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| Hilltops’ Jesse McNabb shares the Canadian Bowl at the Santa Claus Parade. |
No matter how messed up things seem to get in the world –
all you have to do is check social media feeds on Twitter or Facebook to see
that – the Hilltops are still that one local institution that has the image
where good things can come to good people when they do things right.
On Saturday at McLeod Stadium in Langley, B.C., the Hilltops
claimed an 11-6 victory in a defensive slugfest over the host Rams in the CJFL
championship game – the Canadian Bowl. For the Rams, that was their only loss
of the 2019 campaign as they finished with a 12-1 overall mark.
For the Hilltops, that marked the sixth straight time they
have won the CJFL title, and they claimed the league crown for the ninth time
in the last 10 years.
This run of title wins is the byproduct of the Hilltops
always doing things right. The same goes with the other impressive feats that
this team has on the go.
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| Tyler Hermann (#12) have a big final campaign for the Hilltops. |
It is
highly likely the Hilltops current overall and road winning streaks are CJFL
records too.
The Hilltops finished the 2019 campaign with a 12-0 overall
record and have posted perfect seasons in back-to-back campaigns.
The perfect season in 2019 is particularly impressive on the
coaching front, as the Hilltops dealt with a high turnover in starters from the
previous season. They had contests where they looked vulnerable over their
first four regular season games, but they still found a way to win.
That included downing the Huskies in Edmonton 24-22 on Sept.
1 and getting past the Regina Thunder 28-21 on Sept. 7 at Saskatoon Minor
Football Field. The Hilltops entered the fourth quarter trailing on the
scoreboard in both contests before pulling out victory.
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| Riley Keating led the Hilltops in tackles. |
He surpassed retired Regina Rams head coach Frank McCrystal
for that distinction.
McCrystal had a 208-104-2 record in the regular season and post-season in both
the CJFL and U Sports. He was the head coach of the Rams from 1984 to
2014, and they played 15 seasons in the CJFL and 16 campaigns in U Sports over
that time as the University of Regina Rams.
On why the Hilltops succeed, you earn your spot on the field
through hard work and respect is given to the veterans that have put in their
time. As a result, the Hilltops under Sargeant always talk about playing for
their fifth-year players and helping them graduate from the CJFL as league
champions.
The fifth-year veterans also go out of their way to make the
newcomers feel like part of the team/family and pass down lessons they learned.
The Hilltops know that how they act on and off the field is
important, and they always do their best to carry themselves with dignity,
humility and respect. The individual discipline in the world away from football
always seems to carry itself on the field.
The team and individual players set goals and work their
hardest to achieve those goals. The coaches always seem to provide a great road
map to help the team and individual players get to their goals.
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| Hilltops HC Tom Sargeant upped his career wins total to 210. |
That is why it becomes extra sweet when someone like fifth-year
quarterback Tyler Hermann takes over the starting role in his final year with
the team and has a solid campaign. He had to work off some rust when it came to
being a regular since his Grade 12 year with Saskatoon’s Holy Cross High School
Crusaders football program.
After the Hilltops eight regular season games, Hermann posted
solid numbers completing 123-of-192 passes for 1,908 yards, 17 touchdowns and
nine interceptions. He graduates from the Hilltops sporting a 12-0 overall record
as the team’s starting quarterback, with all of those starts coming in 2019.
The same goes for middle linebacker Jadyn Pingue and outside
linebacker Riley Keating, who both played out their respective fifth years of
eligibility. Both played special teams and substituted in on defence during
their first four seasons with the club.
They both had incredible fifth years in their only full
campaigns as starters. Pingue was the CJFL’s most outstanding defensive player and
Keating topped the Hilltops with 46 total tackles during the regular season.
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| Jadyn Pingue was named the CJFL’s most outstanding defensive player. |
Filteau’s final season with the Hilltops was in the CJFL
championship campaign in 2014 that started the current run is six straight
title wins. He was a CJFL all-Canadian all-star that year.
Since none of the current Hilltops ever played with Filteau,
the coaches had to explain to the current generation of players how much
Filteau, who played with the University of Saskatchewan Huskies football team
as well, meant to the provincial football scene and how much time he put in
giving back to it.
Noting how the enthusiastically and loudly the current
Hilltops did Filteau’s Ric Flair cheer after their final home practice before
going to the Canadian Bowl, it was obvious the lessons about Filteau’s impact
were successfully passed on.
While the Hilltops have been who they are for decades, it is
reassuring in today’s world to see how their great traits haven’t changed.
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| Rylan Kleiter (#7) made a number of clutch kicks for the Hilltops. |
In the last 10 days, you had the fallout from Hockey Night
In Canada’s split with Don Cherry, and the messages that hit social media or
any type of media were arguably way more toxic than those that came from the
federal election.
When it comes time for the Hilltops to get to work on
football, Sargeant refers to any outside distraction like that as “noise.”
Still, society as a whole seems to get dragged into these
stories like the federal election and Cherry. It is naïve to think these things
don’t affect young men in their late teens and early 20s who play football and
are starting out in the working world.
If things like this are really affecting the players, the
coaches often fill the role of one-on-one sounding board, when that time comes.
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| Ben Abrook piled up the rushing yards as a workhorse power back. |
Hilltops offensive line coach Donnie Davidsen might be the
best at figuring things out as you go. He can host seminars on why you need to
teach the 6-foot tall offensive lineman different techniques than the 6-foot-5
offensive lineman in order to allow both to be successful.
If you talk to Davidsen on that front, you can tell he
self-learned from a lot of different areas and put together a course of action
to make his players better.
When the current Hilltops players graduate, they will face a
working world or real life world in the current day where it seems honour no
longer exists and you could be fired on any day for actually doing your job.
You saw that right. In today’s world, you could be fired on any day for
actually doing your job.
If you think about that point, you can see why there are so
many breakdowns in the current world on a work or personal front.
It is common in today’s world to do everything right on a work and personal front and still fail. Those are moments where the lessons of perseverance come through.
It is common in today’s world to do everything right on a work and personal front and still fail. Those are moments where the lessons of perseverance come through.
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| The Hilltops are celebrated in Saskatoon for doing things the right way. |
Even if you don’t follow the team in an ultra-passionate
way, it still feels good knowing they had another successful season that
resulted in a league title.
It is also way more fun to have messages and pictures of
those moments fill our social media feed.
If you have any
comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them
to stankssports@gmail.com.
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