Charles Douglas Roach
Tricky Doug Roach Leads Team
Doug Roach was a sports star at Wolfville High School in the early 1940s who contributed to the school’s athletics success in both hockey and basketball. The hockey team was particularly successful during the 1942 season, thanks in part to Roach. In January the Wolfville paper reported: “Paced by Roach and Hennigar, the High School Hockey Team opened its scoring column with a 4-3 win over Windsor Academy Saturday morning.” A report of a game against Windsor in February noted that Roach scored twice, while in the first playoff game with Kentville, “Sparked by tricky Doug Roach, Wolfville High School took a 3-0 win from Kentville in the first game of a home and home series for the Championship of the Valley Interscholastic League.” Unfortunately, although they were top of the league after the regular season, Wolfville High School lost to the Wallace Barteaux-coached KCA of Kentville in the playoffs.
After graduation from high school in 1942, Roach enlisted in the army, returning to Wolfville and entering Acadia University in 1946. There, he played interclass basketball and football and was a member of the varsity hockey team for each of his four years there. He received an athletic “A,” distinction and a blazer for his contributions to the team. In 1948, he scored in overtime in an important game against the Wolfville town team; that game gave Acadia the Callander Trophy. During the 1949 season, he was part of Acadia’s high-scoring first line with Neil MacVicar and Lloyd MacFarlane. The Athenaeum commented that “Douglas Roach proved quite an asset to the Kellymen.” In the 1949 title game against St Francis Xavier University (NS) he scored what proved to be the winning goal that secured the crown for Acadia. In his senior year, he was team captain. After graduation in 1950, Doug Roach taught school.
