Moffat County volleyball hires new coach Becca Sage

With an open position for much of the summer, one Moffat County High School athletic program has found a head coach just in time.

MCHS announced this past week the hiring of Becca Sage to oversee the volleyball program as part of the fall sports season.

Sage replaces Jessica Profumo, who resigned in June after two seasons with the Bulldogs at the high school level and several more with younger age groups.

Profumo — whose letter to parents and coaches earlier in the summer encouraged athletes to “love the game and have the presence of mind to enjoy the journey” — had a record of 14-22 across two seasons that saw the group rise steadily in the 3A Western Slope League standings.

Sage, 23, recently moved to Craig to be closer to her significant other and works at Eyecare Specialties. She grew up playing Colorado volleyball with eight years mixed between school and club teams, including Fort Collins’ Poudre Impalas.

“For club, my last year of playing, we took third place in the State Showdown Tournament, that was kind of the biggest highlight since we kind of an underrated club at the time, the Colorado North Stars. That was a big thing for us to take that,” she said.

Though she opted to go into the nursing field rather than pursue college sports, she was soon drawn back into the circle as a former coach asked her to take on a supervisory role for a junior high level club volleyball program that included novices and serious players alike in the Rocky Elite Volleyball Club.

“When you take girls who have never played before and are able to coach them into playing at national tournaments, it’s a pretty big deal for me and for them,” Sage said. “The last set of tournaments I coached at was the Colorado Crossroads Tournament down in Denver, and that is a national tournament where teams fly in from all over the country. We consistently played them over the course of three days. Being able to be part of that and taking kids who had never played into something like that was pretty awesome. Most of the girls that I coached over the last two years had never played before and now they’re all making their varsity teams and national teams for club. It’s awesome and super rewarding.”

Like MoCo girls, who wrapped up an unusually late season in late April, Sage isn’t far removed from competition.

“I’ve only been off for two months from volleyball because our club season ended in May, so I’m feeling pretty fresh in the volleyball scene right now,” she said.

She added that it was oddly serendipitous that she even learned about the position at MCHS from the Craig real estate agent who sold her a home.

“She’s the one who contacted me, and it kind of snowballed into place. It’s super cool how it all worked, and if it hadn’t been for us going through them in particular to get our house, I would have never known about this,” Sage said.

Thursday evening, shortly after being confirmed for her new job, Sage met with parents and players in preparation for the Aug. 9 start date for most fall sports.

While Sage looks forward to the potential of a winning record in her inaugural season, she especially hopes to emphasize teamwork, senior leadership and building skills among all players to keep the program going strong.

“I’m really just focused on the energy of the girls and bringing everybody up and making sure this season is the best one yet and that they have a blast while doing it,” Sage said. “I’ve always been super passionate for the sport, always been teammate-driven and I wanted to be that kind of person that everybody looked up to, like the kind of coach that I had when I was in school playing.”

Sage said she hopes to continue the work of predecessor Profumo, notably for senior athletes for whom Sage will be the third head coach since their freshman year.

“They need someone who has a lot of energy and commitment because they’re putting a lot of time into this sport,” she said. “I want to be that person, I have a lot of energy myself, and I definitely want to be someone they can look back on and say, ‘My senior year of volleyball was awesome.’”