What started as a revenge tactic three years ago has translated into a collegiate scholarship and an athletic future for Free State High senior Sarah Hilliard.

As a ninth-grader, Hilliard was a three-sport competitor — in basketball, volleyball and track. But pestering from her cousin Job Hilliard helped her find her athletic niche.

“I had a cousin who was a football player who would always make fun of me,” Hilliard said. “I picked up wrestling to get back at him.”

To start wrestling, she had to dump her basketball commitments, which she said was harder on her coaches than it was on her.

“I was terrible,” Hilliard joked of her time playing at Central Junior High. “I think I scored two points the whole season.”

Hilliard now has proven that it was the right decision to walk away from hoops. On April 25, she signed to wrestle next season for Missouri Valley College in Marshall, Mo.

MVC is unique in that it can offer Hilliard an opportunity not available on the high school level in Kansas: She no longer has to wrestle guys.

Missouri Valley offers a separate women’s wrestling program.

“It speaks very highly of her commitment,” FSHS coach Darrell Andrew said. “In a sport that’s predominately male, Sarah stuck it out. She went through some tough times, and it wasn’t always an easy road for her, but she found the success she’s been looking for.”

Free State High senior Sarah Hilliard has signed with Missouri Valley College on a wrestling scholarship. After wrestling with boys through high school, Hilliard is headed to MVC's gender-specific wrestling program.

Andrew said he planned to make the two-hour trip to watch Hilliard wrestle next season, and he might even bring his team.

Hilliard’s college decision came down to MVC and Cumberland College in Williamsburg, Ky. It ultimately was her liking of coach Carl Murphree.

She said she didn’t plan to shoot up the team’s depth chart in the 158-pound class right away. She expects to make an impact as a sophomore.

Hilliard wrestled against the two competitors above her in that weight class last month, and said she held her own, spurring a bit of confidence.

“I feel really good about (the scholarship),” Hilliard said. “I work really hard, and it kind of re-affirms the work I do for it.”

Andrew is confident Hilliard will excel in college.

“Once she gets to MVC, I see her being very competitive,” Andrew said. “I don’t think she’s going to find all the success she wants that first year, but she’s the kind of person that’s going to get through that first year, keep developing and won’t give up.

“This has been a goal for her for a long time. She’s not going to let anything stand in her way.”

And what about Job Hilliard, the taunting cousin who goaded her onto the mat?

“I talked to him a couple of days ago,” she said. “He likes to give me crap still. I’m his baby cousin, even though he’s only a year older than me.”