WESTVILLE ROAD, N.S. – A few weeks ago, Junior A Crushers assistant coach Tyler Noseworthy was walking in the hallway at the Pictou County Wellness Centre when he heard a woman calling his name.
“I heard someone go, ‘Tyler! Tyler!’ and I turned around and it was Ann.”
That was Ann White, one of the Crushers regular billeters, who more than 10 years earlier had opened her home to Noseworthy and Tony Pisano, when their junior hockey careers were just getting started.
A native of St. John’s, NL, Noseworthy joined the Crushers in the fall of 2007, arriving in time to help the Crushers win the Fred Page Cup the following spring, at John Brother MacDonald Stadium.
“I came here when I was 16, that’s pretty young to be leaving home,” he says. “Going to high school, at North Nova Education Centre – I made lifelong friends going to that school (but) the best memory was coming here and winning the Fred Page and going to Cornwall (for the Royal Bank Cup). The national stage – that was pretty cool.”
He would eventually split time between the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League’s Moncton Wildcats and Victoriaville Tigres, had another stint with the Crushers, played with the South Shore Lumberjacks and Woodstock Slammers, and ended in Dauphin, Man.
Playing in Victoriaville was not a good experience for him, he says now – the Tigres wanted him to play the role of an enforcer, “the type of player that I didn’t want to be.”
THE PROFESSIONAL RANKS
After his junior career ended, Noseworthy turned pro, toiling in places such as Danbury, CT; Elmira, N.Y.; Huntsville, Ala.; Bloomington, Ill. (he even played a season in Australia).
It was in Dansbury where Noseworthy teamed up with old Crusher teammate and friend Pisano to win a Federal Hockey League title in 2013, just as they had during their time in Pictou County.
“So, we won two championships together,” Noseworthy said (they still keep in touch now and again).
When he was finished in Australia, it was time to confront life beyond pro hockey, “to shut it down, and get moving with real life,” says Noseworthy, who has a serious girlfriend (Alysia, who has an 18-month-old daughter).
BEHIND THE BENCH
Noseworthy had helped coach major bantam in Cole Harbour for a couple of years, but reached out to Crushers’ general manager Chad McDavid this past summer – who’d been an assistant coach during part of Noseworthy’s time here – to inquire about coaching opportunities here.
It eventually led to him getting the assistant coaching position with the Crushers – back where it all started.
He is now working with Mike Danton, who himself is entering new territory as a head coach in junior A.
“I love Dants,” Noseworthy said. “We’re both high-intensity guys who want to get the best out of players when they’re on the ice.”
McDavid said it was helpful that Noseworthy was familiar with the organization and the area in which it plays, but another asset he brings is that his professional career shows younger players that junior A isn’t the end of the line – that maybe there is something more out there.
“Tyler’s a prime example that, if you keep working, opportunities will come. And that was important to us.”
THE OLD HOUSE TORN DOWN
Noseworthy had been unaware that JBM Stadium had been razed earlier last winter. During training camp, he was driving through New Glasgow’s east side when he saw the empty lot, where the old barn had stood at the corner of Washington and MacGregor streets since 1951.
“I saw it just wasn’t there anymore, and I was like, ‘oh man, that’s crazy’. There’s a lot of memories in that rink.
“But I’m grateful for my time as a player, spending it at John Brother. Even though it’s torn down, I feel like my sweat and blood is in the soil over there.”
