Jeff Vanderlugt played his final season of junior hockey with the Surrey Eagles of the British Columbia Hockey League after spending three seasons with the Aurora Tigers of the Ontario Junior Hockey League. The 6’3″, 220-lb. forward finished third on his team in scoring with 30-24–54 in 66 total games this past season, with 11 of those goals coming on the power play. He played 115 career games with Aurora, where he scored 56-54–100.
As with our other interviews, my questions will be in bold-face type.
When did you first start playing hockey? Who in your family played and was involved in you taking up the game? Have you always played your position, or have you played elsewhere on the ice? What was your favorite team and player growing up?
I first started playing organized hockey at seven years old in the local town league. I had a lot of fun that year and even played goalie a few times. The following season, I followed in my older brother and sister’s foot steps and began to play rep hockey. As you can imagine, it was a great challenge for our parents to get us all where we needed to be. There was always one of them at my games, and sometimes both, and on rare occasions my brother and sister would attend. Aside from playing goalie when I was 7, I have occasionally played defense; but the majority of my career I have been a center man. I did not really have a favorite team growing up, but as I lived near Toronto, we always cheered for the Leafs.
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