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| Drake Douglas has made lots of dynamic plays for the Hilltops. |
The Hilltops, who are the CJFL’s most storied team, pride themselves on being workmanlike and humble. Players that have overflowing amounts of talent don’t draw attention to themselves, and they work on being great persons off the field.
The late Chase Bradshaw goes down as one of the biggest examples of this image. He was a Hilltops quarterback from 2007 to 2011. He was a backup on the Hilltops 2007 CJFL championship winning club and the star starter on the 2010 and 2011 CJFL championship winners.
He was the athlete who had the rocket arm and could get out of trouble with his legs thanks to his agility and blazing speed. You would be hard pressed to get Bradshaw to talk about himself, but when you saw his work on the field, his talent was undeniable.
Star players with the NFL’s Cowboys are often viewed as showman types that like the spotlight, and they will bombard you with talking about how great they are. Pro Football Hall of Fame receivers Michael Irvin and Drew Pearson exemplify the image of the classic Cowboys players.
The Hilltops do not like to do the showman thing, so this next line might get uncomfortable.
Drake Douglas is worth the price of admission of any game he plays in.
The graduate of Regina’s Balfour Collegiate Bears Football Team, has been that good and that entertaining to watch.
Douglas and the Hilltops (4-0) are set to finally play at home again on Sunday at 1 p.m. against the Winnipeg Rifles (0-4) at Saskatoon Minor Football Field. The last time the Hilltops played at home was for their regular season opener way back on August 11, when they downed the Edmonton Huskies 38-13 at SMF Field.
Douglas has had a blazing start to his final CJFL campaign. The 22-year-old star receiver leads the Prairie Football Conference in pass receptions (27), receiving yard (504) and receiving touchdowns (five). He also leads the PFC in punt return yards at 268 and is tied for punt return attempts at 24.
On the receiving side, Douglas, who stands 5-foot-9 and weighs 185 pounds, is on pace that he could possibly surpass the 1,000-yard receiving plateau in the regular season. No Hilltops player has ever hit 1,000 yards receiving in one regular season and that feat has happened less than 20 times in the history of the CJFL.
Slater Zaleski, who played for the Edmonton Huskies, holds the PFC record for receiving yards in one regular season with 1,064 yards coming back in 1987 in an eight-game regular season.
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| Drake Douglas has 504 yards receiving in four games in 2024. |
The CJFL’s career regular season record for receiving yards is held by Hilltops all-time great Andrew Busby, who piled up 3,109 receiving yards from 2004 to 2008. Busby holds the Hilltops record for most receiving yards in one season when he caught 73 passes for 974 yards and nine touchdowns in 2006.
On Tuesday, Douglas was named the PFC’s offensive player of the week for his efforts in the Hilltops 29-15 victory over the Thunder in Regina on Saturday, Sept. 7.
In that contest, Douglas caught 10 passes for 185 yards and one touchdown. He also returned six punts for 39 yards for the defensive CJFL champions, who are still rated first in the CJFL’s latest Top 10 Power Rankings.
On Thursday, the CJFL put together a graphic with Douglas being the top receiver for the first half of the campaign.
To go along with his efforts as a receiver and punt returner, Douglas is the Hilltops holder for field goal attempts on special teams. Off a fake field goal, Douglas threw a 34-yard touchdown pass to power running back Corbin Ebben in a 52-19 victory over the Colts in Calgary on August 25.
The Hilltops will mix things up in their running game and get the ball to Douglas on a jet sweep or other similar style running plays.
Douglas has been outstanding in all aspects of the game. As a receiver, quarterbacks can throw to him when he is covered. If a pass in his direction is off target, Douglas makes the one-handed stab catch to pull in the reception.
When he was growing up, Douglas’s favourite receiver with the CFL’s Saskatchewan Roughriders was Naaman Roosevelt, and Douglas certainly mirrors Roosevelt’s consistency. On the excitement creating side, Douglas is the Hilltops version of Roughriders legend Weston Dressler, who was formally inducted to the Canadian Football Hall of Fame on Friday night.
Douglas is humble. When he settled in Saskatoon to be part of the working world in 2002, his football career was revived when his highlight packaged was emailed off by older brother Brayden to legendary Hilltops head coach Tom Sargeant. Sargeant gave Drake a call and the rest is still becoming history.
While Douglas has a shot to become the first Hilltops receiver to hit 1,000 yards receiving in one regular season, that accomplishment still possibly might not happen. The storied CJFL club is always looking to the future, and the Hilltops usually empty their bench to get their younger reserve players playing time.
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| Drake Douglas was named the PFC’s offensive player of the week. |
In most games in that campaign, the starters were off the field shortly after halftime due to the sizeable lead the Saskatoon side had. If the Hilltops would have left their starters in for three quarters or three and a half quarters, they could have potentially rocked a number of individual CJFL records that year.
With that in mind, you can expect Douglas is going to make a lot of special plays for the rest of 2024 campaign. If you don’t have a ticket to a Hilltops game Douglas is playing in, you will be missing out.
Mowles gets player of the week nod
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| Jace Mowles was the PFC’s defensive player of the week. |
On Tuesday, Mowles was named the PFC’s defensive player of the week for his outstanding performance in the Hilltops 29-15 over the Thunder in Regina on Saturday, September 7. In that contest, Mowles, who is in his fourth year of CJFL eligibility, intercepted a pair passes and recorded three solo defensive tackles, three defensive tackle assists and one pass knockdown.
On the season, Mowles, who is a graduate of Saskatoon’s Walter Murray Collegiate Marauders Football Team, has recorded five solo defensive tackles, four defensive tackle assists, three special teams solo tackles, one special teams tackle assist, two interceptions and one pass knockdown.
