University of Georgia Athletics
Quick Chat: Sage Powell
August 23, 2022 | Volleyball, The Frierson Files
By John Frierson
Staff Writer
When Sage Powell came to Georgia quite a few years ago now, back in 2018, she was still Sage Naves. A native of Agoura Hills, Calif., near Los Angeles, Powell didn't plan on finding the love of her life in college, nor did she plan on spending five seasons with the Bulldog volleyball team. But here we are.
Last month, Sage and Charlie Powell got married on a beach near Lake Tahoe, just weeks before she returned to Georgia to start training for the upcoming season and start her graduate school classes. After the wedding, there was time for a lovely honeymoon in Alaska, and now the Bulldogs open their season Friday night against Troy at Stegeman Coliseum, part of the two-day Classic City Clash.
After earning a degree in International Affairs, Powell is working on a master's in Public Administration. During a recent Quick Chat, she talked about getting married, her honeymoon, her desire to live abroad, and much more. Here's some of what she had to say:
Frierson: A lot has happened since we last talked. Congratulations on getting married. What does it feel like to be a married student-athlete?
Powell: [Laughs] It's definitely abnormal. There are a few other married student-athletes here (Wesley and Nicole John were distance runners for Georgia last year), so it's funny for how abnormal it feels but I also know that I'm not the only one.
Frierson: Did you meet Charlie here at Georgia?
Powell: I met my husband here; we met in the middle of my junior year, his senior year. We met at our church — we have a lot of mutual friends and are involved in a lot of similar groups, but we'd never met each other, seen each other, nothing. His best friends I had all seen before and met before, so it was very odd that I'd never met him before.
He's 6-foot-4 with flaming red hair and a huge beard, so he'd be hard to miss [laughs]. It's crazy that we had never met before we finally did.
Frierson: You've met the love of your life here, you're still playing, and you're just starting grad school. When you came to Georgia, did you envision any of this?
Powell: Not even a bit. It was not on my radar at all. I had sporadically gone on a few dates in college, but knowing that I wanted to be overseas really badly and that there are not a lot of other people who align with that sort of lifestyle, and desiring that, I quickly was like, I don't really see a point to dating in college unless it's an individual that's likeminded in the sense that they are either considering going overseas or have their heart set on it.
My husband was one of those people, and that was one of the first conversations that we had. And that was really cool. The Lord had separately put going overseas in our hearts well before we had met one another.
Frierson: Is there a perfect overseas job or a perfect destination for you two?
Powell: For us right now, we have our eyes set on Japan. For me, I knew that just generally I wanted to be overseas, but I didn't know what region. The plan in my head was just going to potentially land a job with the State Department and get a job working on overseas.
For Charlie, he's had his heart set on Japan for the past four years or so, and that was through a lot of different avenues and crazy things that he can explain a lot better than I can. ... Ideally, we'd love to be working professionals in Japan and getting to communicate and be immersed in a community that way, as opposed to being missionaries. But we'll see what happens.
Frierson: Have you had time for a honeymoon yet?
Powell: We went to Alaska. We were there for eight days and that was a lot of fun. It was so, so cool — we had eight days and we knew we wanted to be somewhere on the West Coast because we were getting married out West. We both really wanted to go somewhere that we had never been before and then I basically told him, Don't fill me in on anything, you just plan the rest.
We had so much fun. We saw bears, moose, whales, puffins, seals, eagles — we saw everything — mountains, glaciers, the ocean, lakes. It was so fun.
Frierson: Given how long you've been playing for Georgia, do you embrace the role of being the wise veteran?
Powell: Oh, I love being a grandma — it's been fun. It's really fun to have to girls over to our home and be able to cook them a big meal of some sort when they're living in the dorm and not having a lot of home-cooked meals. Things like that have been very fun.
I think because I'm not as involved with everything that they're doing, when I do get to hang out with the girls, it's a bit more special for me.
Frierson: You strike me as someone that will bake their friends some really good cookies.
Powell: I love baking cookies. Oh, yeah. You always use more brown sugar than white sugar, and they will always turn out better. Charlie and I always keep cookie dough in our fridge, we'll make it and always have it at the house because it's his favorite. We'll give it to our neighbors or bring it if we go somewhere. Cookies are a go-to — everyone loves a good chocolate-chip cookie.
(This Q&A was lightly edited for length and clarity.)
