SPORTSMAN OF THE YEAR
Bill Seymour receives honour
Bill Seymour hasn’t met a hockey book he didn’t want to read.
The book on Seymour — the scouting report, if you will — is that he is as wellread as they come, a retired teacher with an insatiable thirst for knowledge on hockey, a man with endless energy and enthusiasm when it comes to trying new things in sport.
He has coached hockey at many levels, football and track and field. He has worked as both a teacher and school guidance counsellor. He has served as head coach and athletic director at the University of Saskatchewan and men’s hockey convener in the Canada West conference. He has collaborated on the book, Dogs on Ice, that tells the history of Huskie hockey. He served as manager of Canada’s hockey team at the 2003 World Universiade, spent five weeks in China on a sports exchange program and volunteered as marketing director and manager of tickets sales for the 2010 world junior hockey championship in Saskatoon.
As 2012 Saskatoon Kinsmen Sportsman of the Year, Seymour is a man of many hats. He has many to choose from. He collects ball caps, just like he collects pretty much everything related to sports, from books to pucks, hockey sweaters and pins.
“I don’t know why people keep giving me hats — you’d think my (bald) head is going to get cold or something,” quipped Seymour, who will be honoured tonight in the Kinsmen Sports Celebrity Dinner at TCU Place.
“I’ve got a pretty good hat collection, but my pride is my book collection. I’m trying to get the biggest hockey book library in the world. I’ve got them all in the database and, so far, I’ve got over 570 or something. Every time there’s a new book out, I of course put it on my Christmas wish list.
“I like going to used books stores and sales, the Saskatoon Symphony book sale. I’m always looking for old hockey books. I enjoy reading; I love history.”
His own history includes playing baseball, football and hockey. Seymour is better known for his most recent roles at the U of S, but he coached juvenile and midget hockey for years. He says he really enjoyed that part as he coached “a lot of great kids” over the years.
“When I look back over my career, whether it’s been football or track or hockey, I’ve been around so many great coaches that you learn from, the Bob Adams and Blaine Knolls of the world, Ralph Schoenfeld, Paul Schoenals and, of course, Dave King in hockey. John Mooney was an exceptional football coach, as was Al Ledingham. The list goes on and on. I’ve been around a lot of great coaches and I’ve tried to pick up the good stuff from them.
“I’ve had a lot of great mentors in my day.”
CHINA TIME-MACHINE
In 1985, at age 41, Seymour had a five-week stay in Changchun, China, through a sports exchange program. It proved to be a fascinating trip and an eye-opener.
“It was like going back in time,” said Seymour, whose lungs took a personal beating during his 26 days in China. “It was an outdoor rink. This guy (chauffeur) would pick me up at the hotel in a car and he would drive me around and he never stopped smoking. I was sitting in the back and I couldn’t breathe. I’d have to roll down my windows. He’d sit and watch the hockey practice and he’d smoke. I’d get into the car and it was just filled with smoke and I’d have to open up the windows. He’d drive like a maniac and he used to yell all the time. He’d be driving, smoking, yelling and honking his horn.”
At the first practice with Seymour, the Chinese had just one puck and it went over the boards and was lost in a snowbank. “So I got pretty creative with skating drills while the old chairman was out looking through the snowbank for this puck.
“The next day, everybody showed up with a puck. We had enough pucks after that. They just kept playing even if they broke their stick. They’d stickhandle without a blade and stuff like that.”
One of his highlights as a coach was winning a Canadian university championship with the U of S Huskies in 1983 as an assistant coach to King.
“Coaching- wise, there were so many (highlights), but the things that I remember are the great players and unique players and not necessarily winning all the time. Some years you win and some years you don’t.”
Seymour mentions former NHLER Brian Skrudlund, whom he coached at the midget level with the Contacts, as one of those special, memorable players.
After many seasons as an assistant coach, Seymour acted as head coach of the Huskies during the 1990-91 season. His team included Todd Mclellan, who has moved on to coach in the NHL, now with the San Jose Sharks. One of his assistants was Troy Walkington, currently an assistant for U of S coach Dave Adolph.
