From humble beginnings
Truro’s Scotty Annand has a list of exceptional accomplishments
“I was only a baby when I arrived in Truro. We lived on North Street, I had a wonderful childhood, I played a lot of hockey on the Truro marsh.” Scotty Annand
A friend, Keith Mackenzie, suggested that Scott “Scotty” Annand would be a good person to talk to for a column. I was amazed as Mackenzie outlined Scotty’s many accomplishments.
“I was adopted by Charlie and Martha Annand,” Scotty, 59, shared, during an interview.
“I was only a baby when I arrived in Truro. We lived on North Street, I had a wonderful childhood, I played a lot of hockey on the Truro marsh.”
Scotty’s late father, Charlie, was a businessman, entrepreneur, and inventor. Scotty’s mother is the former Martha Langille who played softball for the legendary Truro Slugs, a team inducted into the Nova Scotia Sport Hall of Fame. Scotty has one sister, Lara Macneil, a schoolteacher in Calgary.
In minor hockey, Scotty played from squirt up through the ranks. A centre, he starred for several Truro Bearcats rep teams, and was the team’s assistant captain each season.
“The biggest highlight in hockey for me would have been when I was sixteen or seventeen, I got to play for the Fundy AAA Midgets under coach Johnny Hutchinson.”
Scotty was also a skier and participated in track and field as well as focusing on another sport.
“My real dream was to play professional football in the Canadian Football League,” he said. “My parents were big football fans. Part of the influence towards football came from Sunday afternoons at the Purdy home on Brunswick Street. We visited often to watch the weekly CFL game.
“I remember dad and Burton Purdy sitting watching the game, I would be laying on the floor watching. Mom and Emeline (Purdy) would be in the kitchen preparing food and the Purdy brothers would be coming and going.”
Scotty was 10 when he first played peewee football for the Truro Blue Bombers under head coach Archie Robertson. He would later attend Cobequid Educational Centre where he was an outstanding running back, wide receiver and tailback for four seasons with the CEC Cougars.
“We were in the provincial high school finals all four years,” Scotty said. “Our arch rivals were Queen Elizabeth Lions. We won two provincial high school championships under Keith Mackenzie as head coach.”
Mackenzie recalled Scotty as being “small in stature” but with a “huge heart” when it came to football.
“Pound for pound he was as fine a running back as I ever coached. Scotty rushed for over 1,000 yards in a season (when) we were league champions. Scotty was a league all-star; he was a pleasure to coach, and he was an inspiration to his teammates.”
Graduating from the CEC in 1980, Scotty went west and played two seasons of junior football with the Saskatoon Hilltops.
He would later attend Saint Mary’s University for one year (during which he was on the Huskies roster) before transferring to the Nova Scotia Teacher’s College for two years. He began his teaching career in 1985.
Scotty taught his first two years at South Colchester High School in Brookfield. From 1987 to 1994 he taught at Brookfield Junior High and was at Truro Junior high from 1994 until 1997. A move to the CEC saw him teach biology and physical education from 1997 until 2016. A memorable experience saw Scotty serve as head coach of the CEC Cougars football team.
“It was definitely a career highlight to come back and teach and coach at the school where I had so many great experiences as a student athlete,” Scotty said. “CEC is truly a school of excellence, whether it is our sports teams, school musicals, world class band programs or high academic students. The school is second to none.”
You might say Scotty also enjoyed a second career – taking on football coaching assignments at Saint Mary’s, ST. F.X. and Mount Allison.
“A highlight I’ll never forget was getting to coach full time with Mount Allison University in 2010 as their defensive coordinator. That was special.”
In total, Scotty coached in five national championships and was part of the Saint Mary’s Huskies coaching staff during national championship wins in 2001 and 2002.
“I guess as my career went along and I gained coaching experience, my dreams went from wanting to play in the NFL to wanting to coach in the NFL,” he said.
GETTING TO LIVE THE DREAM
Scotty joined the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the CFL as an assistant coach and as the football operations coordinator for the 2016 and 2017 seasons.
Next week, more on his experience with the Roughriders along with a focus on how this amazing man has taken the term of “giving back to your community” to a new level.
Worth Repeating is a weekly column touching on stories from the past, life experiences and events from the present day. If you have a column idea, contact Lyle at 902 673-2857.