Kara Christian is in her fourth season as Presbyterian's head coach. She was announced as the second head coach in Presbyterian’s Acrobatics & Tumbling program’s history on June 14, 2022.
During her college coaching career, she has coached three NCATA All-Americans, seven First Team All-Conference Carolinas selections, six Second Team All-Conference Carolinas honorees, and 67 NCATA Academic Honor Roll recipients.
Coaching Career at Presbyterian
In her first season at PC (2023), she coached a team that competed against one of the nation's toughest schedules, featuring five nationally-ranked teams. She coached 12 student-athletes who earned a spot on the NCATA Academic Honor Roll.
In her second season at Presbyterian (2024), she guided the Blue Hose to five wins while setting several program records. In the road win at King on March 5, the Blue Hose set the program’s record for the highest score in the Team Event and the highest overall score. Freshman Kendra Henige became the first Blue Hose to collect a national weekly award after being named NCATA Honorable Mention Freshman of the Week on April 3. She coached eight student-athletes who earned spots on the NCATA Academic Honor Roll.
In her third season at Presbyterian (2025), she coached Abby Katz to earn the program’s first-ever NCATA All-American honors. Katz captured the NCATA Specialist of the Week award three times (Specialist of the Week, March 26, Honorable Mention Specialist of the Week, April 2, and April 9). She guided the Blue Hose to a program record seven wins. Presbyterian recorded several program record high scores, including finishing the season with three straight Perfect 10s in the Pyramid Open Heat. She coached nine student-athletes who were named to the NCATA Academic Honor Roll.
Other Coaching Experience
Before becoming Presbyterian's head coach, Christian helped start and guide the Erskine College Fleet from 2019 to 2020. She spent the 2019 season recruiting. In Erskine’s inaugural season in 2020, Christian helped build Erskine’s team culture while they played two nationally-ranked teams before the season was cut short in mid-March due to the pandemic. The program was disbanded in the Fall of 2020 due to the financial implications of the pandemic.
Before coming to Presbyterian, she served her second stint as an assistant coach for her alma mater, the King University Tornado in the 2021-22 seasons. In 2022, she helped guide King to a Top 10 national ranking. In 2021, she played an integral role in helping King climb to number four in the national poll, which was the highest ranking in the program’s history, while also capturing the Conference Carolinas regular-season championship which included wins over number six Converse and number ten Limestone. In 2018, she began her coaching career as an assistant coach at King College, the Tornado climbed to number nine in the national poll.
Education and Competition Career
The Kingsport, Tennessee native graduated from King University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Athletic Training in 2016 and a Master’s Degree in Business Administration in 2019. During her playing career, she competed on the first team in the program’s history in 2015. She helped King reach the NCATA Nationals two years in a row in 2015 and 2016. She competed in five out of the six events during her career at King.