Staff Writer
When Sage Powell came to Georgia quite a few years ago now, back in 2018, she was still Sage Naves. A native of Agoura Hills, Calif., near Los Angeles, Powell didn't plan on finding the love of her life in college, nor did she plan on spending five seasons with the Bulldog volleyball team. But here we are.
Last month, Sage and Charlie Powell got married on a beach near Lake Tahoe, just weeks before she returned to Georgia to start training for the upcoming season and start her graduate school classes. After the wedding, there was time for a lovely honeymoon in Alaska, and now the Bulldogs open their season Friday night against Troy at Stegeman Coliseum, part of the two-day Classic City Clash.
After earning a degree in International Affairs, Powell is working on a master's in Public Administration. During a recent Quick Chat, she talked about getting married, her honeymoon, her desire to live abroad, and much more. Here's some of what she had to say:
Frierson: A lot has happened since we last talked. Congratulations on getting married. What does it feel like to be a married student-athlete?
Powell: [Laughs] It's definitely abnormal. There are a few other married student-athletes here (Wesley and Nicole John were distance runners for Georgia last year), so it's funny for how abnormal it feels but I also know that I'm not the only one.
Frierson: Did you meet Charlie here at Georgia?
Powell: I met my husband here; we met in the middle of my junior year, his senior year. We met at our church — we have a lot of mutual friends and are involved in a lot of similar groups, but we'd never met each other, seen each other, nothing. His best friends I had all seen before and met before, so it was very odd that I'd never met him before.
He's 6-foot-4 with flaming red hair and a huge beard, so he'd be hard to miss [laughs]. It's crazy that we had never met before we finally did.
Frierson: You've met the love of your life here, you're still playing, and you're just starting grad school. When you came to Georgia, did you envision any of this?
Powell: Not even a bit. It was not on my radar at all. I had sporadically gone on a few dates in college, but knowing that I wanted to be overseas really badly and that there are not a lot of other people who align with that sort of lifestyle, and desiring that, I quickly was like, I don't really see a point to dating in college unless it's an individual that's likeminded in the sense that they are either considering going overseas or have their heart set on it.
My husband was one of those people, and that was one of the first conversations that we had. And that was really cool. The Lord had separately put going overseas in our hearts well before we had met one another.
Frierson: Is there a perfect overseas job or a perfect destination for you two?
Powell: For us right now, we have our eyes set on Japan. For me, I knew that just generally I wanted to be overseas, but I didn't know what region. The plan in my head was just going to potentially land a job with the State Department and get a job working on overseas.
For Charlie, he's had his heart set on Japan for the past four years or so, and that was through a lot of different avenues and crazy things that he can explain a lot better than I can. ... Ideally, we'd love to be working professionals in Japan and getting to communicate and be immersed in a community that way, as opposed to being missionaries. But we'll see what happens.
Frierson: Have you had time for a honeymoon yet?
Powell: We went to Alaska. We were there for eight days and that was a lot of fun. It was so, so cool — we had eight days and we knew we wanted to be somewhere on the West Coast because we were getting married out West. We both really wanted to go somewhere that we had never been before and then I basically told him, Don't fill me in on anything, you just plan the rest.
We had so much fun. We saw bears, moose, whales, puffins, seals, eagles — we saw everything — mountains, glaciers, the ocean, lakes. It was so fun.
Frierson: Given how long you've been playing for Georgia, do you embrace the role of being the wise veteran?
Powell: Oh, I love being a grandma — it's been fun. It's really fun to have to girls over to our home and be able to cook them a big meal of some sort when they're living in the dorm and not having a lot of home-cooked meals. Things like that have been very fun.
I think because I'm not as involved with everything that they're doing, when I do get to hang out with the girls, it's a bit more special for me.
Frierson: You strike me as someone that will bake their friends some really good cookies.
Powell: I love baking cookies. Oh, yeah. You always use more brown sugar than white sugar, and they will always turn out better. Charlie and I always keep cookie dough in our fridge, we'll make it and always have it at the house because it's his favorite. We'll give it to our neighbors or bring it if we go somewhere. Cookies are a go-to — everyone loves a good chocolate-chip cookie.
(This Q&A was lightly edited for length and clarity.)
Assistant Sports Communications Director John Frierson is the staff writer for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men's Tennis Hall of Fame. You can find his work at: Frierson Files. He's also on Twitter: @FriersonFiles and @ITAHallofFame.
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