ASBH players’ doctor for 31 years, Jean-Paul Saucerotte did not return to the club this season. At 82, he continues to practice in his medical practice in Portiragnes. While keeping an eye on this club which has given him so much and to which he has devoted a large part of his existence.
Small statues of bulls, colorful roosters made by Cédric Soulette, the former international pillar of Béziers, who became an artist-sculptor, rugby balls, a framed and signed Béziers jersey “Thank you Jean-Paul”a pair of boxing gloves that belonged to Fabrice Tiozzo, former light-heavyweight world champion in the 90s, a photo of a football team… Jean-Paul Saucerotte’s medical office breathes sport to the fullest , rugby of course, but also bullfighting, because “Béziers is rugby and bullfights”smiles mischievously the doctor who has just turned a page, that of his 31 years spent at the bedside of ASBH players.
“One day you have to know how to stop”
The phone rings. The GP responds immediately. The discussion is brief: “It’s my daughter who just wished me my 82nd birthday, today is my birthday,” loose, delighted, the doctor. This season, a key figure in the ASBH landscape, Jean-Paul Saucerotte did not wish to continue working with the club: “One day, you have to know when to stop, he said. I already had to do it, a year ago. Apart from perhaps the Colomiers team doctor, whom I have met several times, I don’t know many who have worked for 31 years in a club.
“I never felt like I was working”
Home and away matches… For three decades, on all fronts, Jean-Paul Saucerotte lived, vibrated and worked for the red and blue club: “I really enjoyed doing this, he says with shining eyes. Doctor, it’s my life. I’m enjoying it. When I went to ASBH, I never felt like I was working. In any case, I have always only done what I love and never sought glory. Every time the club needed me, I responded. Around twenty years ago, in addition to the first team, I even looked after the youngsters. Today, everyone tells me that I’m in good shape. But I need more rest than before. I also now want to take a vacation.”
Rugby and players have evolved
The doctor continues to practice in his office in Portiragnes. He is even one of the last Mohicans providing home visits. Always with a kind view of the players and their families: “I even keep in touch with players who are no longer at the clubspecifies the doctor. I look after their wives and children. I really only had good relationships with everyone. And then, as I often say, “when you love people, they love you!”
Jean-Paul Saucerotte entered the ASBH in 1994, as one enters religion. It was at the request of Richard Astre, a trainer who “really analyzed everything.” In more than 30 years of service within the club, the doctor has seen rugby evolve, as have the players. Professionalism has taken its toll over the years. He finds the rugby players “more applied, invested” and ensures that they pay much more attention to their lifestyle.
Players are better monitored
Moreover, even if over the years, rugby has become a sport of over-muscled colossi hitting harder and harder, the doc testifies “that they do not get injured more. Medically, the players are much better monitored and protected. For example, the pillars do not escape regular MRI examinations.” The same goes for cases of doping. Increased and more effective controls have discouraged cheaters who were much more present in the 90s-2000s: “Some didn’t say anything but I felt it.” smiles Jean-Paul Saucerotte, sometimes surprised by the request for medical prescriptions from certain people…
Today, therefore, Doctor Saucerotte is no longer at the edge of the field where medical staff are at work. “much better than me”he breathes modestly. But he continues to go to the stadium: “I will go to see home matches and it doesn’t mean that I won’t go to away matches,” don’t hide the doctor.
It’s almost 10:30 a.m. He glances at the white sheet of paper on his desk: “These are the consultations I have left. I’m not early. When I do something, I always give it my all.” he apologizes before receiving yet another patient. With whom he will certainly not fail to talk sport. And of the ASBH, of course, this eternal passion.
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