Rest in peace, Mike Sarada. And thanks for all you did.
At the far-too-young age of 44, Sarada died last week unexpectedly on the side of the highway just north of the city. When he lived, he did what adults are supposed to do – teach young people to be better – and many hockey players’ lives are better for it.
One need look no further to understand the value of life that to look into the players and people affected by Mike’s life, which reached out to young people and made their lives better on the ice. As the assistant coach for the Estevan TS&M bantam AA Bruins, Mike helped turn a lot of young Estevan and area players over the past few years from children into hockey players capable and confident of playing at the next level.
Hockey circles in the province are filled with people that I’ve either seen once before or I know of their name. Mike was one of those. We attended the University of Regina at about the same time and although I covered the U of R men’s hockey team from 1996-99, he wasn’t quite on the roster at the same time of the team, although I do vaguely recall someone of that name at least trying out.
As the years have gone on and their university careers became over, I would see those players sometimes with their own teams. Some of them with kids, some of them are just coaching because they like it. It never fails to surprise me to see a name from those days – over 20 years ago now – pop up in a program all this time later.
Some of the players I covered in midget AAA about 12 years ago are now bright young coaches in their respective leagues. I think it’s a strong possibility that some of the names recently on the bantam AA Bruins roster will, in the coming years, have coaching careers of their own, passing on what they learned from Mike onto another batch of young defencemen. Regardless of where the players end up in their careers, that might well be the best tribute to what Sarada accomplished.
Sarada may have been the best kept secret in Saskatchewan hockey coaching like bantam AA head coach Tom Copeland said he was, but there are a lot of coaches out there that are the backbone of the competitive and non-competitive teams throughout the province. Most members of the hockey scene in the province is taking a deep breath and counting their blessings that they still have their head and assistant coaches through all of this.
Count the number of teams that travel from the area that have a head coach, a couple of assistants, a couple of people that run the travel schedules for the teams, etc. It’s not an exaggeration to say that for every player on a team there is also that team behind them making sure they know how to play the game, as well as where and when to play the game.
Whenever I was living in another city, when news would come of someone passing well before their time, I’d try to place it in a local context, thinking about what it would be like if we lost a similar person. Not so in this case, as his fingerprints were all over the development of local hockey players. His legacy will be that of helping young people, and there is no greater legacy one can have.
Sarada’s death is not only a chance to step back for a moment and celebrate him – a defensive specialist who helped mould the lives of local young players – but to realize that there are a lot of Mikes in our lives in various mentorship roles who often stay behind the scenes. Their only real benefits to this life are the knowledge that they’ve helped young people achieve a part of their dreams and the camaraderie that comes with the role.
Sarada’s words and assistance will never be forgotten by the players he mentored and helped develop, by the coaches he worked with and the parents whose children’s lives were forever impacted by him. There will in the future likely be more tributes to Mike’s legacy as the year and the hockey season goes on, as well there should be.
So indeed, Mike Sarada, rest in peace. For a whole lot of players, there’s a spot on the bench and in their lives that will never quite be the same without you.
