Braydan Douglas took charge and sent a message to Sarge.
The communication pertained to Braydan’s younger brother, Drake Douglas, whose receiving talents were touted in an e-mail Saskatoon Hilltops Head Coach Tom Sargeant received in 2022.
“My brother was really trying to push me to play football,” Drake says with a chuckle. “I wasn’t so sure, so he went ahead without asking me and e-mailed Sarge. He sent him my highlights and everything.”
Another highlight soon resulted.
“That day, I got a call from Sarge,” Drake continues. “He called me and told me I should come to practice, so I did.
“In my first practice, he put me against one of the DBs and got the backup quarterback — it was Trey Reider at the time — to throw me a few footballs. If I won at least four of the five one-on-ones, I’d be on the team.
“I won them, so the rest is history.”
Douglas is coming off a game that was reminiscent of that introductory workout.
Last Sunday, he caught seven passes for 122 yards and two touchdowns to help the Hilltops open their 2024 Prairie Football Conference schedule with a 38-13 victory over the visiting Edmonton Huskies.
Douglas also hit triple digits on special teams, returning six punts for 113 yards, including a 63-yarder.
Those totals are especially noteworthy when you consider that he had virtually given up on the sport before one e-mail changed everything.
Until that point, Douglas had gone two years without playing a game of tackle football.
He was with the PFC’s Regina Thunder in 2020, when COVID-19 resulted in the cancellation of a season.
When the PFC resumed play in 2021, it was without Douglas. He decided to take a year off.
“It didn’t have much to do with the Thunder, honestly,” he recalls. “I was just looking for a change in life.”
And a change of scenery.
“I just decided I wanted to move to Saskatoon,” Douglas says. “My brother had lived up in Saskatoon before. Two of my sisters live in Saskatoon.
“I didn’t have a ton of connections in Regina. I felt like I had some more in Saskatoon, so I moved up here and worked at the Ford dealership for about six months.
“I work in construction now. Last summer, I was roofing and playing football at the same time. I don’t think I’ll ever do that again. It was tough on the body, for sure.
“The only benefit was that when I’d get to practice, everybody would be talking about how hot it was, and I was like, ‘Do you guys know how hot it is on an asphalt roof?!’ ”
The ceiling was even higher for the 2023 Hilltops, who went undefeated en route to winning the franchise’s 23rd Canadian Junior Football League championship.
Douglas played a key role, catching 42 passes (the PFC’s second-highest total) for 591 yards (third) in eight regular-season games.
He subsequently caught a 25-yard touchdown pass from Reider to help the host Hilltops defeat the Windsor-based St. Clair Saints 43-0 in the CJFL semi-final.
Douglas followed up with a team-high five catches as Saskatoon defeated the Westshore Rebels 17-10 to win the Canadian Bowl, which was played in Langford, B.C.
That was another journey in the eventful 22 years of Drake Douglas.
Born in Estevan, he grew up on the family farm near Glen Ewen. The village is located near the Saskatchewan/Manitoba and Canada/U.S. borders.
Douglas was 10 when his parents (Curtis and Yvonne) and their seven children (Caitlyn, Braydan, Sarah, Ethan, Drake, Emet and Aniya)
moved to Caronport.
Very soon, Drake was introduced to the Moose Jaw minor football ranks.
The next step was to play six-a-side high school football with the Caronport Cougars.
As Douglas was preparing for Grade 12, the family relocated to the Queen City. That change facilitated his debut with the Regina Intercollegiate Football League’s Balfour Bears in 2019.
From there, it was on to the Thunder, with whom Drake’s brother Ethan was a productive pass-catcher in 2018 and 2019.
Then came COVID, after which Curtis and Yvonne moved back to the family farm instead of commuting from Regina to Glen Ewen.
Drake proceeded to join three of his siblings (Braydan, Caitlyn and Sarah) in Saskatoon.
For Drake, the flag football circuit became a vehicle for his receiving talents — at least until Braydan sent the aforementioned e-mail.
“I thank him all the time for that,” says Drake, who enjoys working as an apprentice carpenter in addition to loving life with the Hilltops.
“I still tell my brother, ‘Don’t do something like that without my permission again,’ but he just grins. He thinks it’s hilarious.
“I guess he knew better in that situation. The story is hilarious. Every person I tell the story to, they love it.”
