Farewell to Simmons
This is the last week that ice will be in at Simmons Sport Centre in Charlottetown
Memories are flooding back these days for a community rink that is shutting down after providing more than 50 years of hockey, figure skating, ringette and public skates in P.E.I.'S capital.
This is the last week there will be ice inside Simmons Sport Centre in Charlottetown, which opened in 1973. A new building, which is being constructed adjacent to Simmons, is set to open this fall.
“This was my childhood,” Jeremy Macfadyen, 37, told Saltwire on March 26. “I spent about 17 years of my life here.”
His father, Stu, was the superintendent for parks and arenas for the City of Charlottetown for 35 years and ran Simmons.
“Simmons was Stu. He loved Charlottetown and he wanted to make Charlottetown better, and this was his vehicle for about 35 years,” Macfadyen said on behalf of his father, who retired from Simmons in 2000 to run successfully for city council.
“It would be bittersweet for him,” Jeremy said when asked what the end of an era would mean to his father. “Youth sports is always number one on his list and having a new rink that will serve generations of kids to come through … he’d know that this rink has run its course.”
It’s bittersweet for Jeremy, too, knowing what the rink meant to his father and what it means to him.
Jeremy talks about all the little odd jobs that Stu had him do through his childhood, from selling tickets to getting out the broom to clean up. He thinks about all the birthday parties and friends from school Jeremy would always encounter. It was a place everybody went and spent their time in the age before cellphones.
“I would just walk over from Spring Park (Elementary School) and over from Queen Charlotte (Intermediate School), and he would give me all of these odd jobs. I didn’t get paid for it, but I was given the responsibility and treated it like a job,” Jeremy said.
START IN HOCKEY
Former NHLER David Ling said Simmons Sport Centre is where his hockey career began.
“It was always a place where you stayed out of trouble and you could work on your skills,” Ling said, joining Jeremy at the rink on March 26. “The thing I will remember the most is Stu Macfadyen.
Stu allowed us to come here and spend our time at the rink for free. I’ve been reflecting on my time at Simmons (lately).”
Ling said he was brought up in the Brighton area of Charlottetown on Queen Elizabeth Drive and would always walk to Simmons on storm days when there wasn’t any school. Stu would let the kids skate for free.
“This is my home rink.
… There were a lot of good hockey players and good children that came through here. My mom (Janet Mackeigan) and Beryl Macmillan started ringette here in the ’90s,” he said.
P.E.I. Sports Hall of Famer Allan Andrews spent about 10 years at Simmons with his hockey growth program. He worked with David and Jamie Ling and NHL veteran Brad Richards at the arena.
Andrews will celebrate his 45th anniversary this year with students from many parts of Europe and around the world. The program is now taught at UPEI.
“We had over 70 seasonal employees – a number of permanent and part-time employees as well – people like Stu Macfadyen and George Flanagan really supported our programs in the early years,” Andrews said in a phone interview March 26. “We owe much of our present-day success to the foundation laid down at Simmons.”
MANY MEMORIES
Billy Mcguigan, head coach of the Summerside Western Capitals, said a flood of incredible memories comes back when thinking about Simmons.
“I remember truckin’ through snowstorms on days that there wasn’t any school and Stu Macfadyen would always allow us into the rink and gave us a safe space to be,” Mcguigan said. “He was always there with a word of advice or some guidance throughout life. He was always such a gentleman.”
Mcguigan said there are almost too many memories to speak of, from multiple Spud tournament titles to coaching teams to the Maritime midget championship and coaching the now defunct junior A Charlottetown Abbies.
“It’s pretty surreal to think back on all the memories you look back on, even with hockey school and working hockey at Simmons.”
On summer days when the ice was out of the rink, Mcguigan said he and his friends would always go up to Simmons for a swim in the adjacent pool.
“As we got into our teenage years, we used to sneak in and go over the fence and go for a swim,” he laughed. “Man, these are childhood memories that will never be forgotten.”
Mcguigan added that in later years, Stu would also open up the rink so that semipro players such as David Ling, Jason Macdonald, Brodie Coffin, Blaine Fitzpatrick and Tucker Flanagan could get extra time on the ice to work on their skills.
“Without (Stu) and without that extra time on the ice, we would not have had the careers that we did.”
Mcguigan hopes the first thing the city does when it opens the new Simmons Sport Centre is to honour Stu Macfadyen.