Tuesday's With Dave

One of the aspects of any journey is the people that you meet along the way who impact your path while they are exploring theirs. At Olympia, one meets so many positive people and positive influences, the allies who help us take on challenges and tests.    One such ally is Adina Lopez. Adina (née Franceschino) has a unique Olympia journey that took her from being a camper for only a year and led her to become someone we could call an Olympia lifer. Life took her from small-town St. Thomas, Ontario, to York University in Toronto, to Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, and now to a teaching career in Halton and a beautiful family life in nearby Dundas, Ontario. This fantastic journey also took her from being an athlete to being an athletic therapist, and then to being an elementary school teacher.    And every step of the way, Olympia played a role.   St. Thomas, Ontario, is one of those towns brimming with athletes who as kids played every sport and could achieve...

  Kevin Pangos is the youngest player ever to play for the Senior Men's National Team. He was 16. Actually that feat taught me that Kevin was a bit of an Outlier and motivated me to write Can't Miss: The Kevin Pangos Story.  This Thursday Kevin is suiting up for the national team in a World Cup qualifying game in Victoria. To honour Kevin and his national team journey that hopefully ends up with an Olympic qualification in Paris in 2024, I thought I would share this little vignette that even the most ardent Pangos fan won't know. Truth be told this story has already been in Tuesdays With Dave but with the Canadian game against Argentina on Thursday it is appropriate to once again show that even the best have a human side, and their journey can give many a funny moment. Enjoy....And Go Canada!! Kevin Pangos was already a provincial and national player of distinction before this event took place. I spent five years following Kevin and his family on his travels and career at G...

My daughter Nicole recently celebrated her fourth wedding anniversary. The anniversary gave me a thought to share a short story from chapter 1 of A Hero's Journey: Beyond Little Norway and Olympia Sports Camp . This story reflects on the quality of relationships that are formed through camp, of potentially life-changing experiences if you take the bat off the shoulder, and the six degrees of separation that is so prevalent at Olympia. A basketball and soccer player at St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Tottenham, Brenna Buchanan got a job as a counsellor at Olympia through the connection and referral of my brother Pat. Highly enthusiastic with a bubbly personality, she was perfect for Olympia. Loved the place. My daughter Nicole was a lifetime 'coach's kid' who always wanted to work at Olympia.  She applied for and got the job. Never knowing each other before, Brenna and Nicole became great friends and worked together for three years. Suffice to say that these two great ...

Week 5 of the summer of 2022 just passed and, with that week being a large part of my summer for so long, I truly missed being there. Seeing the many pictures from Olympia friends and family tugged at the heartstrings for sure.  It's the experience you miss, but it's the people you miss. People like Linda Driscoll. Week 5 of the summer of 2022 is also the 25th summer for Olympia gymnastics fixture Linda Driscoll. Here is the beautiful message she wrote for the "Soul Of Olympia" chapter in "A Hero's Journey: Beyond Little Norway and Olympia Sports Camp." The book will be out sometime in the fall and I can't wait for people to read stuff like Linda provides. Thanks for sharing Linda, and thanks for the generations of gymnasts you have inspired.     When I moved to Huntsville from Toronto in 1990, I was looking for a way to “embrace” living in small-town Ontario. To become “one with the community.” Four years later, the   Beamers Gymnastics Club was bor...