Over 22 seasons, Dr. Leigh Sears has become Hope's most successful women's soccer coach with a 260-128-37 overall record through the 2022 season.

Sears has guided the Flying Dutch to six Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association championships and seven appearances in the NCAA Division III Tournament.

In April 2022, Sears was named recipient of the college's Karen Page Courage Award for her brave fight and recovery from breast cancer during the COVID-19 pandemic.

As a collegian, Sears was a three-sport standout at Ohio Wesleyan University. She was an all-conference player in the North Coast Athletic Conference in three sports — soccer, basketball, and track. In her senior year in soccer, she was voted the Ohio and conference player of the year and achieved All-America recognition as a midfielder. In 1998, she was inducted into the Ohio Wesleyan University Athletic Hall of Fame.

Sears earned her bachelor of arts degree in physical and health education from Ohio Wesleyan in 1991. She then went onto receive a masters of science degree in exercise science from Ithaca College (N.Y.) in 1994 and in 2007, she was awarded a Ph.D. degree in exercise science from The Ohio State University.

Prior to coming to Hope, Sears was the women's soccer coach at Marietta College, Ohio (1994-99). In addition to her teaching and coaching responsibilities at Marietta, she was faculty advisor to the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

Sears has served as a chief clinician for women at the Ohio High School Soccer Coaches Association and has been a member of the NCAA Division III Great Lakes region women's soccer advisory committee.

Sears has been a director and clinician at numerous soccer and basketball camps.

A member of the kinesiology faculty, she holds the rank of associate professor.