The return of Roch

There were lots of hugs at the New Glasgow Karate Club last night as current and former members got together to celebrate the club's 35 anniversary.
The guest of honour was a man who left more than two decades ago: Roch Lefebvre.
Sesei Lefebvre worked with the club between 1976 and 1988, helping to lay the foundation for it to last as long as it has.
"It's great to see the club's still going," he said. "Thirty-five years. Wow."
When Lefebvre first started with the club they were learning the Shotokan style of karate under the instruction of Dave Taylor, a brown belt. The original home was on North Provost Street in an old building that used to be a Chinese restaurant, Lefebvre remembers.
Taylor would eventually leave in the late 70s. But members weren't willing to let the club die.
"Jim McIvor, Ed Sweet and myself kind of got together and kept it going," Lefebvre said.
Under their leadership the club made the switch from Shotokan to Chito Ryu karate.
During his time at the club Lefebvre would earn his own black belt and helped trained nine others.
"Things change a lot," he said. "It was harder. Everything was harder."
Black belts were much harder to earn in those days, he said. Even their practices at the club were rougher.
When the more advanced members were training they would put bricks in a nap sack and take 10-mile runs. Sparring was also a large part of the training and according to a history of the club on their website, physical contact was not limited.
Lefebvre would become so advanced that he eventually became the Nova Scotia Karate Association President and helped organize events when Halifax hosted the national championships here around 1987.
"We did really good. In fact our team from Nova Scotia won the championship that year," he said.
Perhaps a bit ironically, Lefebvre no longer teaches karate and except for a class here or there on special occasions hasn't since he left in the '80s.
"I'll leave it for somebody else to do," he said.
But for a few minutes at least on Thursday he was instructor again, showing children who are so young they weren't born when he left, the motions he learned so long ago.