It's Gotta Be Fun



It’s Like the Master’s. Once you win, you’re always invited back.

 

Al Overwijk’s ‘win’ is a win for Olympia.



Olympia coach Al Overwijk is in the Lindsay, Ontario Sports Hall of Fame. He was a star at Carleton University in Ottawa. He coached at Carleton. He runs basketball day camps in both his hometown of Lindsay and at his summer cottage in Lac Sam, Quebec. He is an inspiring teacher and basketball coach at Ottawa’s Glebe High School. But he is also a world champion. This national level basketball player and coach is a world-class prankster with a heart of gold and a passion for helping kids and having fun, usually at the same time.

 

 Overwijk is a high school math teacher who brings stories and humour into the classroom daily. As he says on his blog, he has two passions: basketball and math. When teaching geometry, he was tired of drawing circles on the blackboard using a compass so one day he just tried a free hand circle, and it was…perfect. The kids in the class were impressed so the storyteller came out.

 


{Grady,Al, and Cole}


“I told the kids that I was the world champion circle drawer and that there was a tournament in Vegas that I go to every year. I even added the part that it’s like the Master’s and once you win you get invited back every year,” Al explains,” I guess my details were so convincing that the kids bought it, and the legend was born.”

 

Check out a YouTube video entitled World Freehand Circle Drawing Champion. This video has over 32 million views. You can also check Al’s Blog called SlamDunk Math to get the whole story of what Al calls his 15 minutes of fame. This fame got Al invited onto U.S. talk shows and even earned him a couple of trips abroad. All on a prank story within a math lesson.  

 

The cool Olympia part to this story? Al and his son Cole have had a ‘circle off’ challenge every Friday night for talent night. In front of 500 people.

“Cole having the confidence to get up in front of the camp and draw a freehand circle, the first time at the age of six, says all you need to know about the environment of Olympia,” Al explains, “It’s about risk-taking, it’s about trust in a non-judgemental environment, it’s about growth, it’s about community. I add to the event by explaining to the camp that it comes natural and circle drawing may by genetic as my father was a circle drawer and his father was a circle drawer and that it looks like Cole has the circle drawer gene. Great fun!”

 

Speaking of fun, nothing lasts if it’s not fun. Coaching is a lot of work. Coaching is a lot of fun. Al is proof that the words ‘work’ and ‘fun’ shouldn’t be opposites on a continuum. Case in point: Anyone who has ever been up in the coach’s lounge has seen the faded, black and white pictures honouring the Norwegian airmen who once walked these lands during the second world war. 


You may have missed this picture. It blends into the genre of all the pictures if one takes a tour of the lounge. If you take a close look at this picture you can count the clues that this picture doesn't fit in. Pranks are sometimes a case of " you had to be there." Pranks take planning. Pranksters are often creative geniuses. These pranksters may be Olympia coaching legends but they are not members of the Royal Norwegian Air Force. In fact they are Al Overwijk from Ottawa, Mike Matura from Kitchener, PJ Edgeworth from London, and Andrew Wyss from New Haven, Indiana. Olympia isn't a place where. Olympia is a people who.




The link to the blog is TuesdayswithDave.blogspot.com

This blog is about the journey of the writing of the book A Hero's Journey: From Little Norway to Olympia Sports Camp. The blog will contain excerpts from the book and my personal thoughts on what the place and the people that make up Olympia's journey is all about. The title comes from the great book Tuesdays With Morrie, by Mitch Albom. The blog's title is recognizing Dave Grace as Camp Director, but all content is my own.

 

 


 

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