Picture: ANGIE BASDEKISSource: News Limited
WHEN Lewis Gates played his first game of hockey in 1947, Australia had a population of 7.5 million, World War II had not long ended and man was 22 years from stepping on the moon.
Sixty-six years and more than 1000 games later, the goalkeeper is still sticking it to opponents three decades his junior and saving goals for Brunswick.
Go Hockey News congratulate Lewis and would like to think Lewis is not only a role model of what can be done into one’s twilight years but become one of the ‘faces’ for hockey promotion to the nation. Why?
Our sport is unique and Lewis exemplifies this fact. In a time when it is generalized that there is a decline in the health status of industrialized nations, people are living longer, and there is a corresponding need for nations to be more exercise proactive, hockey offers an ideal solution in terms of people engaging in lifelong sport. This generalization is an opportunity for hockey administrators to promote our sport in a way that attracts new members to the sport not only by focusing attaining children and youth but to reach out to the older population who are currently idle when it comes to participation in sport.
The typical response when I ask the question to former ‘youth’ hockey players or to parents whose children have taken up hockey for the first time why don’t you have a game; is “Oh not me, I am too old”. However when you challenge them with reasons why they can benefit from what hockey continues to offer aging people they often change their perspective. I have witnessed in recent years a growing percentage of older people taking up hockey for the first time. If this is a sign then it is an opportunity that needs to be developed further by hockey administrators.
We are all aware as a sport hockey needs to grow its junior participation base and establish its international credibility through national teams performing well but we can do more. This is to encourage people of all ages to play hockey because it is a lifelong sport for men and women that lends itself to doing just that. Lewis is a testimony to this fact. The growth of Masters hockey and the playing opportunities it now offers from the 35+ age group to older men and women of Lewis’s age status is the platform to market hockey participation to all different age brackets. I do not see other traditional team sports doing this. Let us take the opportunity and lead the way.
The Lewis Gates Story
Do you hope to still be playing sport after 83?
Further proving age is no barrier, Gates, 83, – the oldest registered hockey player in Australia – will also line up in front of the net for his home state in the over-70s at next month’s Australian Masters Hockey Championships in Sydney.
It will mark 27 years since he first gained selection for Victoria but the veteran is hopeful it won’t be his last.
“I heard a few years ago that Scotland had a player of 86 playing for them, I’ve got to beat that,” he said.
“I’m confident I’ll be playing next year but it depends. I’ve got a few niggles.”
A Geelong resident, Gates drives to play his beloved sport with Brunswick’s over-50 men’s team.
So what is the secret?
“I ride my exercise bike one morning and I do what I call my four other exercises, stretches and things, the next morning. And on top of that I do a bit of walking and gardening,” he said.
Lewis Gates you are a legend!!
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Adapted Source: Moreland Leader Newspaper, Author Chris Cavanagh
