Saccomanno headed to Miss Teen Rodeo Idaho

Extremely allergic to horses, Sage started riding only four years ago. Today, she is beginning to fulfill a dream that blossomed soon after she started riding. In July, Sage is headed to the Miss Teen Rodeo Idaho competition in Nampa. The last North Idaho contestant for the Miss Teen Rodeo title was 24 years ago.

Sage’s love of horses, sports, and her community led her to rodeo. Currently the 2017 Miss Teen Bonner County Rodeo, Sage has also held the titles of Little Miss and Miss Junior. Her job with any of these titles is to be an ambassador for the Bonner County Rodeo and promote the Rodeo and the Bonner County community wherever she goes, both on and off her horse.

Sage believes she has a unique opportunity as Rodeo Royalty to be a role model for young people also. “I love having this opportunity to help inspire girls to be true to themselves, confident, hardworking and, of course, to love rodeo and support our community.”

Born and raised in Sandpoint by her parents Kari and Clay Saccomanno, Sage is entering her sophomore year at Sandpoint High School as the outgoing freshman class president, incoming sophomore class president, an honors student with 4.3 GPA, a National Honors Society member, volleyball player, and a Monticola (yearbook) editor. Sage plans to graduate with honors in 2020 from Sandpoint High School and then attend Stanford University.

Loving a variety of adventures, Sage wants to be an exchange student her junior year through the local Rotary program. Alongside her mom, she devotes time to Celebrate Life, a local grassroots organization helping local people and their families affected by cancer. She also loves to ski, kayak, camp, and everything outdoors.

Besides rodeo, Sage and her appaloosa Rocky have participated in an assortment of activities: 4-H, horse shows, gaming, trail riding, Cowboy Dressage, and many different horsemanship clinics. In 2016, they earned Bonner County 4-H’s overall Western and English Equitation and Trail Riding honors besides a variety of other horsemanship accolades over the years. Sage would like to start competing at reining in the near future. In the meantime, Sage and Rocky are having fun mentoring an 8-year old 4-H’er in horsemanship.

In addition, Sage recently returned from the invite-only Count Me In Global Youth Leadership Summit in Toronto, Canada, founded by A’ric Jackson, an international, youth leadership, motivational speaker. At the summit, Sage and the other participants were mentored in furthering their leadership skills and becoming positive change agents for their communities. “Living My Meaningful Legacy” was the camp theme. Subjects included conflict resolution, stress management, working with teams, building confidence, leveraging personal strengths, and clarifying life direction. Sage earned all her own money for this trip by selling Christmas wreaths and spring flower baskets.

“It was the best time in my life ever! Because what I gained at that camp was so immense, I hope to go back as a legacy coach next year and do the same for someone else,” Sage exclaims.

The Miss Teen Rodeo Idaho competition is a five-day event that runs concurrently with the Miss Rodeo Idaho contest and the Snake River Stampede. It takes a lot of effort, dedication, studying and resiliency to get ready for a state rodeo pageant. The competition includes horsemanship, interviews, personality, appearance, public speaking, modeling, written knowledge test, a speech, and extemporaneous knowledge and personality questions. In fact, they are judged most every moment of the 5-day competition to ensure they will be earnest ambassadors if selected. Most contestants, like Sage, start preparing months ahead.

“My hope is that this experience will be my first steps in getting ready for the Miss Idaho Rodeo competition in a few years,” Sage says.

As a contestant, Sage will also run up to three grand entries representing Bonner County Rodeo with her horse at the infamous Snake River Stampede. The Snake River Stampede is one of the top 10 regular season PRCA rodeos in the nation. Each performance sells out with 10,000 spectators watching each night.

Freya (Ford) Jensen (1st runner-up at the Miss Rodeo America 2010 Pageant, Miss Idaho Rodeo 2009, Miss Pro West 2007, Miss Bonner County Rodeo 2006) is mentoring Sage in this endeavor. Sage is also getting assistance from Katherine Merck (Miss Rodeo America 2016), Staci Trehern (2nd runner-up at the Miss Rodeo America 2017 and Miss New Mexico Rodeo 2016) and a variety of other area royalty program coordinators.

“I am so thankful for all their guidance, support and especially for their encouragement and belief in me!” Sage says.

Sage’s mom, Kari, comments that she wasn’t a fan of pageants prior to Sage’s interest. “Now I see what it has done not only for Sage, but for all the girls and women we have met. I am in awe at how they become so confident, gracious, well-spoken, service-oriented, and are not afraid of new adventures and new people. It definitely changes and enhances their worlds and opens up so many amazing opportunities for them.”

Sage adds, “Being a royalty titleholder has influenced my life in so many ways: life choices, personality, relationships, personal growth, leadership goals, and my desire to positively affect our community…It has also played a definite role in my management, budgeting, and communication skills.”

Rodeo queens act as ambassadors for the rodeo, its community and the Pro Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA). A queen is expected to portray good sportsmanship, high morals, and ethical character, advocate careful and humane treatment of animals and promote agriculture and rodeo.

“As queens, we educate and excite the public about the sport of rodeo, our western heritage and its values, and our community. We also encourage people to visit our area and come see our rodeo,” Sage replies.

Rodeo Royalty actively participate not only in rodeos both at home and elsewhere, but also ride in parades, attend community events, support community causes, spearhead fundraising, and attend other royalty coronations. While they are out and about, royalty are promoting their community and rodeo and encouraging people to come visit.

As Miss 2016 Rodeo New Mexico Staci Trehern told Sage, “It takes a village to support a rodeo queen!” Because of the tremendous time, devotion and money it requires, her family is definitely finding this true.

The state pageant is not cheap: somewhere between $3,000 and $7,000. This includes travel, wardrobe, study materials, and a variety of accessories and other services required to compete. The most expensive line item is clothing.

“Our hope is to keep the cost as low as possible, so we are trying to find new items at bargain rates or used items that we can re-purpose for the pageant,” Sage’s mom explains, “Some things are nearly impossible to buy used for a state competition like her required elegance dress.”

Because of Sage’s dedication to this endeavor, her parents are completely committed to help in any way. In addition, Sage has earned $750 of her own money towards the pageant. Her grandparents, Cheryl Stewart and Guy Hearon, donated $500. In addition, the Bonner County Rodeo Committee has kindly paid the $450 entry/sponsorship fee, and the Ponderay Rotary bought Sage’s $200 worth of pageant program ads required to be sold by each contestant. Both Pat Gavin and Tom Gibson made generous donations to help her on her way also.

“I can’t thank everyone enough who are helping me fulfill this dream.” Sage says.

Sage is looking for additional sponsors to help with her pageant journey. If she wins the title, any pageant sponsors will continue as sponsors during her reign and be promoted throughout Idaho and the northwest region. Sage plans to hold an appreciation lunch or dinner to honor her sponsors’ commitments also.

Besides seeking sponsors, Sage is looking for places where she can practice her public speaking to help her get ready for the state competition. Her most recent speaking engagement was at the Rotary Club of Ponderay Centennial meeting on June 13.

Miss Rodeo Idaho, Inc. is a volunteer organization dedicated to the advancement of Idaho youth. Involvement with Miss Rodeo Idaho Pageant offers outstanding young women opportunities to promote Idaho and rodeo utilizing public speaking, leadership and presentation skills. The pageant is July 15-20, 2017.

If you have questions or are interested in helping Sage monetarily, in-kind or with speaking engagements, contact her mother Kari Saccomanno at 208-627-8926 or saccomanno.kari@gmail.com.