Kyle Rysdale has done everything at Olympia Sports Camp. He has been a camper, a coach’s kid, a counsellor, a senior staff, and a coach. Every step along the journey Kyle was known for his work ethic. I had the good fortune to know Kyle before I knew anything about Olympia as I helped coach the Queen Elizabeth Park High School junior football team in Oakville when I was in teacher’s college, and this gangly 6’6” 170-pound guy would ask me a million questions. Great guy then, great guy now.

 

Sports were always a big part of Kyle’s life, although he calls himself a late bloomer. His dad, Ken, played football and basketball at Western University. In high school, Kyle played on every team he could, and he was coached by a staff of great coaches, including Olympia veteran Wilf Philipps.

 

By the end of high school, Kyle had grown to 6’8” but he wasn’t highly recruited, including to his obvious choice of Western. His self-effacing honesty about what happened when he got on campus in London says a lot about this great Olympian.

 

“I remember Bill Pangos from my early days at Olympia and he was the assistant coach that year while he was doing his masters. I joked with Bill years later that he cut me, but the reality is that I didn’t give myself a chance to make the team, as I didn’t prepare nearly enough.  A lesson in resting on past success instead of future goals.”

 

To change the path of his journey, Kyle had to change an internal ogre, where Kyle set up an excuse of not working hard enough and failed, into an internal ally, a work ethic where he would determine his path, not someone else. After not making the team and having a competitive void in his life, Kyle decided that proving himself at the new level and making the team would be a goal he would go after. He worked hard the next summer and made the team.

 

“I had such respect for Doug Hayes from my days as an Olympia camper and I believe that he kept me over a few more talented guys because of my work ethic,” Kyle says. “I played more and more throughout my career, we won two Ontario championships, and I was named a conference all-star in my last year. All because I committed to a goal to outwork others not as willing to commit.” 

 

Kyle’s first summer at Olympia was as a camper in 1979, the last year Olympia was at the old Camp Winnebagoe site. In those days, a basketball player had two choices for camps: Olympia or All Pro. Kyle was at a tournament where Craig Hedges was showing the Olympia camp video and Kyle was impressed. Coach Philipps knew Olympia coach Larry Angus, who raved about the place. So, Kyle chose Olympia. He loved everything about the camp, but especially the coaches.

 

“Imagine a coaching staff that included Doug Hayes from Western, Bob Coull from Niagara Falls, Bob Bain from York, John Petrushchak from Runnymede, and Terry Thomson from Oakwood,” Kyle says. “How inspiring to be around these highly successful coaches who were great, down-to-earth people too. I knew then that I wanted to go to Western and wanted to play for Doug Hayes.”

 

Kyle spent the first two years at the new site on Oxbow Lake as a camper, but another connection changed things. His dad had played football with Rich Hawkins at Western and, now a teacher in Peel Region, was recruited by Doc Hawkins to come up as a coach. Kyle then became a week 8 coach’s kid. 

 

After years as a coach’s kid, Kyle got his first job at Olympia with some help from Coach Hayes.  At Olympia, Coach Hayes was the headline instructor of week 8. He would take Kyle with him to do his presentations to the various groups as an example of hard work and growth. Kyle laughs now because in his introduction to the group, Coach Hayes would start by saying how Kyle wasn’t a very good basketball player and worked himself into an all-star.

 

“Coach Hayes was loved by everybody,” Kyle reminisces. “He recruited a lot of great players from Olympia. The foundation of the 1990–91 CIS [USports] Championship team, John Stiefelmeyer, James Green, Mike Lynch, Brendan Noonan, were all from Olympia.”

 

Kyle was senior staff for one year after graduating from Western, working with Olympia lifers Rob Simmons and Dani Hawkins, among others. He worked maintenance with Bruce Ransom. Bruce mentioned to me that “kids these days” could learn about work ethic by watching Kyle Rysdale work in the spring of 1989. Beginning his teaching career in London, Kyle went directly into coaching at Olympia, staying in the motel unit as a single coach. Lots of laughs and lots of memories. Great friendships formed with coaches like Paul Brousseau, Kevin Roseneck, and Rob Baird.

 

The connection of Kyle to Rob Baird has a generational Olympia story. When Kyle was a camper, one of his coaches was Jim Baird. Rob was a coach’s kid and was often on Kyle’s team. Years later, after Kyle played for Western and Rob played for Waterloo, these two Olympia veterans were coaches and roommates in the motel, and best friends. 

 

Back to his high school days at Queen Elizabeth Park, Kyle remembers this one beautiful girl, Lisa McCoy, who was younger than him and travelled in different social groups and who was “way out of my league.” He had that internal ogre of a lack of confidence with girls that many teen boys do. 

