For years Jay Anderson has walked through the arena in Georgetown, each time noticing the pictures of the past recipients of the Georgetown Hockey Heritage Award.
The contributions those men and women made are not lost on him.
“When you see the people that have won before, they had an impact on my hockey career,” Anderson said. “Without them, I don’t get to play.”
And without playing, Anderson would not have gone on to a 30-plus year career in coaching, including three stints as the coach of his hometown junior team, the Georgetown Raiders.
Anderson has also served as the president of the Halton Hills Hockey League for more than 20 years and is the current chairman of the Hockey Heritage Oldtimers tournament.
Still, Anderson says it will be a strange feeling walking into the arena and seeing his portrait hanging amongst the Georgetown Hockey Heritage Award winners.
“You think, ‘Do I really deserve all this?’” he said. “It’s very humbling.”
Anderson, the first to receive the award since 2020 due to COVID-19, was recently honoured at Norval Community Church.
Georgetown Hockey Heritage Council president Mike Daquano said Anderson is a fitting recipient.
“His commitment to the craft of coaching; he’s always strived to make all kids successful,” said Daquano. “He’s also a big proponent of his community. He loves where he grew up.”
It was Anderson's commitment to the community that led him to become president of the Halton Hills Men’s Hockey League.
When the league’s president was stepping down in 2002, Anderson stepped up to ensure the league that had been playing since the 1960s could continue.
The first thing he did was develop a league constitution and improve its reputation.
“It was a rough and tumble league, but he’s cleaned it up so players can have a good, clean, fun league to play in,” said Daquano.
Anderson said he’s most proud when local players return after playing elsewhere.
“There are guys who play in two or three leagues, and they say this is their favourite,” said Anderson, noting it’s a fast, skilled league. “All I’ve wanted is that when I hand it off, it will be in a better spot than when I took it over.”
But while Anderson’s work in the league, and as the Hockey Heritage Oldtimers tournament chairman, is mostly behind the scenes, it's his coaching that he's best known for.
His career began early, at the age of 21, when Georgetown Gemini coach Peter Sturgeon offered him an assistant’s role when his junior career was finished. He continued as an assistant at Brandon University, where he attended teachers’ college.
Anderson landed a head coaching job with the Oakville Blades and then his hometown Raiders.
His second time with both teams would prove to be his most successful. In Georgetown, he led the team to a then-team record 27-win season in his first full year. Then in Oakville, he was named the division’s top coach.
He even had success outside of hockey, coaching provincial volleyball championship teams at Georgetown District High School and Oakville Trafalgar High School.
But for all his success, Anderson heard the same reason each time he was let go or tried to move up in the coaching ranks.
“It was always that I wasn’t tough enough on the players,” he said.
That brought about a change in his approach.
“It wasn’t about me moving on - it was about helping the players move on,” he said. “And if they did, that was the feather in my cap.”
And from now on when Anderson walks into the arena, he’ll have a reminder of one very large feather in his cap.
