The beautiful resources of Barry Sawchuk
- Miles Patrick Yohnke
- Apr 8, 2025
- 9 min read
Updated: 24 hours ago
By Miles Patrick Yohnke
© 2026 All Rights Reserved.
He was going down the ice; he deked around one opposing hockey player -- then another -- then he crossed the blue line - then more moves getting around another two opposing players -- he was now alone -- coming in on the goalie - the 18,000 people in the arena were on their feet -- you could just feel the intensity -- and passion from the moment--and then he shot the puck--beating the goalie - scoring in overtime of game seven of the Stanley Cup. That is the aspiration for many in my beloved country of Canada, and for many people in countries around the globe. It was the aspiration of a young Barry Sawchuk.
Barry Sawchuk played ice hockey, moving through the various levels of junior leagues, reaching the pinnacle here in the city that I live, Saskatoon, with the Saskatoon Blades. Barry played two seasons with the team, before packing his red 1963 MGB sports car, and heading east to go to Michigan Tech, the same university and hockey team of NHL Hockey Hall of Fame goalie Tony Esposito (who had gone just the year before).
Barry Sawchuk played three seasons for the Huskies hockey team of Michigan Tech. Sadly, all three seasons were plagued by injuries, derailing each season, including his last in 1969-1970.
You can use your search engine of choice and see Barry Sawchuk's stats. For a long time - that was all that was found on the life of Barry Sawchuk. And looking at the modest stats, it wasn't much.
This composition is not only about giving Barry Sawchuk his deserved voice--but also a look at each of our own.
My late father gave his life to potash. Potash is a group of potassium-containing salts and compounds, primarily used as a fertilizer to support plant growth and crop yield that is found deep in the soil of our Mother Earth. It is a coveted resource. It is hard to find. But in my province of Saskatchewan, it is plentiful.
Have we ever thought of ourselves as a resource? A precious commodity? Barry Sawchuk was, and continues, to be one.
I met Mr. Barry Sawchuk on Monday morning, October 17, 1977. He was a schoolteacher at Sion High School here in my beloved city of Saskatoon. But he was far more than a schoolteacher, as we will learn.
Sion High School was located for a long time at 830 Idylwyld Dr. North and was a special school for the learning impaired. The students at Sion High School were like me. We had all been humiliated beyond words by the time we reached Sion High School. We were the ones that no other school in our city of Saskatoon--or in our province of Saskatchewan for that matter--wanted. Some kids were shipped in from other cities and towns.
My first class, and my first class each morning for the next four years, was with Mr. Barry Sawchuk. And it was apparent from that first class, Mr. Sawchuk's heart was in the right place. He was teaching for all the right reasons. Teaching to advance others, not himself.
Later in the mornings, I also had Mr. Sawchuk teaching me gym. He experienced firsthand how good I was at many sports, including hockey and football. And unlike my elementary teachers that came before, he helped nurture it--which helped nurture every other area of my being. Being present. Mr. Sawchuk was present. His support never wavered once.
I felt his unwavering love--and because of this - I didn't want to let him down.
After Michigan Tech, Mr. Barry Sawchuk went to Sion High School, in the fall of 1970. He and Mr. Ronald Melnychuk were at the very beginnings of this profoundly important school. This wealthy resource. This healthy resource. They, with a few others, created the school program. The program was unlike any other school or high school. And the Board of Education more or less left them alone. For us students that no other school wanted.
None of us, none that came through those Sion High School doors had the grades to go to university. Those that came to the special school were called slow or mentally retarded (mental retardation was the commonly used name back in that era that I grew up in - the late 1960s, 1970s) or the students were in trouble with the law. They were in trouble with the law--as many of their parents or whoever was raising them were. University just wasn't an arena that we would play in; for any of us by this state of age and being. We would all have to learn a trade to survive. And Sion High School's main program was based all around this principal. Skill sets to survive. The basics of cooking for oneself. How to buy a car. What to look for - so you didn't buy a lemon, a bad one. They taught woodshop/carpentry. We learned photography, how to take photographs, and how to develop them in a dark room. We learned pottery, and other activities or resources like that. And they had a work placement program. And it was this program that Mr. Sawchuk fostered. It was this singular program that Mr. Sawchuk combined long hours with passion. This program. This resource.
Mr. Sawchuk went to businesses in Saskatoon. And he alone created a wealth of businesses for the students at Sion High School to work at.
Sion High School went from grade eight to grade eleven. The reason was that most of the students had failed so many times. In grade ten and eleven you had to take the work placement program. Classes finished at 12:45 p.m. And from 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. you worked. You had to get yourself there.
Mr. Sawchuk would place you in a business of interest to your being. And at that time, I loved automobiles. Mr. Sawchuk lined me up to work for a business called: "Olson Auto Body." I would become the painter's helper.
The work placement program lasted six weeks. The student worked for free. The hope was the student would learn the trade, develop strong work ethics, and be hired after those six weeks. And in my case, I was hired after. It was my introduction into the workforce. There were many like me at Sion High School that got not only employment, but strong work ethics.
The strong work ethics, though, started from Mr. Sawchuk and the other teachers at Sion High School believing in us. From them nurturing us. Building up our self-confidence that had been broken down before by false teaching, and just not being understood.
