Community spirit apple doesn’t fall far from the family tree
Like many, I suspect, when I heard news that East Hants Sports Hall of Famer Carl Anthony passed away Dec. 20, my mind flashed back to the 1980s and playing fastpitch at the Shubenacadie ball field he developed with such pride, and against a Lions’ senior team he impacted towards success.
People talk about intimidation being a big part of hockey, especially back in those days. And, while I was certainly confronted by a few of those characters on the ice, there weren't many more intimidating sports moments for me than the few times I stood in the batter’s box facing hulking Lions’ hurler Dale Ryan, legally crow-hopping in his prime. I may have foultipped one.
It was great ball and a great place to play ball … especially the mid-summer tournament.
But my real connection to Mr. Anthony would be through his son Larry – the longtime Town of Truro recreation department maintenance manager.
I don’t know how many remember just how instrumental Larry was in the development of senior hockey in Truro and in the mid-1980s establishing a foundation which would eventually set the stage for the national title team in 1998.
My introduction to Larry and that team was as a call-up from the junior B Bearcats for three games to finish the 1986-87 season. Along with a couple of other teammates, we provided depth and found some success in helping the then Shubenacadie-truro Eagles win a couple games to go along with a narrow loss to one of the league leaders. I finished the year with a decent performance at the Canada Games in Sydney and I don’t think Larry ever forgot the combination, as he became one of my biggest supporters.
As general manager of the now Truro-shubie Colonels, Larry made me feel like I was one of the big recruits for the 1987-88 season and it was a genuine respect – something I’ve never forgotten.
The following year with the Colonels (1988-89) was one of what I like to call my new teammate-every-week years (there were a couple like that) which meant Larry had to be one of the busiest hockey people in Nova Scotia.
Venturing out of town to play hockey over the next number of years, I would lose that connection to Larry but he was the guy who, again, showed belief and supported me in what is now my profession as far as a newspaper reporter. Larry used his connections with the then Truro Daily News and some of my first bylines come from his encouragement and ideas.
Back in Truro in the late 90s, and after one more year of Truro senior hockey, my beat-up body and I decided coaching was the best way to stay involved in the sport at a competitive level and, again, it’s Larry who championed me for the junior B role in Brookfield, despite having only one year experience as an assistant at that level … and missing a lot of it because I was still playing.
Larry was the general manager and I was the coach for the first year the team was called the Elks and, after a rough start, we finished as a competitive team (thank you Jason Boudreau).
I don’t know for sure, but I’m going to guess Larry would have been a voice deciding it would be beneficial to me to be part of the senior team’s coaching staff, along with head coach John Kibyuk and longtime assistant Gerald Marshall, for the conclusion of their season after ours ended in Brookfield.
Ironically, my expected observer role became an active role as John was suspended for the round-robin portion of the Allan Cup and it was just Gerald and I behind the bench for those three games. Truth is though, when you have guys like Darren Welsh, Brian Melanson, Bruce Campbell, Dwight Lucas, Kelly Kolke, etc., you have a whole bench of coaches.
Bottom line for me comes from two old idioms: one about hockey being a small community and the second is the old saying about the apple not falling far from the tree.
Carl Anthony is being lauded in a well-deserved manner as an amazing community man for the East Hants area and his spirit obviously lives on through Larry’s numerous endeavours, of which I was a beneficiary to many.