Coach Sargent Talks MHS Strength Program

A few weeks ago, Malta High School teacher and coach Patrick Sargent was named the National High School Strength Coaches Association (NHSSCA) Strength and Conditioning Coach of the Year for the State of Montana.

The NHSSCA, which was formed in 2016, has members throughout the United States. Montana is a part of Region 5, a group that also includes Idaho, Washington, and Oregon.

Coach Sargent was nominated by another coach or person in the field of high school strength and conditioning, but the nominator is anonymous.

“It’s a great honor and it is pretty exciting honestly,” Coach Sargent said. “That is exciting knowing that other people recognize the things that you do in your profession.”

Coach Sargent started working at MHS in the Fall of 1993.

He grew up in Hardin and his high school Strength Coach Jim Genatone made quite the impact on Coach Sargent.

“He was a great mentor for me and kind of got me on the path,” Coach Sargent said. “Being active in track and field, wrestling and football, (strength and conditioning) was one of those things that we did, a group of us, and I just carried that on into college.”

Coach Sargent graduated from Hardin High School in 1985 and did some competitive club lifting at Montana State under 2022 Montana State Hall of Fame Inductee Rock Gullickson. Coach Gullickson had coached for 40 years, 17 of which were in the NFL, and is retired.

“We were competing clubwise and I just had always done it and I thought, this would be a great profession to be in,” Coach Sargent said.

After graduating with a Bachelors in Physical Education Health, with an emphasis on Strength and Conditioning in 1990 from Montana State University Billings, Coach Sargent taught elementary PE in Boise, Idaho. He was also the Head Coach of Boise High School Wrestling.

He then moved to Phillips, S.D., where he taught K-8 Physical Education, was the wrestling coach, and helped with football.

The opportunity to teach at Malta opened up in the spring of 1993, where he could get closer to home. Though the internet was around in those days, he heard of the opening by word of mouth.

“I was also offered a job in Medora, North Dakota that year,” Coach Sargent said. “That was a K-6 position and I was looking to go into the high school side of it, so I could stay in the strength and conditioning part of it.”

Originally, when he came to Malta, the class he taught was called Advanced P.E. He asked former MHS Principal Kelly Taylor if he could change Advanced P.E. to a weight training class. Principal Kelly agreed that it would be a good idea.

“The second semester of that year, we changed Advanced P.E. to a Weight Training Class,” Coach Sargent said.

At that time, Malta’s weight room was under the bleachers at the Old Gym on the North side. During the wrestling season the weight room was moved to the south side. Then came the MHS fire on Christmas Eve of 1995.

Between the time that the old Malta High School had burned down and the new Malta High School building was opened in February of 1998, the Weight Class was held in Malta’s City Hall Building.

“We got bussed back and forth and I spent my day at the City Hall,” Coach Sargent said. “We made it work. We had the gym to ourselves during the day. We had the weight room to ourselves. It wasn’t ideal but we were functional, we could get our things done and we were still doing things that we are doing today, just in a smaller space.”

The current Malta Strength Facility was opened in 1998 but did not have the deadlift area located on the outside of the main weight lifting area. That area was originally used to let students walk from the the AG shop to the woodshop, so students did not have to walk outside.

“When we developed our program more, we needed more room to do some things, so they allowed us to gate off the ends of the hallway and use that hallway as an extension of the classroom, not even a year later.”

Coach Sargent attributes much of his success to learning from others in the field of strength and conditioning.

“In the strength and conditioning world, we are some of the biggest thieves in the country,” Coach Sargent said. “We are not afraid to show people how to make somebody better. We put on clinics. I go to the University of Mary almost every summer and spend a week with the Head Strength Coach (Mike Silbernagel) looking at new techniques.”

Coach Sargent said that Silbernagel has been gracious in helping him progress as a strength and conditioning instructor. He also said that he often visits with other strength coaches around the state and region.

“Nobody is afraid to offer things up and help you out to make your athletes just as good as theirs or even improve on what they are doing,” Coach Sargent said.

Coach Sargent shared some things that Malta Strength currently does in their workouts.

“Our core lifts are bench press, squats, and cleans,” he said. “We focus a lot on those. We focus a lot on posterior chain movements, hamstrings and lower back, and injury prevention.”

He said during the school year there is not a lot of time to focus on running mechanics or function, but run training does occur out of season.

“We try to maintain our strength out of the summer, going into the fall, when the kids come back,” Coach Sargent said. “If we can maintain that strength, we feel that we are going to be ahead of the game.”

Coach Sargent knows that it takes more than just himself to help build a strength program.

“I have been fortunate to work with some great coaches over the years that have really promoted the program and I have had some great athletes come through that have been accepting of what we are trying to do. They have bought into the program, they understand the benefits, and are willing to put in the time and the effort to do that.”

Some notable athletes include Chance Demarais, who was the NAIA Player of the Year in Football in 2011 with Carroll College and Sophia Stiles, who was named the Montana Gatorade Player of the Year in 2016 and 2017. Stiles helped Florida Gulf Coast University get to the second round in the NCAA March Madness Tournament this past week. Another name he mentioned is Linda (Cummings) Hudyma who is coaching girls basketball in Glasgow. Hudyma was the 1995 Montana Gatorade Player of the Year and was a standout for the University of Montana Lady Griz in the late 90s.

“We have had some great student athletes come through here that have done very well for themselves professionally and representing Malta High School,” Coach Sargent said. “Between District Championships, Divisional and State Championships, Individual Championships in Track and Field, Wrestling and Golf, I consider myself to be very fortunate to be in a position where I have had an opportunity to have worked with great coaches who have provided those opportunities for those kids and also encouraged them to be a part of it.”

The Malta Strength Facility’s North Wall is adorned with over 100 MHS student athletes that have trained and competed at MHS and went on to play collegiate sports and every other wall has team photos from championship and runner up teams throughout various sports over the years.

Coach Sargent was asked about the importance of Strength of Conditioning and what it does for young athletes.

“Taking care of your general health is the most important thing that you can do,” Coach Sargent said. “If you don’t take care of your body, your lifestyle and your life isn’t going to be what you would like it to be, and you need to start at a young age. You need to try to protect your joints, you need to try to protect yourself physically by doing things correctly and taking the opportunities that you have to do that.

“For student athletes, primarily, we want to prepare them to compete," He continued. “My goal is to prepare them to compete at the next level. To make them as good as they can be with the time that I have them.”

He said that some of it comes down to programming and what they are doing, the other component is the effort that the student puts forth.

“There is a lot of natural talent, but as the competition gets greater, you have got to learn how to separate yourself from the others,” Coach Sargent said. “And strength and conditioning gives you that added tool for your toolbox for competing. It give you a chance to be more successful.”