Mr. Sawchuk didn't just create the work placement program; he would phone Manpower each morning and see if they had any businesses needing employment for that day. And sometimes he had something for us. And he would just look at us, point his finger - you take the job. He had gauged within us who was ready or who needed it to advance themselves. This employment opportunity was always part of the program from grade eight right through to graduation. I suppose it was grade nine when Mr. Sawchuk pointed his finger at me. I was now off to work at The Bay department store, in their warehouse for the day. And I felt like a duck out of water that day. But I needed it for my own personal development. And at the end of the day, I went into the manager's office, and the manager wrote me a cheque for my day's labour. I remember clearly -- like it was this morning -- the Bay manager looking at me saying - when he gave me the cheque: "Shouldn't you be in school?" I replied: "This is part of the school program. I am in school."
It was a different school. It was a special school. One that was so badly needed.
Mr. Sawchuk pointed his finger at me another time. And I was off by bus for Adam's lumber. I really didn't know how to get there. The bus route. And panic set in. All the fears I had from my time in elementary school arose once again. I couldn't find the business. I got off the bus, but for the life of me, I couldn't find it. Normally, you would think you'd phone the school. Or the business. But all those negative teachings and experiences in elementary school creeped back in. The self-doubt. I was a loser. For this is what I was told I was. A nobody. And I just shut it down. I went home. My mom was working. When she got home, I never said
anything. I don't know what I was thinking. Like it all would just go away. That the day didn't happen. The event didn't happen.
But the next day, Mr. Sawchuk looked at me. I can still picture his eyes. I let him down. "Why didn't you call? What happened?" he said. The business went the day short-handed. That it was bad for both Manpower and Sion High School moving forward. Certainly, Adam's lumber wouldn't be calling Manpower in the future. But how Mr. Sawchuk handled it. He still kept my dignity intact.
I let Mr. Sawchuk down. I never wanted to do that again. From all the time that he had invested in me. He believed in me. What a human being. What a precious resource--the existence of Mr. Sawchuk was to me.
In the summer of 1979, I received a letter from another high school, E.D. Feeham, to play football for their Trojans. I was so excited. Sion High School was small. Hundred students or thereabouts. We had no football team. Mr. Sawchuk experienced my level of talent in football. That I was limitless on a football field. Mr. Sawchuk went to bat for me. He believed that much in me. He got it all in place. But in the end--I didn't go. I was scared. Scared to be around people I didn't know from my elementary years. By the bullying I had received in those years.
Even though I didn't go--just that belief that he showed in me - I've carried my entire life.
Mr. Barry Sawchuk had aspirations of scoring goals, but in the end, he scored far more meaningful ones. He allowed human beings, like me to reach goals which helped others reach their goals. Mr. Barry Sawchuk fostered positive healthy change. He fostered inner peace, which I have now.
It took decades for me to remove the damage that was placed on me from improper teachers that came before Mr. Barry Sawchuk. But what was consistent in those years was Mr. Barry Sawchuk's eyes. I always saw them -- the joy they gave me -- and the sadness those times that I gave them. I've gone my entire life by them. I've kept myself in the shape I'm in, by the eyes of Mr. Barry Sawchuk.
And as the decades passed, I've looked at how our world often looks at what is important. At what is deemed important. Like hockey players receiving millions of dollars for just putting a puck in a net. And people receiving a wage to call a hockey game. To analyze the hockey player. Is it a dimmable resource? Does it make a human being better? Or is it just an escape? An excuse to avoid our personal issues. And the thoughts further escalated into other fields of employment, are they essential? How do they move society forward in a healthy and loving manner? Are their salaries warranted? Why is it that sports athletes and celebrities grace covers of magazines and not excellent schoolteachers?
Certainly, a schoolteacher like Mr. Barry Sawchuk should have graced the cover of endless magazines. He should have been analyzed on television. He should have heard things like: "Barry Sawchuk came off an excellent school year teaching and he has been rewarded with a new contract that will pay him $136 million over the next eight years (this is the largest hockey contract to-date - Kirill Kaprizov)."
What I know for certain is that Mr. Barry Sawchuk is an essential resource. I would learn from those experiences from elementary and high school, the importance of teachers. I had experienced terrible ones in elementary. And excellent ones at Sion High School like Mr. Barry Sawchuk. And as I reflect, I suppose teachers aren't that different to aspiring hockey players. Various levels. Like those teachers I had in elementary were in the junior leagues. They had trouble just getting down the ice. Ice is frozen water. When it melts, it cracks. People that play on frozen ponds have to worry about this and not falling through. Mr. Barry Sawchuk, and those other teachers at Sion High School, never yielded, they kept those students like me from falling through the cracks of society. All of them, Mr. Barry Sawchuk should be in the Teachers' Hall of Fame. For life isn't a game.
Late June 1981 was my last day at Sion High School. All the other students had left school for the summer. So did the other teachers. It was just Mr. Ronald Melnychuk in Mr. Melnychuk's office (for he was the principal the last three years I attended) and Mr. Barry Sawchuk. I had graduated days before. This would be the last time I would see them. Mr. Barry Sawchuk gave me a football. I still have it. It's far more than a football. It's like life itself to me. Another human being placed so much into another human being. Mr. Barry Sawchuk showed me - which I've passed on to all those that I've encountered. That we as people are a true resource. We can lift people up that once felt buried deep in ground.
Comments