A Saskatoon football lifer

Game took Yausie from Nutana to CFL to Football Sask

By Darren Steinke
Gordie Howe Sports Complex

Jeff Yausie points out instructions on the Hilltops sideline on Aug. 24.

There was a time the current CEO of Football Saskatchewan and defensive coordinator of the Saskatoon Hilltops was not on the road to having a football life.

Way back when he was in elementary school, Jeff Yausie decided to give the sport a shot during a tryout camp for the Kinsmen Football League. At the time, he decided to continue with hockey, baseball, fastpitch softball and track and field as he liked those sports better.

It wasn’t until his Grade 9 year in high school that Yausie really started to be attracted to the game when he was attending Nutana Collegiate. He played for the Nutana Collegiate Blues junior team in Grade 9 and became the starting running back with the Blues senior team in Grade 10. He continued as the starting running back through Grades 11 and 12 on the way to graduating from Nutana in June of 1984.

With Yausie on the senior team, the Blues made it to the 3A provincial final in 1981 and 1983 falling to Regina Luther and Regina Central respectively. Now at age 59, Yausie still reflects on those years fondly and chuckles when today’s high school, junior and university aged players are surprised Nutana once had a team.

“They certainly don’t get it,” said Yausie. “They only see Nutana in the same vision as it is right now.

“It was a real small school when I went in the early 80s, and I had some super good friends. (We had incredible) sports people and incredible teachers at Nutana, so it was a great experience. It is so different in a small school, because you’re friends with everybody.

“It is not as clicky. We all hung out together and partied together and played together, and it didn’t matter if you were academic or if you were hanging out in the smokers’ lounge or whatever. Everybody was a part of the sports teams, and we were all friends.”

For a number of years now, Yausie’s Football Saskatchewan office has been located at the Gordie Howe Sports Centre building on the Gordie Howe Sports Complex grounds. It is filled with all sorts of mementos from his football life. His position as the CEO of Football Saskatchewan, which governs the sport in the province, takes him all over the province and on various trips across Canada with work in the game.

When the Hilltops CJFL season is going, he can often be found at their evening practices at Ron Atchison Field or on the team’s sidelines during game days including home tilts at Saskatoon Minor Football Field serving as the club’s defensive coordinator. Over the decades, his football journey has been a long and winding one.

Jeff Yausie’s bio in the 1989 CFL Facts, Figures and Records book.

After graduating from high school, Yausie switched positions to defensive back to play four seasons with the University of Saskatchewan Huskies Football Team from 1984 to 1987 in what is now known as the U Sports ranks. His rookie season just happened to be the first year that saw Brian Towriss begin his journey as the Huskies legendary head coach. Yausie was joined on the Huskies by his twin brother, James.

In the 1988 CFL Draft, Jeff Yausie was selected in the fifth round and 36^th overall by the Calgary Stampeders. He was listed at standing 6-foot-1 and weighing 195 pounds in the 1989 CFL Facts, Figures and Records book.

After the Stampeders training camp wrapped up in 1988, Yausie elected to suit up for the Hilltops, because his younger brother Paul was still playing on the team. James had departed from the Huskies after graduating from U of S with his commerce degree.

With the rules that existed at the time, Jeff was called back to the Stampeders and would get into three regular season games with the CFL squad. When he didn’t suit up for the Stampeders, he was allowed to fly to wherever the Hilltops schedule took them and play for them on their game days.

Overall, Yausie is amazed by the memories he has collected in the game.

“I just feel so lucky to do something that I’m passionate about,” said Yausie. “My friends in the football community, it has just been so rewarding to work with.

“It is such a unique game in how much we practice and how hard it is. Those are the kind of people I want to be around.”

In 1989, Yausie was cut by the Stampeders. He was then contacted by fellow Saskatoon product Brendan Taman, who was at the time the manager of football operations for the Ottawa Rough Riders.

Jeff Yausie, left, on the sideline with Tom Sargeant.

Yausie proceeded to sign with Ottawa and played two games with the Rough Riders in the 1989 season. He was released by the Rough Riders before the start of the 1990 season and returned home to Saskatoon.

