FATHERS PASS TORCH TO SONS
Quarterbacks for Rams and Huskies walking in footsteps of their respective fathers
Noah Picton found an old VHS tape with an intriguing label a while back, and he journeyed 30 years into the past — pre-noah, when his dad was a gunslinger with the Regina Rams.
On those aged pixels was a kid around his own age, his father, Dean Picton, throwing footballs and taking control of a nationalchampionship game. Noah had heard about his dad’s prowess, but never seen it, and he promptly did what any good son would do: He looked for mistakes. There was an early interception, along with a few assorted items that caught his seeking eyes.
“I can always hear his voice in the back of my head — ‘Get your elbow up! Look off the linebacker, the most dangerous guy!’” Noah, the Regina Rams’ standout quarterback, said this week with a laugh.
“Then I was watching the film, and it’s like ‘Well, you don’t have your elbow up, and you’re not looking off the most dangerous guy, so lay off a little bit, right?’ It was funny.”
Dean Picton was named the top junior player in Canada while playing with the Rams in 1986. Noah Picton won the Hec Crighton Trophy as the top university player in the country in 2016, also with the Rams, who moved from junior to Canada West in 1999.
On Friday night, Noah Picton will square off against his talented University of Saskatchewan Huskies’ counterpart, Kyle Siemens, in a battle of deep bloodlines. Siemens’ father, Doug, was a standout Huskies quarterback in the 1980s, which provides this instant scenario: Two quarterbacks, two dads, two programs.
Unlike Picton, Kyle Siemens has never watched his father play. It would be fun, he says, to find a tape like the one Noah dug up and see what Doug Siemens could do on a football field, once upon a time.
“I’ve kind of thought about that,” Kyle says. “It would be very interesting to be able to watch. If there is a video, I’d love to go watch it and see how Doug played the game. I have to go off stories from him and some of his teammates back in the day. I just know he ran around a lot, and made plays with his legs. That’s a little different than what I’m doing now.”
Doug figures there’s some eight or 16-mm tape lying forgotten somewhere “in the caverns at the university.” He played from 1981 to 1985 and was the Huskies’ career passing leader for more than a decade. The elder Siemens now sits fourth in career yardage with 7,153. Kyle is fifth — one spot below his dad — with 6,646, and will pass him this season if he stays healthy.
“I don’t think I’ve gone through his sports chest yet; I haven’t been able to look at some of those things (such as clippings and memorabilia),” Kyle says. “There’s a couple of photos of him all padded up and scrambling around, and I’ve seen those. It’s cool to see those.”
The kids on that father-to-son train took different routes to their current positions. Kyle Siemens briefly flirted with playing receiver as a kid, before permanently setting up behind centre. He played two seasons with the Regina Thunder before joining the Huskies in 2014.
Kyle grew up going to football games at Griffiths Stadium — “There’s only two teams I cheer for; the Boston Bruins, and the Saskatchewan Huskies,” says dad Doug — but he always kept open the idea of playing elsewhere, if circumstances dictated.
Noah Picton hasn’t played any position but quarterback. And he always saw the Rams as his destiny.
“A lot of kids dream of playing in the NFL or the CFL. Oddly enough, I wanted to play for the Regina Rams,” he says. “That was my dream growing up.”
Having Dean Picton in the house, he adds, was like having access to his own full-time coach.
“There was always something to be learned watching football or throwing the ball in the back yard,” says Noah. “It was never just playing catch — it was always working on some sort of skills. I love the position, and I love the game. To have him there, teaching and coaching me, I feel very lucky to have him as my father.
“It’s always been quarterback. It’s the only position I’ve ever played. I don’t know if I’d be athletic enough to play anything else on the field, aside from kicker or punter, but I don’t do that particularly well. So it’s quarterback or nothing; it’s always been that way.”
In Saskatoon, Siemens follows both his dad and his older brother Parker, who was a reserve Huskies quarterback. Kyle is now, like Picton, in his last season of eligibility.
In a sweet little back-story, Doug Siemens was the quarterback when Brian Towriss won his first game as Huskies coach in 1984, and Kyle Siemens was behind centre when he won his last, in 2016.
Kyle continues to chase his dad’s numbers, but you wouldn’t know it if you spend time around the family home. The kid says it’s not something he thinks about, and the dad says Kyle’s not the type to bring it up — but he hopes he gets eclipsed, because fathers always want better things for their sons.
Even more, Doug wants his son to savour this final season. He knows, just like Dean Picton knows, how fleeting it all is.
“It goes by so fast. It’s a heartbeat,” Doug says of that run from first season to last. “Then your fifth year goes by in a blink, and you’ve got to stop every once in a while. There’s a fair bit of pressure, right? The last 20 years of Huskies football, and in college sports, there’s a ton more pressure than when I played. If I didn’t play well, my mom was mad. Nowadays, there’s a lot of money involved; the team, the players, the coaches all want to do well. There’s a fair bit of pressure to win.
“If he stops and smells the coffee, and takes a look around … I’ve been trying to tell him to do that, as opposed to numbers.”
Kyle’s trying to do just that this season, his last. Like his crossprovince opponent, he’s thankful for father and family, and a longrunning football connection.
“I’m fortunate enough to have been raised in a family that’s supportive of whatever I do, and however I do it, as long as I’m doing it to the best of my ability,” Kyle says. “Obviously, my dad was a really good quarterback back in the day, and I’m proud to say I can follow in his footsteps. But whether I do well or not, it doesn’t matter to him, as long as I enjoy what I’m doing. That’s what means the most to me.”
Today’s game time at Griffiths Stadium is 7 p.m. Both teams are 2-1. Two dads will watch two quarterbacks, knowingly, with pride.
“They’ve been a big part of the community — the Huskies in Saskatoon and the Rams here — and growing up as a little kid, you want to play for those teams,” says Noah Picton. “It’s kind of neat that Kyle’s dad played quarterback, and my dad played quarterback, and now we’re playing against each other. It’s a neat situation.”