Don Sweet working with Manitoba Bison kicker Cole Sabourin in Kamloops (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By Chad Klassen

DON SWEET

CFL kicking legend giving back to the game from his home base in Kamloops

Jul 23, 2020 | 5:19 PM

KAMLOOPS — Don Sweet still has a hand in the game — or in this case, a foot.

The former All-Star kicker with the Montreal Alouettes still loves the game and likes to give back.

“I get phone calls now and again from different kids, saying, ‘Do you have some time for me?'” he said.

Sweet just can’t say no, although the avid golfer who lives out at Rivershore is torn sometimes.

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“Do I want to stay with it? Yes, I enjoy it. I get a lot of feedback. But then there’s time when it cuts into the golf game, right?” he joked.

Like golf, kicking is very much mental. Sweet tries to instill positive thinking when he works with amateurs and professionals like Rene Paredes from the Calgary Stampeders.

“I use all kinds of different expressions. Basically what you do in practice is drive out the fear of failure. When you can do that, then kids will not be tight and not make mistakes, whether it’s pitching a baseball or kicking a football,” noted Sweet. “If they’re more relaxed and believe in themselves, there’s less of a chance of them making an error. Then I’ll say something like, ‘You didn’t have a very good kick that, by your own admission, so why is your next kick going to be your best one?’ Right away, they’ve forgotten the bad kick. They’re looking forward to the next one.”

Sweet is a two-time Grey Cup champion as a player. He was a three-time East All-Star and won the Dick Suderman Trophy for Most Valuable Canadian in a Grey Cup three times, including in 1977 when he kicked a Grey Cup-record six field goals.

He’s also won two Grey Cups as a coach, part of the Lions’ 2006 and 2011 championships with Wally Buono. He and Buono played together in Montreal for 10 seasons. They became best friends.

“We made the Alouettes the same year at training camp. We were roommates on the road for 10 years, then he got into coaching,” said Sweet. “Then we bought a home in Montreal and he had one built for him, so for six months they lived with us. Obviously, they’re like family.”

That tight bond followed them. Sweet helped out Buono while coach of the Lions. He would come up to Kamloops for training camp. Sweet and his wife Marilyn loved the city so much they moved here two years ago.

“After coming up here for 12 years for training camp with Wally, we looked around. Then the last five years, I think [Marilyn] and I would stay in a hotel for a weekend and see where we wanted to live. Then all of a sudden our kids go, “You’re kidding me. You’ve sold the house and you’re gone?'”

He’s helped players like Paredes become All-Stars and Grey Cup champions. But Sweet, a former principal, says helping foster young men is much more satisfying.

“I get the satisfaction of being able to know that kids who are not in the school system got back into the school system because they became a kicker and they got a scholarship,” said Sweet. “I watch young people grow and get married and have focus in life, which they never had before. Those are probably the biggest thrills. Guys winning Grey Cups and All-Stars, that’s satisfying, but not as much as watching and changing lives of younger kids.”