Girls Got Game

Chapter 4 of A Hero's Journey: Beyond Little Norway and Olympia Sports Camp is entitled Meet The Mentors. The idea of the chapter was to analyze the journeys of 12 Olympia coaches whose journey depicts one of the 12 steps of the Hero's Journey described by Jospeh Campbell in his philosophy. What came out of this analysis is that teaching and learning become multi-generational through the process of mentoring. Teachers and coaches teach skills, for sure, but more so they teach or model life skills and a sense of being a good competitor and a good person, maybe to be a coach themselves some day. The true impact of that process is felt best in the lives of he next generation as they share what they learned. Their mentors have taught them how to mentor.

 One of the Mentors whose journey is described in Chapter 4  is Jackie Zicaro, an Olympia stalwart who I knew as Jackie Shaw when I coached her in high school.  Jackie went to Olympia as a babysitter, a camper, then a counsellor before putting in 20 years as a week 7 basketball coach. She has taken the mentoring of so many coaches through her time at camp and turned that into an inspiring career teaching and coaching in York Region. She has gone on to be a real influencer for women's sport in her region of Ontario and is a national level coaching course conducter. Oh the people we meet on our journey. 

Chapter 7 of the book is called Tests and Challenges and when I re-read the intro to that chapter last week I knew I had to share this brief vignette that captures the role of a mentor, even when they don't know they are mentoring. Here is a picture of Jackie with her daughter Siera. Yes they are mom and daughter, but so much more than that. When I interviewed Jackie for the book she relayed a story that I had long forgotten.  It still amazes me the memory Jackie had of that day, but once you get to know her, that's Jackie. Here is the excerpt.

I was a high school coach at  Bishop Reding High School in Milton, in a playoff situation and our best inside player picked up a foul late in the first half. The student scorekeeper at the table told me it was her fourth foul. I knew it wasn't her fourth and brought the referees to the table to get them to agree, as good officials tend to know when a player is in foul trouble. The opposing coach said with a grin on his face that we had to go by what was in the scorebook. I assume to this day that the coach knew the situation and was using it to his team's advantage. The game went on and with about a minute left the student scorekeeper gave us an extra basket, putting us up by one point. I knew we should be down by one. The other coach brought the referees over to clear this up. I must admit that part of me wanted to say that we had to go by what was in the book but instead told the refs that we were down by one and to change the score to reflect that. What I did then was take a timeout and explain to the team that the only way to win was to win fairly, so we had to dig down for the last minute. This emboldened the team, and they went out, played hard, and we won by three points. Here is Jackie with the echo:

" I remember that game and all the team members would have been mad if you lowered your standards just because of what the other coach did earlier in the game, and your honesty and respect for the game motivated us in the last minute," Jackie reflects," Years later, my daughter Siera is playing U12 OBA's, where zone defences are not allowed. We are losing our minds because the other coach was having his team play zone and trap in the corners. I complain to the referees, even though I know they can't call him on it. The ref ran by our bench and said "why don't you play zone too?" I remembered that game from grade 12 and asked the girls if they wanted to play zone in order to win the game. They all said no because it was the wrong thing to do."

"To me that is  winning."

When I think of what Jackie has done in her life and career, I think of winning. When I think of winning I think of the day I was meeting with Dave Grace in his cabin on the shores of OxBow and he gave me a book called " The Only Way to Win" by Jim Loehr. It was an honour that he thought enough of me and my career to give me the book and it became a cornerstone of the journey of writing this book. Dave is always mentoring, but aren't we all?

The Summer of 2026 is open for business. A camp that builds lives. A week that builds memories. 

Have an idea or direction for a blog entry? Email me at coachdools71@gmail.com and lets talk possibilities. 

A Hero’s Journey: Beyond Little Norway and Olympia Sports Camp chronicles the people that make up the history of Olympia, but it does far more than that. It serves as an inspirational guidebook for readers to become the hero of their own path. In order to do this the book examines the history of the land on which the camp has been built, from its indigenous origins to the European settlement process of the 1800’s. and the use of the land by the Royal Norwegian Air Force during WWll. The book is built on a collection of stories related to mentorship, sports psychology, and community building. This book honours the 50-year history of the camp while giving us all a window into seeing a deeper level of understanding of the world and our place in it.

Books Available at: 

-  Tuck and Pro at Olympia ( ask about the coach's deal)

 - Amazon and Indigo.ca

-  Indigo, Burlington Brant Street location.

- The Different Drummer Book Store on Locust Street in Burlington\

- Cedar Canoe Books on Main St in Huntsville

- Etransfer me $30 and I'll drive it to your house ! 

- available online at aherosjourney.ca

- audiobook version is available at Audible, Amazon, and iTunes 

If you would like us to come to your town for a book event or get copies into your favourite bookstore , email me at coachdools71@gmail.com. We travel well.