Where did Sara Hughes train?

Sara Hughes is a beach volleyball player hailing from Costa Mesa, California. In 2024, she and her longtime teammate Kelly Cheng qualified to represent Team USA at the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics. Hughes attended Mater Dei High School and then graduated with a degree in Business Administration from the University of South California. There, she started teaming up with Cheng, and the two amassed a winning streak of 103 matches during their time together.

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Following graduation, the team of Cheng and Hughes was disbanded and the latter started teaming up with Summer Ross up to 2019, and then alongside Kelley Kolinske in 2021. Hughes and Cheng reformed their team the following year and have been partners since then. Hughes has made her mark on the international circuit with Gold Medals at the Beach Volleyball World Championship, World Tour Finals, and World Tour.

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Sara Hughes' Training Location

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Sara Hughes began training volleyball in Huntington Beach, California, at the age of eight. She currently trains under Jose Loiola as a member of the US Women’s National Beach Volleyball team. Hughes’ mother Laura Hughes, her older sister Lauren, and older brother Connor are former beach volleyball players. While Sara Hughes' siblings trained for their tournaments, she used to attend such sessions at a young age and grew a passion for the sport.

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At one such time, when she was eight years old, another player’s parent was very impressed with her peppering, which is a warm-up drill. He suggested Sara Hughes’ parents Rory and Laura have her train under the guidance of Bill Lovelace, who was a local beach volleyball trainer for the young players.

Hughes then began training for beach volleyball under Lovelace at Huntington Beach in California, where she trained for about seven years. Her childhood idol was Misty May-Treanor, who had won three gold medals at the Olympics, three at the World Championships, and an astonishing thirty-three gold medals at the World Tour. Treanor often trained at the Beach and gave tips to Hughes.

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Sara Hughes' Coach

Sara Hughes is trained by Jose Geraldo Loiola. He was a beach volleyball player born on March 28, 1970, in Vitória, Brazil, and represented his country at international level. He has won a gold and a silver medal at the Beach Volleyball World Championships.

Jose Geraldo Loiola was inducted into the California Beach Volleyball Hall of Fame in 2014, and into the International Beach Volleyball Hall of Fame in 2017. Since 2016, he has been training Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes. At present, Loiola is a coach for the US Beach National Team. Before him, Sara Hughes was trained by Bill Lovelace and also by the coaches at USC Trojans.