Sports star is mourned

By Hayley Gastmeier and Gary Caffell

A popular Wairarapa sportsman and family man died in rural Carterton yesterday in what was first thought to be a workplace accident, but was later found to be the result of a medical cause.

Paul Sargeant, always known as Sarg, was a hockey legend in the region, being a Wairarapa rep player for many years and latterly a prominent coach.

Mr Sargeant, of Masterton, was a stalwart of the Carterton Hockey Club  and  member of the Wairarapa senior men’s hockey team in the mid-1980s and early 1990s.

For the last four years he coached the Gladstone Women’s Division One Hockey team, taking them to the finals on his first year.

President of Gladstone Hockey Cindy McBride said Mr Sargeant was “an outstanding, talented hockey player” in his own right, with “an awesome sense of humour”.

“He had so much time for all us girls and he taught us skills we didn’t know we had. He was our friend, our mentor. He never had a bad word to say about anybody.”

McBride said he would be sadly missed by the club.

“Us girls are going to have to give in and start supporting the Hurricanes and start drinking Tui.”

Frazer Mailman, who was coach to Mr Sargeant early in his representative career, said he was as a player who gave 100 per cent in every game.

“He was a real enthusiast for the game, he trained hard and he played hard. You could always rely on him to get the job done. He was very reliable, the sort of player you love to have in a team.”

Grant Brewster played alongside Mr Sargeant for Wairarapa and said Sarg was still playing for Carterton Vets this season and had at one stage coached the St Matthew’s Collegiate first XI.

Mr Sargeant had been processing a cattle beast at a private property in Anderson’s Line in north Carterton yesterday morning.

Passerbys saw him slumped next to his home kill truck, and initial calls to emergency services were of a man trapped under a vehicle.

When police, ambulance and fire arrived on the scene before 11am Mr Sargeant was already dead.