There aren’t many teams that could say that they have had the same head coach of their program for 25 years, but the Saskatoon Hilltops are one of them.
Tom Sargeant, a.k.a. Sarge, is a man with a big personality — fiery, loud, competitive and a master motivator.
“It starts and ends with my wife Kris, with my family Macey and Abby, and my extended family, and the love that I have with this coaching staff,” Sargeant says.
“The days have sort of flown by, the years have flown by, but every day that I come out here, I still get that same feeling so that tells me this is the right place for me.”
But behind every great coach — and in this case, one that has won 13 national championships as a head coach, two as an assistant, and one as a player for the Hilltops — is a group of great assistant coaches. Sarge definitely has that, starting off with his defensive coordinator Jeff Yausie, who has coached the Hilltops with Sarge for 21 years.
“I think that we know we are at the end of our careers,” Yausie says.
“We know that there are a bunch of great coaches that want to coach this team and they will be great coaches in the future. But we know we are the end, but we are really good friends, the bunch of us, and we have a really good time and I think that rubs off on the players.”
He also has Dave Fisher, who has coached for 18 years. Way back in 1991, Fisher played under Sarge, who at that time was an assistant with the team.
“He brings the energy and that’s what it’s about,” Fisher says. “Coach Sargeant has always had that from the start, and it’s something that has never wavered. He continues to bring that passion on a daily basis, and it pays off. It’s served him well.”
And of course, the players have a lot of respect for their head coach, too.
“I can’t pinpoint how he motivates guys,” says Hilltops defensive lineman Dylan McNutt. “You just go out there, you work hard and it will pay off on Sunday.”
So does a coach who has coached over 2,000 players remember them all?
“Well, you remember the good ones a little more than the other ones,” Sarge says with a smile.
“There is a reality there, but you remember them all. At the end of the day, my job is to push and prod, and whether they are here for one year or for five years, we want them, number one, to leave as better human beings, but number two, we want them to leave as better football players. In order to do that, you have to push, you have to grind, and you have to challenge, and I have no problem doing that.”