He went off to Western and started playing basketball and was in a new life phase, or so he thought. His Olympia buddy Rob Baird invited Kyle to an Oktoberfest event in Waterloo. Kyle went because another coaching friend, Steve Maloney, who went to Queen’s University, said a couple of good-looking girls from Queen’s were coming too. One of those good-looking girls turned out to be Lisa McCoy.

 

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This reconnected couple hit it off and started dating. They were married in December of 1997 and Rob Baird the matchmaker was in their wedding party. An addendum to this story is that Kyle returned the favour by introducing Rob to a woman who taught at Kyle’s school: Kyle ended up being in their wedding party.

 

Kyle and Lisa were blessed with the arrival of son Brady in 1999 and the new offspring showed his Olympia mettle by being at camp 2 months later. They had one of the small coach’s cabins, but Lisa loved it.

 

Lisa,Kyle,Mason, and Brady Rysdale

“When the kids were young Lisa never felt the stress of taking care of them in a small cabin because she just loved everything about camp: the three meals cooked by someone else every day, the beautiful surroundings we were living in, and the social life with all the other coaches and their families. Lisa only had three weeks of holidays, but week 8 at Olympia was always one of them.”

 

In July of 2000, the young family was dealt a blow as Lisa was diagnosed with a brain tumour. Over the next several months Lisa went through radiation, and chemotherapy. The chemotherapy eventually shrunk the tumour, and that was great news.

 

“The chemo shrunk the tumour and after that Lisa had no symptoms. The doctors told us that the tumour was shrunken, but it would never be completely gone. We went for regular scans, at first every three months and then every six, then maintenance. We asked the doctors about the possibility of having another child and were told there was no risk to Lisa or the child, so we decided to have another baby. Mason was born in 2002.”

 

Lisa was going for regular scans and checkups, and everything was fine for 12 years. Every one of those years included a great week at Olympia. 

 

Then one scan showed that the tumour hadn’t grown, but it had changed. Lisa and Kyle had a decision to make. They could leave the tumour as is and do regular scans to monitor the changes, or they could start chemotherapy again. Lisa decided on chemotherapy. They went through a couple of drugs, but nothing worked. She started having symptoms like losing her ability to speak and forgetting what she was saying. It was very hard on Kyle and the two boys at that stage of their lives, seeing their wife and mother go through this.

 

This vibrant woman who was loved by everyone and whose positive attitude made her determined to live each day to the fullest passed away on May 24, 2016.

 

Kyle appreciated the outreach from so many of his Olympia family. The funeral celebration of Lisa’s life was attended by over 1,200 people. All honouring a life’s journey that ended far too soon.

 

“I don’t think you could find anyone who ever had a bad thing to say about Lisa,” Kyle reflects.

 

Kyle went back to Olympia for a couple of years, stopping in 2018, but the memories of Olympia and the path he took for almost 40 years mean a lot. He admires the effort and money Dave Grace put into making life lessons available to all campers and coaches. He was especially impressed with him hiring NBA pros to come up and speak to the campers about their journey. His vote for best speaker may surprise some.

 

“The best speaker I ever heard at camp was Kevin Pangos,” Kyle says. “Kevin was someone that the campers could relate to because he got his start on the same courts they were playing on themselves, but it was more than that. He was polished and confident, funny, and personable. I always thought that was what Olympia taught him.”

 

Why keep coming back for so long?

 

“In week 8, we had such a core group that came back year after year. It was like a family reunion every summer. The outdoors I love, the basketball, the camaraderie, and the social life made it hard to give it up. I remember the funny stuff that Ross Black and Danny Russell did. The theme nights. I remember the campfires after evening session. The relationships that form in this little piece of heaven up north are priceless. These connections are what made Olympia such a fixture in my summer. Then Lisa started coming and she loved it too.”

 

The man that Kyle has known since 1979 means a lot to him too. He sees Dave Grace as someone everyone looks up to. He sees Dave as an ally to everyone. Dave believed in what he was doing, and Kyle finds that self-belief inspiring when looking at his own life, and he believes in those Olympia values to this day. 

 

“Dave has been legendary since day 1 for me,” Kyle reflects. “To me, he is a leader who walks the talk. He is a perfect example of a person willing to take the bat off his shoulder. What is amazing is that it is now a generational camp, with former campers now bringing their kids, and in some cases, grandkids. All this evolved by one man having a vision, and a plan to see that vision through.”

 

“Dave gave us all those great Olympia memories with Lisa and for that I am forever grateful.”

Pay It Forward. 2022 will be a great year as the camp will return and flourish, but we need to be allies. Now is the time to get the word out to our circle of influence The camp website is  www.olympiasportscamp.com Check out the website. Register your kids. Get your kids to get a few friends to join them at camp. Do it for the kid whose life will be changed because they got to go to Olympia Sports Camp in the summer of 2022. Help spread the vibe that after two years the best sports camp in Canada ( with the four reasons we hear at every opening) will be back and be better than ever.  

 

 

 

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.