While taking classes at the U of Saskatchewan, Yausie was brought into Football Saskatchewan by a friend to do volunteer work. He was hired to a paid position with Football Saskatchewan in the early to mid 1990s as technical director at first on a part-time basis and was moved to full-time status a short time later.

About 1999, Yausie moved to become the executive director of Saskatchewan Blind Sports. While with Saskatchewan Blind Sports, Yausie was still on Football Saskatchewan’s board of directors.

He moved back to a full-time role with Football Saskatchewan about late 2000, early 2001 as the body’s executive director. The opening came after Bernie Schmidt left Football Saskatchewan due to the fact he wanted to focus full time on his offensive coordinator position with the University of Regina Rams Football Team.

Yausie worked continuously with Football Saskatchewan since that time ultimately becoming the sport body’s CEO.

“I’ve been super fortunate just to be involved in football in this province,” said Yausie. “People are so passionate about football.

“It is 99 per cent good, and there is always one per cent bad in whatever you do. It has just been a terrific experience. We’ve had super supportive people on the board of directors over the years and just very few problems.

“One of the things that I believe in as an organization is empowering your staff and the people around you. We’ve had a terrific staff at Football Sask., and we’ve certainly grown as we’ve grown as an organization. I think we had about 5,000 or 6,000 members in around 2001 with Football Sask., and we’ve grown to around 23,000 or 24,000 now.”

During Yausie’s time with Football Saskatchewan, the organization has grown to the point it has two main offices. The north office located at the Complex covers Saskatoon and the northern part of the province. The south office located at Mosaic Stadium in Regina covers Regina and the southern part of Saskatchewan.

He is also proud of how the female side of the sport has grown during his time with Football Saskatchewan. Yausie once coached a flag team that contained his daughter, Beau, and the team won a national title in 2012.

Jeff Yausie, left, works the Valkyries sideline in May 2016.

Jeff Yausie also helped the Saskatoon Valkyries of the WWCFL get going. He served as the club’s first head coach from 2011 to 2016 working with Valkyries general manager Michelle Duchene, who still holds that same role with the powerhouse squad that has won 10 WWCFL titles.

“Right from the get go, we had great coaching and a really good organization,” said Yausie. “All of a sudden, we had incredible athletes coming to play that had succeeded in other sports and had been very successful.

“They were open to coming and giving football a try.”

When it comes to Football Saskatchewan, Yausie said the organization has one overall main goal.

“In all of it, one of the messages we try to send is we want people to have a positive and fun experience in football,” said Yausie. “That doesn’t matter if it is tackle, it doesn’t matter if it is flag, it doesn’t matter if it is playing catch in the park, it doesn’t matter if it is a “learn to” program, it is just people enjoying the game and loving the game.

“That creates a football fan, and that builds into the next generation and helps us grow.”

In 2002, Yausie rejoined the Hilltops as linebackers coach and held that position when they won CJFL titles in 2002, 2003 and 2007. He became the club’s defensive coordinator in 2010 and 10 more CJFL championships followed with the last coming in 2023. Over those years, Yausie has built an outstanding relationship with legendary Hilltops head coach Tom Sargeant.

“(Hilltops head coach) Tom (Sargeant) is an amazing leader, and he is so competitive that he has a knack to solve problems,” said Yausie. “He is a cool personality that attacks problems and doesn’t avoid them.

“I think that serves you so well in football, because if you avoid little mistakes, they turn into big ones. We all bought into that, and that is how we coach. We’re all such good friends that we’re like brothers, us coaches.

“We’re just having a good time. It is stressful when you lose or when you don’t play well, but we just embrace it and embrace the grind.”

When he looks back on his football life, Yausie said one of the things he cherishes the most is friendships and relationships he has made. With the Hilltops, Yausie admitted he never expected he would be one of the team’s coaches still at age 59. He said the great people in all parts of the game are a main reason he has remained in the sport.

Jeff Yausie, centre, cherishes the football life he has created.

“Especially for me, it is not just Hilltops,” said Yausie. “It is Valkyries and women’s football.

“It is the girls with flag football. It is coaching development. It is officials development.

“It is relationships. If you can reach out and we can get away from texting and emailing and we can just talk, we can solve a lot of problems and get along really well, which is kind of what we’ve done in Saskatchewan football.”