Gulls’ Sapergia Tries to Rescue His Career From the Drink

“It all started in a small agricultural community in South Saskatchewan, Canada.”

Brent Sapergia explains that his monologue is most effective when trying to meet members of the opposite sex.

“I was born the son of an accused horse thief, tried, but never convicted.”

“What’s so amazing about it, is every word of it’s true,” Sapergia says. “(Hometown) Moose Jaw is a small agricultural community.”

“At the tender age of 4, we moved to a small mining community in North Manitoba, Canada.”

By now, Sapergia is one big grin. Flin Flon, the mining community, remains home to one of his five brothers.

“At the tender age of 8, I got my first ice skates. That’s when I started to perfect my craft.

In his not-so-tender 20s, the fast-lane lifestyle that had become a Sapergia trademark began to spill onto the ice, until his belligerent behavior became as big a career problem as a personal one. Now, at 27, Sapergia finds himself trying to rekindle his career with the Gulls of the International Hockey League.

“I have a lot to prove this year,” said Sapergia, who was suspended last year in Phoenix for “conduct unbecoming a Roadrunner.”

His conduct, on and off the ice, wasn’t becoming of anyone His personal problems peaked with the death of his mother last December, and bottomed out with a drinking problem so out of control that it completely overcame him.

“I got myself into a lot of trouble last year,” Sapergia said. “I was always a good time Charlie, but after she died, I couldn’t control (my drinking.)”

His career problems were an mere extension of the chaos surrounding him off the ice. Sapergia went home and spent two weeks with his family--his father died when he was 4--and upon his return, he partied hardy, and found excuses not to play.

“When I came back, hockey wasn’t that important anymore,” he said. “It was like the game owed me something. I was having back problems, but it was just another excuse.”

He played in 43 games and scored 19 goals, a dismal figure compared to the 58 goals he amassed in 80 games in 1985-86 with Salt Lake, when he was the IHL’s top scorer.

After Phoenix gave him the pink slip, Sapergia started making calls to old friends, teammates and coaches. He was desperate to auction off his hockey talents to anyone willing to take the risk.

No one bit. Finally, at the prodding of Kings Coach Tom Webster, Sapergia faced up to his substance abuse and sought help during the summer.

Now, he chooses to drink only occasionally, and he said, wisely.

“My life doesn’t revolve around cocktails anymore,” he said. “I won’t drink when we have a game the next day. With our days off, you can pick your spots.”

Still, it took a little convincing for Don Waddell, Gulls’ general manager, to stick out his neck and take a chance on him. Sapergia struck a 25-game deal.

“I pleaded with Donnie Waddell to give me a contract,” said Sapergia, who was offered a partial contract with Albany, but felt his leisure time would be better spent on the golf courses and beaches of San Diego, and not the bars of Albany. “I wanted to prove that I wasn’t a liability.”

With 10 games remaining on his deal, Sapergia already has outplayed his limited warranty. Now the Gulls’ leading scorer (with 11), he is one of only four players--the other three are in their first year--to have played in all 15 Gulls’ games. He has scored in five of the last six games, including a hat trick Nov. 5 against the Fort Wayne Komets.

“I’ve known him for a number of years, and he can be one of the most talented players in the league,” said Waddell, who had played against Sapergia, knew of his sordid reputation and used caution in dealing with him. “You hate to see that kind of talent wasted. But he has a tendency to do things that aren’t in the best interest of the team.”

For instance, he proclaimed himself the “Messiah of Hockey” upon his arrest for disorderly conduct in February 1989 after a postgame party when he played for the Indianapolis Ice.

“The call came at 5 a.m. to tell me that,” said Ray Compton, Indianapolis general manager, who downplayed the incident. “You never want to condone those things, but there are worse situations. And you go on. It wasn’t a life-threatening situation, and he apologized.”

Indianapolis management put up with Sapergia’s antics because he had taken on star status there. He starred in an award-winning Christmas video the team produced, and when he left for two months during the middle of the season to play nine games for $30,000 in Switzerland, he was given a hero’s welcome upon his return.

Compton said Sapergia is chock full of talent, but he has a career in acting as well.

“Brent Sapergia is probably one of the most talented people to play in this league,” he said. “If you don’t know how to channel it, you run into problems. He’s had some bad ones . . . But if they ever to do a sequel to Slapshot, he should be up for a starring role.”

In his absence, the Ice went 2-16. So management re-signed him; he finished the season in Indianapolis; then he took his act to the desert the next season.

The impression he left with management in Phoenix was important to him as well, and although it was too late to take back what he had done there, he felt he at least owed them an apology for sitting himself out much of the season and ending it with a suspension.

“I called Adam Keller (Phoenix General Manager) and apologized to him for not getting his money’s worth from me,” Sapergia said.

The Gulls haven’t felt short-changed. In fact, Waddell said Sapergia has played to a level that may allow him some bargaining power come time for renegotiations.

“He was the best conditioned player right from the start,” Waddell said. “He’s been excellent so far. He couldn’t be doing better, or working harder.”

Or trying to change his image.

But despite his new attitude, Sapergia must sustain what he has started, or the rhetoric means nothing.

“He has a different attitude, not only toward the game, but for life,” Waddell said. “Let’s see if he means it. He’s been giving this opportunity, let’s hope he continues it.”

Sapergia said it necessity of cleaning up his act didn’t hit home until he realized hockey might be taken away from him.

“I always knew I was a little screwed up in how I lived my life and tried to play at the same time,” he said, “but I never believed that I wasn’t good enough to come back from it. I made the decision that ‘this is the way it’s got to be,’ It’s all part of the discipline I put into my life.”