I'm of the opinion that the summer of 2023 was a huge summer in the journey of Olympia Sports Camp. After two plus years of Covid affecting everything about the camp, 2023 was going to be, and turned out to be, a great summer of growth and slaying dragons. Our book A Hero's Journey: beyond Little Norway and Olympia Sports Camp has a lot of amazing stories of overcoming obstacles on the journey, but the summer of 2023 could be a chapter unto itself. 

But, as always, Olympia is a people who.

The word 'reunion' has been bandied about throughout this 50th summer of camp and no better reunion than one set up by Olympia veteran Krista Scobie with her dad, John Scobie and longtime friend and Olympia founder Dave Grace. Two Olympia legends. Two basketball legends. Both men have given so much of their heart and soul to developing the next generations. John is considered one of the greats in the Ottawa region for what he has done at virtually every level. It meant a lot to Dave to see and spend a tour of camp with his good friend, and a coach who gave over 20 years to Olympia. Great coach, Better person.


The reunion set up was Krista's way to say " Thanks Dave," What a beautiful gesture.

Oh the people we get to meet on our journey.


Copies of A Hero's Journey: Beyond Little Norway and Olympia Sports Camp are available at The Different Drummer BookStore on Locust St in Burlington. Or if you live in the Hamilton/ Halton area etransfer $30 with your address and I'll deliver it to your door.

Online copies are at aherosjourney.ca

Audiobook version is available at Audible, Amazon, or iTunes

If anyone wants to host a Tour of Olympia event where we would come to your town to have a mini reunion, talk about and sell books, email me at coachdools71@gmail.com and let's connect. 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
 Karl Svoboda began his rugby career at Belleville's Centennial Secondary School and the Belleville Bulldogs club team. When he started with the Bulldogs at 16 he was the club's youngest player. When he retired from the game he was the club's oldest, and probably most accomplished. Karl had success in rugby the world over. He won three OUA championships with the University of Toronto Blues and he first made Canada's national team in 1985. He ended up being team captain of the national team for years and played in the first three Rugby World Cups in 1987, 1991, and 1995. He also played senior rugby for the Ajax Wanderers and attended the prestigious Oxford University in England at the dawn of professional rugby in 1996. I gleaned this information from research because for a decade or more of sharing week 5 coaching duties and sitting around campfires this understated superstar would rather play guitar and talk about fishing or that day's bike ride or swim than boast
Read more
Image
In the summer of 2019,  Blaine Scatcherd  was introducing himself at the opening meeting of week 5 and told the assembly of coaches that he worked as a counsellor at Olympia for 4 ¾ years. People who knew the story, including Dave Grace, roared with laughter at the self-effacing honesty Blaine showed when recounting an incident that may have been the worst in his career, yet a defining moment that changed him forever and made him a better teacher and coach, and a better person.    Blaine Scatcherd is from Ottawa, where he was coached in football at Glebe Collegiate Institute by Olympia coach Skip Riddell. He went on to play football at Acadia University and played professionally in France for 2 years before embarking on his teaching profession.   “Skip recommended to me in grade 11 that I work at Olympia as it was a great place for an athlete and would-be coach, so I applied to Olympia with Skip’s reference. I went down to Toronto for a group interview and thought I aced it. I didn’t g
Read more
Image
They say that a picture tells a thousand words. How about two pictures? In the writing of A Hero's Journey: Beyond Little Norway and Olympia Sports Camp I got to interview a lot of people dedicated to Olympia and to the vision of Dave Grace. Out of this process I learned three things about the 50- year journey of the staff of Olympia: 1- Olympia inspires young people 2- Staff inspire others to do the same 3- Staff move on in their lives, carrying Olympia with them, while others replace  Staff like Randy Kipfer and Kevin O'Reilly This picture of Harlem Globetrotter Curly Neal with some amazing counsellors can be found in the book at the start of Chapter 6-Allies and Ogres . It captures an Olympia moment shared by good friends and a world-class basketball entertainer, but the insert is the key element of an Olympia journey that spans decades.  There are literally hundreds of stories of staff who have graced the lands of Interlaken. Every story is unique, every story is echoed th
Read more