Saskatoon Hilltops head coach Tom Sargeant felt something strange going on in his chest late last season.
Not exactly chest pains, per se, but an odd feeling nonetheless.
“I remember one game, I got real mad or something and it was a weird sensation, whatever that was,” recalls Sargeant, whose reigning Canadian Junior Football League champion Hilltops return to action at home Sunday afternoon (1 p.m., SMF Field) against the Winnipeg Rifles.
That “weird” feeling turned out to be serious.
Quite serious.
Serious as a near heart-attack.
Sargeant would go for a heart stress test and ultimately fail.
“Surprise surprise. I found that out in November, but I didn’t have surgery until March,” said Sargeant, who ended up retiring as a school principal last spring. “I knew during the season, something was up, but it was just head down and away you go.
“I had four blockages over 90 percent, so it wasn’t good, but you don’t know that. At the time, you don’t think about it.”
He hasn’t forgotten the required medical procedure and recovery.
Sargeant ended up undergoing open-heart, double-bypass surgery.
“It was quite the experience,” he now admits. “It was brutal, man. I wouldn’t wish this on anybody.”
He points to the long scar running down his left leg, where they took out a vein to reroute blood flow to his heart.
“I’m here. I’m back,” Sargeant said stoically prior to the start of the 2024 Prairie Football Conference season.
There was no doubt in his mind that he would return to the sidelines, he adds.
“Not a chance (that I wouldn’t),” he said. “I certainly had some good care, but with my passion, I knew where I needed to be and that was my goal: to make sure I was ready to get back to camp. I checked that box and I was ready to go.”
EYE-OPENER FOR COACHING STAFF
Offensive co-ordinator Shane Reider credits Sargeant for keeping the coaching staff in the loop.
“He had kept it pretty quiet but we knew that, right at the end of the season (what was happening) — we had a picture taken in Westshore (Langford, B.C.) and we all looked not very good and he doesn’t look very good, health-wise,” recalled Reider.
“He looked awful. It rained all day and all that, but I just know that you could tell that he was doing anything he could do to keep the energy up, anything he could do. Good for him to be honest with us because he told us right away when he found out that he was going in. So it was, ‘OK, we’ve got to help him.’ ”
On what Reider describes as an aging Topper coaching staff, Sargeant’s medical situation sounded an alarm bell.
“Us, as coaches, we’re all old,” noted the 57-year-old Reider. “The conversation has obviously changed in the last 30 years that we’ve done this (coaching football). It was a real shock, like, ‘Holy, we better get it right here, fitness-wise, because we’re not doing well as a coaching staff.’
“So (defensive co-ordinator) Jeff Yausie has an accountability club for most of us to watch our weight and then, with Tom, he was a ticking time bomb until he went off for surgery. It was just a real eye-opening experience for me as a man, and as a part of my (Hilltops coaching) brotherhood, that we have somebody in trouble, that we better do something about it. We like doing this, we better take care of each other or all we’re going to do is attend funerals.”
Nearly every member of the Topper coaching staff is in their late 50s.
“We’re all about the same age except for the young buck, (running back coach) Andre (Lalonde),” noted Reider. “We tease him that he’s got to learn mouth-to-mouth (resuscitation) and bring the AED (automated external defibrillator) machine with him and take care of us on the road. I think he’s scared.
“But it’s a real eye-opening experience to have one of your brothers (Sargeant), for that to happen to him.”
Reider said he believes Sargeant has mellowed out somewhat and that his methods may be misunderstood.
“I think, weirdly enough, as people see him for the first time, he has calmed down over the years,” offered Reider. “He’s more analytical. He’s more caring. He comes across loud and he challenges — he gets in your face and challenges you — but he really does care. He cares more and more.”
Reider points to Sargeant’s handling of his son, quarterback Trey Reider.
“I can say, just as a parent, what he’s done for my kid, just personally, how my son has grown in the five years in the program, that Sarge has taken him from a weeny 18-year-old, scared kid into a confident young man. He’s now ready for life. It’s Sarge challenging him. It’s Sarge getting after him. And it’s Sarge putting his arm around him when he needs it. That is, sometimes, people don’t see.”
TOPPERS UNDEFEATED AT 4-0
People have seen the Hilltops open the season with a 4-0 start, however, thanks to a 29-15 victory last weekend over the prairie rival Thunder in Regina.
Quarterback Trey Reider completed 17 of 27 passing attempts for 291 yards and two touchdown majors as Drake Douglas and Datiel Fountaine both hauled in TD passes.
Reider also ran the ball nine times for 23 yards and one TD major.
Douglas finished the game with 10 catches for 185 yards.
Defensively, Jace Mowles had a big 41-yard return on an interception. Linebackers Isaac Michalyuk and Noah Gedir combined for 28 tackles overall, including both solo and assists on defence and special teams. Gedir also had a pass knockdown.
And while Sargeant has been knocked down and gotten up, he soldiers on.
Is he slowing down at all?
“Not yet,” he is quick to reply. “Well, I’m taking these things (meds) that are supposed to help, but no, I don’t know.”
At 59, Sargeant is just enjoying life and living for the moment. He was among the former high school coaches honoured at the recent Saskatoon Secondary Schools Athletic Directorate coaches’ breakfast at the Gordie Howe Sports Complex.
“I’m retired (from the school system) now. Walked away. Done,” he says with a smile.
“Golfing and football. Pretty good life. And I chase my (lone) grandson Jaylen (two and a half years old). That’s all I’ve got.”
(Jaylen is his daughter Abby’s son.)
Will we see a quieter, gentler Sargeant this season?
“Yeah, let’s hope,” he said prior to the season-opener.
“Hopefully. I’ve got to keep more composed, but I don’t know if I can. I don’t know if I can.”
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