overseas.

So, I’m hoping to be in Europe after graduation and then during that time, just kind of figuring out exactly what I want to do after that.

■ What are some of the exciting projects that you’ve been able to work on in classes here?

So, business here is a lot different than at my old school. I really like how everything’s in person. I’ve gotten to meet a lot of cool people, classmates, and professors.

The professors come from great places, they all have really good stories and a lot of previous knowledge to offer us, and then the connections you can get through all those relationships. I really liked that.

■ Basketball season usually spans nearly three months with plenty of road trips and practices in between, how do you keep everything balanced once the season starts?

Sometimes it is overwhelming and there are a lot of other things you have to add to that, but I think it’s about managing your time. For me, on Sundays, at the beginning of the week,

I lay out exactly what’s due for the week or what I need to be doing, focusing on something like that. And then just working with people in my classes and my roommates and friends with classes.

■ How has being a collegiate athlete prepared you for what you’re doing now and what do you take from the court that you apply to your studies?

I think basketball and all of athletics translate really well to real-world stuff you have to deal with, especially in business situations. So I think for me, being a basketball player has taught me a lot about teamwork and working with others, and then now as I’ve gotten older, leadership, how I’ve grown into myself and my voice on the floor, all of that.

As far as the teamwork aspect, in a lot of the business classes here, we do a lot of group projects, group presentations, and things like that. So, that’s helped me learn to work with other people really well.

■ What advice would you give to an athlete coming to Florida Tech that has an interest in Entrepreneurship?

I think there’s a lot of opportunity in business. So, if you’re interested in it, it’s definitely a good idea. Just make sure to talk to anyone you know who has done business or any professors or mentors you have just to kind of get an idea of maybe where you want to go with it like I chose entrepreneurship.

■ What have you enjoyed the most about your time with the basketball program so far?

I think just getting to know the coaches and my teammates, I really enjoyed it so far and I’m excited for the future with my team!

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