They may have seven straight Prairie Football Conference championships to their credit currently, but the Saskatoon Hilltops aren’t the seven-time defending Canadian Bowl titleists heading into the 2022 C-J-F-L season and that’s not good enough for Tom Sargeant!

Sarge is heading into his 25th season as head coach of the Toppers, with training camp starting Monday with the usual 100-120 hopefuls drawing equipment at the Kilburn Avenue clubhouse and Ron Atchison Field. Sargeant will have his entire coaching staff back from 2021, when Saskatoon lost 17-14 to the eventual Canadian Bowl-champion Langley Rams in the national semi-final, with the exception of Ben Hodson. The Hilltops lose just four players from last year’s squad due to aging out and will be led on offence by Damon Dutton at quarterback. The Toppers will close out training camp Thursday with the annual exhibition game against their Alumni. The regular-season starts Sunday, August 14 against the visiting Winnipeg Rifles at Saskatoon Minor Football Field. Following is a full pre-training camp interview with Les Lazaruk and Tom Sargeant…..