Sage benefits from Miller time

When Nate Miller became athletic director at Sage Hill School in 2001, CIF was an acronym that didn’t mean much.

It certainly wasn’t as important as another acronym such as, oh, GPA, to the students at the private school, many of whom had never played organized sports before.

“When we started, no one even knew what CIF was,” Miller said. “We knew it was a thing we had to be a member of, and I certainly had an inkling of what playoffs meant and all that. But the kids, the first couple of years, they didn’t even have that as a goal to shoot for. One team made it the first year, boys’ soccer, and that was a big mystery.”

Miller, 37, resigned as the Lightning’s athletic director in July after a six-year run. He’s not going anywhere — he said he resigned so he could spend more time concentrating on teaching math and coaching cross country and track and field at the school.

But in the time the Irvine resident was athletic director at the school on the hill in Newport Coast, he turned CIF from unknown to a reality.

Year after year, for almost every sport.

Boys’ and girls’ volleyball coach Dan Thomassen arrived at Sage Hill in 2003. Two years later, his girls’ volleyball team won the CIF Southern Section Division IV-A title, one of two CIF titles Sage Hill won during Miller’s tenure. The other was won by girls’ tennis, a Division V crown, just two days later.

“He really cares about everything,” said Thomassen, who teaches science at the school. “He has been as important to the success as any of the individual coaches, if not more so. He had things very well in order. He’s a math guy, so he makes sure things add up. But, the main thing is he cares.”

Miller wasn’t at Thomassen’s CIF title match in 2005. But he said he had a good reason — he was coaching at the CIF cross country finals instead.

“I was somewhat surprised that we had success as quickly as we did,” Miller said. “Pretty remarkable. I think that had a lot to do with the coaches that we had and the kids that we had, just working really hard. Tennis had three years where it made the [CIF] semifinals before getting to the championship. [The players] saw what it took, I guess, to get to that championship level.”

The championship level for the Lightning would take time. The school opened its doors in 2000, under the leadership of its first athletic director, Brian Scherbart. But Scherbart decided to leave after a year, with the school on the cusp of gaining varsity status.

Miller was already a math teacher at Sage Hill at the time. He had recently relocated from a private school in Chicago, where he had been an assistant athletic director, but he was eager to get back out west. Miller grew up in Colorado and went to Pomona College.

He threw his hat into the ring, and the record since then speaks for itself. The overall record of varsity sports during that first varsity year, 2001-02, was 80-179-2. No team won an Academy League title.

Six years later, in 2006-07, varsity sports at Sage Hill went a combined 208-120-4. Six teams won league titles.

Lightning tennis coach A.G. Longoria, originally hired by Scherbart, said he was appreciative of Miller’s support.

“He coached cross country and track, but he treated every sport the same,” Longoria said. “We knew that he would go to bat for us whenever he could. I knew he had to be putting in 60 or 70 hours a week. He was the first one there and the last to leave. If I needed to get ahold of him, I could call him at 5:30 or 6 a.m. in the office and he’d be there. Just a peach of a guy. The real success of Sage athletics was definitely under his watch.”

Miller said he was proud of the development of Sage Hill not only athletically, but academically. Enrollment has gone from 120 to about 450.

“I had to find coaches who wanted to build strong programs, but also got the big picture of terms of what’s important in different kids’ lives,” Miller said. “I worked real hard to come to a healthy balance here, and I’m really proud of that. There’s the chance for kids who are really good at a sport, who really want to succeed at a high level, they can do that. But, at the same time, a kid who has never played before and has limited experience, has a chance to participate here, which is not necessarily the case at some other schools … I think close to two-thirds of our kids do at least one sport, which is pretty neat.”

The long hours, though, are part of the reason Miller said he made the difficult decision to step down as athletic director and hand the job to John Poffenberger.

“Great guy,” Miller said. “I think he’s got a fresh outlook and energy, and that’s the same thing I had when I started. Not that I was burned out, but I certainly feel like I didn’t have the same level of enthusiasm at the beginning of last year as I did when I started. But John is going to be someone who will work hard to make athletics a good experience here at Sage.”

Just like Miller did. Thomassen said he remembers one volleyball match in particular, during the 2004 CIF playoffs, where Miller surprised him by making it up to San Pedro for Sage Hill’s match against Mary Star of the Sea.

“We’re a school that preaches character, and his character spread throughout the program,” Thomassen said.

MATT SZABO may be reached at (714) 966-4614 or at matthew.szabo@latimes.com.