Tuesday's With Dave

 May 24th honours Queen Victoria. Some call it the unofficial beginning of summer. Some call it May 2-4. But for a lot of people in the Olympia alumni family and beyond May 24 will be  day of reflection and remembrance. That is the day, in different years, that Olympia lost two of its most dynamic and positive personalities who influenced many; John Petrushchak and Kelly Dunham. To honour these legends I provide an excerpt of each from A Hero's Journey: Beyond Little Norway and Olympia Sports Camp . Hundreds of people have walked the grounds of Olympia over its 50-year span and these two were among the best. Coach P passed away on May 24, 2022, just a few days shy of his 83rd birthday. Kelly passed away on May 24, 2020 after a brief illness at the age of 51. That their journeys impacted hundreds is an understatement. John had a great career ar George Harvey and Runnymede CI and is one of Ontario's winningest basketball coaches. The players who model their lives after their men...

 An Olympian makes the Olympics! Congrats go out to Olympia Sports Camp week 9 coach's kid Julie Brousseau on the astonishing accomplishment of qualifying for the 2024 Olympics!! Julie will be in Paris this summer and will compete in the 200m freestyle relay.  This achievement for the now-18 year old from Ottawa is something that her father Paul and mother Lisanne, and her sisters Abby and Merielle should be very proud. And every Olympia Sports Camp family member will join the Brousseau Bandwagon and will be cheering her on this July. Its very cool that someone we met so long ago is now about to compete on the world's largest stage. The blog entry below, which is a reprised edition of one written on Dec 11, 2023, captures the continual growth of the challenges this young athlete has taken on. Will there be a gold medal around her neck? That's the next stage of her journey, yet to be determined. HERE WE GOOOO!! Here's the blog entry that has aged well... One theme throug...

 An Olympia Moment in Time. According to Philosopher Joseph Campbell, the hero must go through challenges and slay dragons on their journey, but the result is that they become the person they were meant to become. In the journey of writing A Hero's Journey: Beyond Little and Olympia Sports Camp I was lucky to meet some amazing people with amazing stories that the book is full of. The following is an excerpt from the book. It can be found on page 252 and its written by Kris Potter. I'm paraphrasing for length. The content of this passage has echoes in the journey of Olympia coach's kid Kalia Potter. My Olympia Story began when I was 16 years old and I had been hired to work at the tuck and pro shop. To say that I was a model employee that summer would be a significant stretch, as I was homesick and didn't want to be there. I was insecure, didn't know anyone, and didn't want to look foolish doing things like all those dances! I was being forced to step out of my ...

  An Olympia Moment in Time. TuesdayswithDave.blogspot.com was originally created to promote the writing process of my book. Now the content in the blog will be available on the Olympia Sports Camp App and to members of the Olympia Alumni Association. ... An excerpt from  A Hero's Journey: Beyond Little Norway and Olympia Sports Camp Blaine Scatcherd is an Olympia alum whose story is captured in Chapter Six: Allies and Ogres. This hilarious and emotional vignette of his journey took place on the 17th fairway at Deerhurst Highland Golf Course and its says all you need to know about this fantastic teacher and better person. ( Can't you just hear Scatch) " I was helping with the golf camp that week and one of the campers was a 12-year old from Quebec City named JP. It was starting to rain pretty good and everyone else had left. I asked JP if he wanted to quit and that if he wanted to keep going, I would, too. We agreed to continue and then it really started to pour. On hole 1...