“A player and coach with a lasting impact. That phrase describes and continues to define Stephen Hart.
At age 20 and living in Trinidad and Tobago Hart was playing in that country’s top League and had just been selected to join his nation’s side that would attempt to qualify for the 1982 World Cup. He had a good job with T and T’s number one auto company. Something was missing, an education, and that’s where Saint Mary’s entered the picture. Hart would join the Huskies as a midfielder in 1981 and play the next five seasons. He would achieve AUAA All-Star status and would be honoured as Saint Mary’s most valuable soccer player. On the field from the midfield position he was not expected to score goals and he didn’t in great numbers. He was a playmaker and leader of the highest quality and was feared by the opposition because of his abilities. He was often double and triple marked.
The second phase of the Hart soccer odyssey began when he left Saint Mary’s to play and eventually coach one of the top amateur sides in Halifax, King of Donair.
He would return to the Saint Mary’s campus at the request of Athletic Director Larry Uteck to resurrect and stabilize a struggling women’s soccer program as head coach. The team made the playoffs two years running.
Hart returned to Trinidad and Tobago but the stay was short as the call came to be Director of Player Development in Nova Scotia. When Hart returned there were roughly 3000 players and since that time the number has grown to nearly 30,000. Hart ran the Atlantic Training Centre and would eventually coach youth sides, from under 15 to under 20. Before becoming a National coach, he found time to coach Nova Scotia to a pair of bronze medals in 93 and 97 at the Canada Summer Games.
In 2006 as interim head coach of Canada’s National team they reached the semi-final of the Gold Cup, a major event run by CONCACAF. Three years later they would reach the quarter-finals. Named Technical Director for Canadian soccer in 2007 he would become full time head coach in 2010. It was a position that Hart did not actively pursue. He was content to assist and teach. Hart would eventually compile one of the best won/loss records in the history of Canadian soccer as head coach. Trinidad and Tobago would call again and he would eventually become his home country’s National coach.
Hundreds of young men and women, Nova Scotian’s, Canadians and former Huskies have benefitted from the coaching of Stephen Hart and many are now giving back to the game; teaching the game with the passion, intensity and technical knowledge passed to them by Hart. Helping young players realize and fulfill their dreams was a long-term goal and continues to be the ultimate goal of Stephen Hart.”