Article content
Langton and Area Minor Hockey Association is celebrating its 50th anniversary during the 2020-21 season.
An important part of the community for five decades, that tradition carries on today through generations of hard work and the dedication of its volunteer executive, coaches and hockey players.
Roger Demeester, who celebrates his 82nd birthday on Dec. 13, is one of the original executive, and has been a timekeeper/scorekeeper in the arena for more than 8,200 games.
“You’d almost have to think a guy’s stupid to be here 50 years,” Demeester joked. “Maybe I got hit by too many pucks.
“But I still have the same impression now as when we started. We made up a constitution when we started this organization – it was for the benefit of the kids. It was recreation. It was something to do. And I still feel exactly the same way about hockey now. I don’t have any more kids involved, so I can be objective. I don’t have to look at who’s good, who isn’t. It’s just real simple for me – if we can help a kid get to the point in his or her life where they can handle real life experience… If you can transfer that kid from an alley in Simcoe to a real good kid… some of that may be from what they learned in minor sports. And it doesn’t have to be hockey, any minor sport.”