His initial focus wasn’t on the next two hours his Raiders team would battle Ohio University in a special exhibition game that was part of the CareSource Invitational.
He was going to tell them about the grueling, unwavering, finally joyful 15-hour ordeal he’d just watched his wife Jill endure at Kettering Health Main Campus.
Monday morning Jill gave birth to their fifth child – a 7-pound, 22 ounce, 20 ½ inch boy – who gave his mom a one-on-one matchup unlike any she had ever had in her life, both as a mother and a standout high school, college and pro basketball player herself.
“It was the toughest birth of our five kids and certainly the longest,” Sargent said. “From about 10 p.m. last night until 9:15 this morning, I had a front row seat in the hospital as she battled with no epidural, no penicillin, just that sacrificial pain.”
He said worship music played in the background, but he mostly kept quiet, save for an encouraging word when needed and, otherwise, just lots of prayer.
“With one child you may make a couple of mistakes speaking or doing something you shouldn’t,” he chuckled. “But by the fifth, I knew to sit back and take in the wonder of it all.
“For hour after hour with each contraction, she just kept going and going and going. For four or five hours there, her pain level was 10 out of 10.”
Finally, when their son – who they’ve named Booker David – was born, an exhausted Jill had a question for Clint:
“So what time is shootaround?”
She’d handled her half of the double header, now it was his turn to step up.
It’s a partnership the couple has embraced and grown almost from the day they met as freshmen hoop stars at South Dakota State University.
Both had been high school sensations – he growing up in Sioux City, Iowa and playing across the river in Nebraska; she in Mitchell, South Dakota where she made 462 three-pointers and scored a state record 3,317 career points.
Where she’s impressed him most though is as a wife and a mother:
“She is my rock…She is our rock.”
‘The same messages’
The baby was not due until this coming Saturday, so last Sunday morning, Jill put on her running shoes and headed outside.
“It was raining out, but she ran a mile,” Sargent said. “I had taken the kids to get donuts and when we got back I told them, ‘We’ve got to go out and run with mom!’
“We were all out there running when her water broke.”
Once at the hospital, Sargent prepared for a part of fatherhood that he said also develops him as a coach:
“For me, one cup always pours into the other. I always think in order to really be there for our players, I really have to love Jill well and be there for my children.
“Becoming a good dad equips me better than anything to be a coach. And being a coach prepares me to be a better dad.
“It’s amazing how many life lessons and teaching moments you have with a three-year-old and a 23-year-old. A lot of times I’m giving them the same messages.”
Last season was the 37-year-old Sargent’s first as a head coach after spending several years as Scott Nagy’s assistant at South Dakota State and from 2016 at WSU.
He had been serving as the Raiders associate head coach when Nagy left before last season to take over the Southern Illinois job.
The Raiders went 15-18 last season. It was their first losing season in a decade, but while there were some disappointments, there also were a lot of moments to remember and build on.
That was evident Monday night, when the new-look Raiders – Sargent and his staff have added 10 new players, including four from the transfer portal and one especially-impressive freshmen, point guard Michael Cooper from Jeffersonville, Indiana – wrestled past OU 63-57.
Were it a regular night in the Sargent household, Jill and the kids would have been at the game. And when the team goes on the road, Sargent often takes one of his children along on the bus.
“Last year I had Gracie, CJ and Jordy (youngest Landry stayed home) with me when we lost at the buzzer to Youngstown State,” Sargent said. “I think it’s important that they see it all. They need to see dad fail, too, and see how he handles it.
“I think lessons like that are some of the greatest things I can do for our kids.”
‘Proud of you Dad’
After he left the pregame dressing room Monday night, Sargent switched his focus to the moment at hand.
It was important for him to be a part of this night for several reasons, first and foremost he said because of his respect for University of Dayton coach Anthony Grant and his family and the mental health cause this game was all about:
“I’m very thankful to Neil Sullivan (Dayton’s athletics director), Coach Grant, Alan Miller at CareSource and everyone involved here. I consider myself a strong community member of Dayton and, under the umbrella of mental health, for Wright State to be able to come over here to UD and support the Grants and this community is something that I’m very proud to be a part of.
“I just have so much respect for Dayton and Coach Grant and what his family has been through. I’m thankful we could be a part of all this.”
The game – like the one the day before when UD topped Penn State at the Arena – was played to draw attention to mental health, especially as it pertains to young people.
In 2022, the Grants lost their beloved 20-year-old daughter Jayda to suicide.
Through their pain they started the Jay’s Light foundation to help bring awareness and finances to the mental health arena.
Monday night’s game – and the one before it, featuring Northern Kentucky against Ashland – featured all kinds of mental health messages during breaks in the action.
As far as the on-court part of the night, Sargent said he knew he was dialed in “as soon as I yelled at a ref and barked at my players.”
While Sargent had felt good about the setting – he noted his team was in the same dressing room it had used in the Arena when they beat Bryant University in the First Four in 2022 – he admitted for much of the game it felt like it was 4 a.m. to him.
He had gotten about 90 minutes of sleep in his wife’s room, but he didn’t focus on that because of the heroic performance Jill had been putting on at the time.
Although the Raiders struggled some – they missed 14 free throws – there were a lot of positives to build on:
They are a more athletic team this year; already play better defense than last year’s bunch and appear to be more connected to each other.
“I am glad we pulled it out,” Sargent said. “I wouldn’t have wanted to lose the game and take that back to the hospital room of my day-old son.
“I didn’t want my spirit dampened by something like that when something so beautiful was right there in front of me.”
As he readied to leave the Arena and head back to the hospital just before midnight, he checked his phone and stopped on a photo that made him smile.
Jill had sent him a text after the game. Along with a photo of little Booker resting on her chest came the message that perfectly summed up the day:
“Proud of you Dad for winning on my birthday.”
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