Sargeant records 240th win as
Hilltops head coach
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| Tom Sargeant has 240 career wins as Hilltops head coach. |
When the Hilltops downed the Thunder in Regina 29-15 on Saturday, September 7, Sargeant earned his 240 career victory as Hilltops head coach. Sargeant became the Hilltops head coach in early December of 1997, and he has a 240-37-2 career record working the team’s sidelines.
His career record includes posting a 178-26-2 mark in the regular season and a 62-11 mark in the post-season. Sergeant is the all-time leader in career head coaching victories in Canada’s amateur post-secondary ranks.
The Hilltops, who are the defending CJFL champions, have won 14 CJFL titles with Sargeant as head coach. Sargeant also helped the Hilltops win two CJFL championships as an assistant coach and one CJFL title as a player. He was a Hilltops assistant coach from 1991 to 1997 and a player from 1983 to 1985 and 1987 having spent the 1986 campaign with the University of Saskatchewan Huskies Football Team.
Glen Constantin, who is the head coach of the ultra-powerful Laval Rouge et Or in the U Sports ranks, is second all-time in career head coaching victories in Canada’s amateur post-secondary ranks. Constantin picked up his 212th career victory on Saturday as the Rouge et Or thumped the host McGill University Redbirds 45-12 at Percival Molson Stadium in Montreal, Quebec. The Rouge et Or improved to 3-0 with the victory.
Constantin served as the Rouge et Or’s defensive coordinator from the team’s inaugural campaign in 1996 to 2000 and has been the squad’s head coach since 2001. As the team’s head coach, Constantin has posted a career record of 212-38 which includes a 155-27 mark in the regular season and a 57-11 record in the U Sports post-season.
The Rouge et Or have won 10 of their 11 Vanier Cup titles as U Sports champions with Constantin as head coach.
Frank McCrystal sits third in career head coaching victories in Canada’s amateur post-secondary ranks at 208 serving as head coach of the Regina Rams from 1984 to 2014. McCrystal piled up his win total during the Rams final 15 seasons in the CJFL from 1984 to 1998 and the Rams first 16 season in the U Sports ranks as the University of Regina Rams from 1999 to 2014.
In the CJFL, McCrystal posted a 104-17-1 record in the regular season and a 37-8 record in the post-season as Rams head coach. The Rams won seven CJFL titles under McCrystal’s guidance.
In U Sports, McCrystal posted a 60-67-1 record in the regular season and a 7-12 record in the post-season as Rams head coach. The Rams made the U Sports title game – the Vanier Cup – once under McCrystal’s watch falling 42-39 in the 2000 Vanier Cup to the U of Ottawa Gee Gees.
Combining his records from the CJFL and U Sports, McCrystal posted a 208-104-2 mark as Rams head coach.
Clark to appear at End Zone Scholarship
Dinner, other notes
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| Dan Clark calls signals for the Roughriders in 2019. |
Clark was a star centre for the CFL’s Saskatchewan Roughriders from 2009 to 2022. He was on the Roughriders practice roster in 2009 and 2010 and was on the main roster from 2011 to 2022 appearing in 131 games. During his years on the Roughriders practice roster, Clark was playing for the CJFL’s Regina Thunder.
Clark gained fame catching an eight-yard touchdown pass from legendary Roughriders quarterback Darian Durant in a 37-0 romp over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in a game played at historic Taylor Field on July 21, 2013. Following that contest, Clark and the Roughriders would later win the Grey Cup with a 45-23 victory over the Tigers-Cats on November 24, 2013 at Taylor Field.
In 2019, Clark was the unanimous selection as the Saskatchewan Roughriders Most Outstanding Offensive Lineman. He was also named a CFL all-star.
The Annual Hilltops End Zone Scholarship Dinner will be held in the main hall of the Gordie Howe Sports Centre building located at the south end of Saskatoon Minor Football Field. The doors for the dinner will open at 4:15 p.m. and dinner will be served at 5 p.m.
The presenting sponsors of the event are TCU Financial and SaskTel. It is hosted in conjunction with the Hilltops community partners in the Saskatchewan Roughrider Foundation. The official beverage sponsor is the Crossmount Cider Company.
All proceeds of the event go towards the Saskatoon Hilltop Scholarship Fund.
Single tickets for the event are $100, and a table of eight goes for $725. Ticket purchases include admission to that night’s CJFL regular season contest between the Hilltops and the Regina Thunder set for 7 p.m. at SMF Field. Tickets for the End Zone Dinner can be purchased by clicking right here.
- On Thursday, the CJFL put up graphics for Hilltops star quarterback Trey Reider being the most valuable player and the top quarterback for the first half of the PFC’s regular season. A graphic was made for Regina Thunder running back Sadik Sadik being the top rusher and for Winnipeg Rifles linebacker Kyler Banfield for being the top defender.
- On Tuesday, Calgary Colts kicker/punter Robert Lasebnik was named the PFC’s special teams player of the week for his work in his team’s 36-30 victory over the host Edmonton Wildcats at Emerald Hills Regional Park in Sherwood Park, Alta, last Sunday. Lasebnik punted the ball nine times for an average of 40.7 yards per punt and kicked the ball off six times for an average of 55.7 yards per kick. He also hit five one-point converts for the Colts.
- On Monday, I had new content appear on the Howe Happenings blog that supports the Gordie Howe Sports Complex. I put together a feature on Aulain Penner, who is the star running back of Saskatoon’s Holy Cross High School Crusaders Football Team. Penner is one of Saskatoon’s most exciting high school players. That piece can be found by clicking right here. I also put together a photo roundup that is anchored by pictures from Softball Canada’s Men’s and Master Men’s Canadian Fast Pitch Championship tournaments that were played on the diamonds at the Complex. It also includes other photos from baseball, football and softball. That post can be found by clicking right here.
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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