Considering the extensive athletic career he's led, it's no surprise that David Wassill is being inducted into the Humboldt and District Sports Hall of Fame. What is surprising is that he's finally decided to accept.
"They tried to induct me before, but I said thanks, but not interested because I saw so many people that probably could've and should've been ahead of me on something like this," said Wassill. "But this time when they asked me, they explained it differently, so I accepted."
Throughout his life, Wassill has been heavily involved in water skiing and weightlifting, although he's given up the latter due to health problems. Now he coaches adaptive water skiing and is a national coach for disabled water skiers.
Born in 1954, Wassill's life in sports began at an early age since his father was involved with various sports such as curling, hockey, and skiing. His father was also involved with the Stoney Lake Boat Club, so Wassill would tag along and play in the water with his friends.
During his childhood, Wassill was enrolled in various sports such as hockey and figure skating in the winter, and baseball in the summer. Eventually, Wassill joined the Saskatchewan Minor Hockey Association and stumbled upon someone who would turn out to be one of the biggest influences of his early athletic career.
"Eda Saretsky was my hockey coach. He was a very special guy. He didn't communicate with a lot of words and wasn't a flashy guy, but he knew what to say to everyone and motivated them to be the best they can be," said Wassill. I really picked up on that and it affected me. I knew I had to learn how to do that."
He may have still been young, but coach Saretsky would leave a lasting impression on Wassill that wasn't forgotten even decades later.
In the meantime, young Wassill eventually went on to participate in 16 school sport leagues during his high school years. Since College Mathieu wanted its students to remain active, everyone played intramural house sports. Wassill was definitely an overachiever, because he tried to play on every school rep team and succeeded in tackle football, volleyball, hockey, track, and badminton. His high school soon became a list of successive athletic triumphs. It was also during this time that he got involved with Olympic weightlifting began his hockey officiating career.
When Wassill moved on from high school to the University of Saskatchewan, he enjoyed a few successes in pole vault and became part of the Red Shirt U of S wrestling team. During his university years, the young athlete wasn't sitting idle. He represented Humboldt at the 1972 Moose Jaw summer games, coached at the 1974 North Battleford winter games, and participated in the 1976 Swift Current summer games. During the same year, Wassill became assistant coach for jumps and throws at the University of Waterloo.
While the ensuing three decades would be a succession of regional, national, and international competitions, it was also during this time frame that Wassill took over his dad's Stoney Lake Boat Club and turned it into the Stoney Lake Water Sports Club to make it more inclusive.
"Once they built the boat, they had to do something with it, so they started skiing," said Wassill. "That was the start of it. Dad was the second generation who went out for the water skiing and I was out there with him. As they decided to take on other pursuits, us young guys took over and stayed involved. I've stayed involved as an athlete and a coach since then."
His involvement with the water ski club also brought him into contact with his second major influence: Arnold "Boots" Dust.
"He took care of the club. He was passionate and stayed involved. He was the last guy to lock the doors and that's important," said Wassill. "Until I left Humboldt, I stayed in (the water sports club) since I was eight years old. I caught on to what it took to have the passion to keep it going."
Despite the many jewels in his crown of accomplishment, Wassill's biggest competitions of note might be his officiating during the 1987 Junior World Water Ski Championships, or his athletic participation in the 1991 Pan Am Games in Mexico. Still, neither of those makes the list for his proudest moment.
"I won Coach of the Year for Water Ski and Wakeboard Canada for 2013," he said. "Lots of people in the province that had skills and were passionate about classic water skiing, but getting the award was special because we had good athletes and we worked hard and it was a good program."
Life hasn't always been a program of success for Wassill though. Around a decade ago, Wassill began have heart problems that eventually forced him to get a quadruple bypass surgery. That surgery would end up being a turning point in his career.
"The doctor sat me down and discussed all the things I was involved in," said Wassill. "Then he determined that weightlifting was too stressful for me, so I couldn't do it anymore. I still communicate with the athletes, but I've completely pulled away."
Moreover, Wassill said he's disappointed to realize that there's some new thinking concerning athlete use of banned substances. While it isn't something he knows concretely, he said he's sensed that things are changing and new coaches and athletes are using performance-enhancing drugs.
"There's always been a drug problem at the Canadian weightlifting level and I knew atheletes were cheating but Saskatchewan had never had an athlete test positive for performance-enhancing drugs. Now people are getting involved in drugs in their athletics and that disappointed me because that was something our province had never been tested positive for."
Nonetheless, that didn't keep him down. Wassill said he's proud that he's coached three world champions and has placed as many as 90 per cent of athletes going to Olympic games from Humboldt. Regardless of his athletic accomplishments, he also believes that he was most effective throughout his life as a builder.
"I believe that I'm a product of a bunch of things. Humboldt had a great system of supporting activity sports," he said. "They were well organized and had good coaching, which allowed groups like the Olympic style weightlifting to flourish in Humboldt, where other sports didn't survive We in Saskatchewan have always been leaders and used our money wisely and had a good sport delivery system."
Currently, Wassill owns his own roofing company in between coaching adaptive water skiing. He's hoping to have a full slate of athletes competing in the 2017 world championships. So far they only have eight, so he knows he has some ways to go.
"With that, adaptive athletes work super hard and are super successful. I would say that the world is watching us right now because the program is growing so fast," he said. "Beyond that, I guess I'm not much of a visionary. I don't see anything changing my life and I have no plans of retirement from sport or from work. I enjoy my work."