Also on the 1990-91 Huskies team was forward Dave Pollon, now head coach of the Notre Dame Hounds in AAA midget.
“Billy was maybe my favourite coach ever because basically he gave me a chance,” said Pollon. “I was a walk-on to the Huskies. I had played senior hockey. I’m so grateful that he gave me a chance because I was competing against WHL guys and the highest level I had played was midget AA back here in Notre Dame.
“The best thing about him was he was a real positive influence in practices and games. He made it fun, but he stressed the details of the game and also, more importantly, just the passion and love of the game. That’s what I take with me today when I coach my guys, that it is just a game and it’s about being a good person, character. If you work hard, you’ll get the opportunity.
“He stressed the team concept, sticking together.”
Pollon uses some of the same drills today.
“Lots of the cycle drills and just to work on the skills every day, that it’s not all about systems. It’s about improving your individual skills that will help you in the different team situations, on the power play and such. I just remember him stressing, ‘keep your feet moving, keep the puck moving, protect the puck and just try and make a play with it every chance you get.’ ”
Goalie Roydon Gunn had Seymour twice as a coach, first in midget with the Saskatoon Blazers and then with the U of S Huskies.
“He was a real team guy,” said Gunn, who runs GoalTec in Saskatoon. “Team came first and players second. It was a real kind of eyeopener for me to be a part of that, to be proud of your colours and organization as a whole.
“He really stressed a lot of the skill development. The guys worked a lot on stickhandling and passing. He was a real stickler for those real small details. He was one of the first guys who was real technical. He worked a lot with Dave King. They’d do hockey schools in the summer together, so that was a big part of his background — technical and skill development. Excellent practices, good flow, lots of work for the goalies, which I always liked. More like a European kind of influence, really, where there was lots of passing, stickhandling, skating.”
Gunn says Seymour deserves the sportsman award.
“I enjoyed his work,” he said. “A real positive guy. A real history guy, really big into hockey history and a collector of a lot of pucks.”
Did Seymour ever pocket one of Gunn’s shutout pucks?
“He probably had my first one,” Gunn said with a chuckle. “I did’t have many (shutouts), so he didn’t take too many off me.”
BOOK IT, BILLY
One of Seymour’s highlights was working with Michael P.J. Kennedy on the book, Dogs on Ice.
“You look back and the stories get better and better every time you talk to some of the alumni,” said Seymour. “Helping P.J. with the book was a very special time in my life.”
Kennedy said he could not have done it without Seymour’s help.
“Working on the research for the history of the men’s and women’s Huskie hockey teams, it was a treat,” said Kennedy. “I did the writing and editing and he did a bunch of the research. Whenever I needed some work done, some research, he’d get it done immediately and if I would get down, perhaps I was going through a difficult time writing or editing, he wouldn’t let me get down at all. He’d always have some positive things to say or do to get my enthusiasm back.
“He’s the consummate hockey man. His knowledge of the sport is tremendous. His enthusiasm for it is beyond anyone else I’ve ever known and his desire to promote the game, his desire to facilitate other people being able to play it at a high level — both as a coach, administrator and now as convener as Canada West — is just tremendous. As far as this community is concerned he’s a gem and he’s a man who really never points to himself. He’s done so much for the sport and the people involved in the sport.”
Adolph, the current coach of the hockey Dogs, shares in the admiration.
“He has a real thirst or zest for wanting to do as many different things as possible to help people or get involved,” said Adolph. “He’s been involved in the world juniors. He’s done all kinds of different things in high school, from football to hockey to being a counsellor. He’s a guy who loves to wear a different hat and do it the best he can.
“He’s been athletic director, hockey coach, teacher, guidance counsellor . . . Holy smokes, he’s done lots of things.”
At 67, Seymour is not slowing down. On Thursday, he headed to Nipawin to work on a “business deal” of some sort. Tonight, he will graciously accept the Kinsmen award.
“This means a heck of a lot because you never plan for something like this,” said Seymour, who has three children, Dean, Shannon and Andrea, with his wife Donna. “When you start out coaching or getting involved in sport, you never look to these things as an end result.
“But it’s humbling when I hear the names of other people who have been sportsman of the year. I’m just very honoured and very thankful.”