In a small city in Kansas – Andover to be exact – Sarah Ramey walked the hallways at Andover High School after transferring from Hereford High School, in Hereford, Texas. With one year left in her volleyball career, she was thinking about studying pre-med once she went to college. But that all would change once she stepped foot in the weight room, introducing her to a world she'd soon realize was not just a passion, but a profession. 

"I was going to do pre-med and then I decided that doing that and playing volleyball was going to be difficult," said Ramey. "I had a strength coach in high school when I moved to Kansas for my last year in high school, learned how to Olympic lift and then had a strength coach in college. Then realized in college, 'Oh, this is a real job that I could actually do and work with college athletes all the time.'" 

Ramey's collegiate years were trans formative. While at Wichita State University as a middle blocker and right-side hitter, she began assisting her strength coach during summer camps, planting the seeds for a career in strength and conditioning. After earning a degree in Exercise Science and a minor in Sports Administration, she headed to Winchester, Massachusetts, for a pivotal internship with strength and conditioning pioneer Mike Boyle. 

"Then I started emailing on very slow internet to try and find GA positions," said Ramey. "I probably emailed 200 different schools looking for a GA positions and was fortunate to land back in Kansas."  

The school Ramey landed at would be Kansas State University where she worked for one year as a graduate assistant coach, and earned her master's degree in Kinesiology.  

Following the completion of her master's degree, Ramey went one state over to Colorado, to become the assistant strength and conditioning coach at the University of Colorado (CU). 

"As a GA I had a couple smaller sports, and I really was just helping with everybody else. So that was my first foray into getting to program for multiple teams at once." 

Ramey worked with the football, volleyball, women's soccer and alpine skiing squad during her four-year stint at CU. While Ramey was familiar with volleyball and football, she had never been around soccer in her life, so she had to do some research and talk to coaches when she first started out.  

"I just went to every practice, talked to the coaches every day just trying to learn the sport, while also doing some research in order to try and figure out all the physiological demands. I got hired in July and so it was basically the season when they all rolled in." 

The Alpine Skiing squad was another sport Ramey wasn't familiar with when she started. However, it would be one of the most successful teams she would get to work with. 

 "The Nordic skiers did their own thing. But that was a fun group because they were intelligent, and they also were very successful. That was the first National Championship team I was able to work with." 

In 2007, Ramey got the opportunity to come back to the West Texas Region as she accepted the job at West Texas A&M to become their first ever full-time Strength and Conditioning coach.  

"It was an opportunity to start a program from scratch and I loved the Texas panhandle from a people aspect and knew I'd get to work with a lot of just hard-working blue-collar kids," said Ramey. "I didn't know the differences at the time between Division I and Division II. I thought the facilities wouldn't be as nice and there wouldn't be as much financial support but wasn't exactly sure what I was getting myself into. The big thing at that time was to be able to work with football and train football and prove that a female could be a football strength coach and have success." 

Ramey spent 17 seasons as the Director of Athletic Performance at West Texas A&M University. She also spent three years as the Deputy Athletics Director and four as the university's Senior Woman Administrator. Ramey oversaw student-athletes in all sports in the areas of health and performance, the benefits of which can be seen in the numerous honors and team championships which WT has garnered during her tenure. She was also recognized as the 2009 recipient of the Samson Equipment Strength & Conditioning Coach of the Year Award, as given by American Football Monthly. 
 
While Ramey has spent the majority of her career in the strength and conditioning coaching field, she had been leaning towards making a transition to becoming a Deputy Athletics Director, which would become reality when The University of Texas Permian Basin Athletics Department hired her as the new Deputy Athletics Director / Senior Woman Administrator. 

"As a strength coach you get to have a big impact on athletes with the relationship building and day-to-day interactions and you get to have big impact on their lives. But as my career has progressed, I've wanted to have just as big of an impact but just in a different way. I think by moving into administration and seeing ways you can help the campus, community and athletics and how those can all work together to create a bigger impact for student-athletes, that's what kind of kicked me towards moving towards the position."   
 
Ramey also noted that she will miss the day-to-day interactions that she used to have with the student-athletes. But she will have to be creative in finding ways to connect with the student-athletes here at UTPB. 

"UTPB is a very young institution, and our athletics department is even younger, especially in the Division II realm, we haven't even been a Division II participant for 10 years. Having worked at a school that wasn't what it is now and being part of that growth is a great feeling. I'm excited to have the opportunity to work with Scott Larson to elevate UTPB Athletics and help it get to a place similar to where things were at WT, where we ranked in the top 10 of the Learfield Director's Cup. The possibilities here are endless, and there's so much potential to tap into." 

While Ramey is very new to the department, she already has some goals in mind that she would like to accomplish at UTPB.  

"I would like to help continue the trajectory of the sports programs and their success. Help improve the student-athlete success in the classroom and then figuring out more ways to collaborate with the campus and community and get more people in the community invested in what the student-athletes do. We have a strong core group of people who support the athletic department. But I think there are a lot of places where we can grow that."