by By Dan Ninham, Contributing Writer
Nevaeh Sage is an enrolled member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Nation and is also a descendant of the Kiowa and Apache. Sage will be a senior this fall at Riverside Indian School in Anadarko, OK.
Sage plays for NWA, C&A Respect, and 4 Nations of Hollywood, FL. As a sophomore at El Reno HS, she earned Oklahoma 5A All-state honorable mention, and the team were 2022 state runner-up.
“Transferring to Riverside Indian School my junior year and becoming and a part of the first ever girls basketball team at Riverside to go to state and have the best record was a major accomplishment”, said Nevaeh Sage.
“My indigenous core values define how I live every day,” said Sage. “The old ones teachings of self-respect, to stay close to your spiritual teachings, and always place your faith in the creator or who my people call ‘maheo’, and to always not care just for oneself but to care for the ones who can’t and striving to get better every day.”
“I am currently working to get better at my game not just for the high school level but also for the collegiate level,” said Sage. “I am working to achieve my goals by pushing myself to be better than I ever was before.”
Sage’s mentors are Parry Romannose and James Kelley.
“Parry Romannose is my AAU coach for C&A Respect and he is my mentor because he saw something in me that I have yet to see,” said Sage. “There was a time when I didn’t want to play anymore and just give up and he helped me through that feeling of struggle. He gave me the strength mentally and physically to get back out there and play again no matter how hard it gets or what others think.”
Coach Parry Romannose was not available for comment.
Sage said, “James Kelly is my current high school coach and he is one of my mentors because he gave me a chance and an opportunity that I never knew I needed. He also goes above and beyond for his players.”
James Kelley is the head girls’ varsity basketball coach at Riverside Indian School. He talked about one of his star athletes. He said, “Nevaeh brings length and a high level skill set to our team. She is a multi-tooled player. She is a knock down 3-point shooter as well as a more than capable ball handler with accurate passing ability.”
“Neveah plays shooting Gguard, but is capable of being a point guard on the next level. Her instincts are really sharp, especially in the open floor. Throughout the playoffs last season her shooting ability really opened up a lot of options for us to be able to use our size because teams couldn’t collapse on our size because her shooting kept them having to play us honest,” added Coach Kelley.
Coach Kelley continued, “She has a couple offers and will no doubt have double digit options by the end of the season. She has really fit in well with our style since she has arrived at the beginning of last season.”
