The Making of a World Champion

This 200th blog entry for Tuesdays With Dave was an idea I got in June after the Oklahoma City Thunder won the NBA Championship, and have been chasing down ever since. This week's blog, looks at the journey  of Olympia Sports Camp camper, High school phenom at Sacred Heart in Ottawa, two-sport athlete at Acadia University in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, professional basketball player in Europe and Canada's CEBL ( Canadian Elite Basketball League) and dedicated and empathetic personal trainer  Sean Stoqua. Some quotes for this blog are taken from my first book: Can't Miss: The Kevin Pangos Story.

Sean's impactful journey to World Champion is inspiring in terms of the people he has had in his inner circle virtually from birth, and the people he was fortunate to meet along his journey, but also the trials and injuries that may have played a huge role in where he is today. Empathetic ? He's been there.

The Olympia Sports Camp connection  (that I was fortunate to share) was in the summer after grade 8 when Sean went to Olympia as a reward for being named MVP of the OBA provincial championships.  He never had been to an overnight camp before and he didn't really know anyone but he loved the camp. It had lots of basketball for this junkie and he enjoyed the coaching. He remembers lining up at the payphone near the entrance to phone his parents a few times. He especially remembers the guest speakers who had 'walked the talk' and showed him the possibilities of doing his best. A belief that in Sean holds true to this day. He wanted to be a professional athlete and learned that daily habits were key. 

So why the pursuit of being a professional athlete? Let's say it's a family tradition.

Sean's father Pat Stoqua played football and basketball for Carleton in the late 1970's and went on to play six years with the Ottawa Rough Riders of the CFL.

"Because my dad played two sports at a high level in university I wanted to see if  I could do the same thing.  Growing up around Ottawa, people would always tell me about my dad and what he was like as an athlete. I would hear about his competitiveness and his toughness and those were always things I wanted to replicate as an athlete. "

The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, except that the Stoqua tree goes back generations.

 

Sean's great grandfather Sutherland (Suddy) Gilmour was one of three brothers to play for the original Ottawa Senators, known then as the Ottawa Silver Sevens, who won the Stanley Cup in 1903 and 1904. His grandfather Blair Gilmour played for the Ottawa Rough Riders in the 1940's before his father's Rough Rider years in the 1980's. 

To be succinct, early in his athletic career Sean was driven to be the fourth generation of Stoqua professional athlete.

But he still hadn't figured out which sport.

A major step to high-level basketball took place in the summer of his his grade 9 year  as Sean was selected to play for Team Ontario, where he met and worked with Coach Jeff Giovanatti. Coach Giovanatti believed that Team Ontario, with future NBAers Nick Stauskas, Anthony Bennett and Kevin Pangos, would win the nationals easily ( they won the gold medal game by 40) that he wanted the players to have an experience outside of basketball. This was a philosophy, with lots of  off the court team building and leadership  stuff that Sean soaked up. 

"Competing at that level gave me confidence as a 15 year-old kid. Knowing I could compete against the  best in the country in my age group gave me a psychological boost. Every practice was a learning experience where I had to compete hard and  learned to play against bigger and faster guards."

To his U15 coach and his teammates Sean was known for his toughness and grit. A  perfect match for a great coach like Giovanatti.

"This was the first year that Team Ontario would be selected from open tryouts so we toured the province looking for Ontario's best," Giovanatti reflected," Sean demonstrated 'winning habits' the first time I laid eyes on him at our tryout in Ottawa. Heart in a player is hard to measure, but in Sean it was obvious in every drill we did, in every game we played. If heart was a measurement Sean (#5)would have made Victor Wembanyama look undersized."

What Giovanatti learned is that Sean's grit came from a desire to make every day a day closer to his goals.

" Sean had the innate ability to do whatever was necessary for team success. Sean's grit was something that everyone on the team respected him for. He would dive on the floor, draw charges. He wouldn't back down from any challenge. He was intimidated by no one. What a pleasure it is to coach players like Sean."

The best part of this player/coach relationship formed through competing for a national championship when Sean was 15? .... It lasted.

 In June of 2025, some 17 years after their shared summer, and after Sean's newest team the Oklahoma City Thunder won the NBA championship, Coach G sent Sean a note that said:

" Congratulations Sean on being an NBA World Champion!!! You have always been a winner in whatever you do.Enjoy!!"

Sean's response captures the whole journey.

" Thanks Jeff. Appreciate you man. Still remember you telling me at Sheridan College when I was 15 that my work ethic would take me places after I was done playing."

Wow. 

The first place his work ethic and talent took Sean was to Wolfville, Nova Scotia.

After a stellar high school career in basketball and football at Sacred Heart in Ottawa Sean's next decision was not just where to go to University but what sport(s) to play. The path that Sean chose says a lot about  Sean's  goal-driven pursuit to be the best athlete and leader he could be.

"  I always wanted to be a professional athlete but I didn't know what sport, so I played football and basketball to keep my options open. I wanted to play 2 sports in university as that would be a great challenge that would force me to grow as a person and a leader. Acadia was one of the only universities in the country who had a top ten ranked team in football and basketball along with coaches who were okay with me playing two sports."

Coming out of high school Sean was a nationally ranked point guard for basketball but was unrecruited for football. His desire to improve in football, which would ultimately help him on the basketball court, eventually led Sean to get a lot of interest from CFL teams and to be invited to the CFL combine after his 4th year at Acadia. Sean used to visualize playing for the Ottawa RedBlacks, like his dad and grandfather had (Rough Riders in those days) but alas he wasn't drafted and turned this attention to basketball.

Always the analytic and wanting the best from any situation, Sean's love of all sports encouraged him to learn from both sports. He always loved when one season would end he'd be super excited for the next to begin.

".Playing defensive back made me a better defender on the basketball court. Playing DB

forces you to learn how to move in many directions and change directions with a narrow

base of support at high speeds. Any athlete who can play DB on the football field can

probably defend well on the basketball court.I was driven to be able to defend well."

It wasn't just the physical. 

" There is probably a social benefit to playing on two teams also. You get exposed to a lot more personalities and social dynamics which forces you to become a better leader/ follower depending on the circumstances."

The two-sport journey was not without some harrowing experiences that ironically played a role in his post-playing career, and the empathy he brought with it. He also met a key mentor 

"In my 3rd year at Acadia I suffered a dislocated ankle and broken fibula in football practice. I missed the whole year and got that year of eligibility back. I ultimately needed 3 surgeries on that ankle, with 12 inches of screws and metal in my left leg, "

Most would call an injury like that a 'career ender' but Sean returned to the field and the court to finish his senior year at Acadia, where he was chosen as the top dual-sport athlete in Canada. But it wasn't without a lot of help.

"Jerusha Young is an osteopath from the East Coast who has been a great mentor for me over the years also. She gave me a book called "Play Hard, Die Young" by Bennett Omalu (the doctor the movie Concussion is based on). In the book he outlines a lot of the unfortunate science around concussions and  head trauma. That book was a big reason I walked away from football and stuck with basketball."

" I also want to mention and thank Elliott Richardson & James Young who were my strength coaches at Acadia and they have been great mentors for me over the years. Physios 

Jethro Constant, Danny Laramee, Clarke Flynn & George Chiappa were key for me in the strength & physio space. These guys all gave me physiotherapy treatments and/or wrote my training programs over the years so I got to learn so much from them first hand. These people  helped me overcome my injuries and ultimately achieve my goals. "

Sean graduated from Acadia in kinesiology but still had basketball plans and that goal to play professionally. He returned home to Ottawa to enrol in the master's of Physiotherapy program. The move  to Ottawa U allowed him to continue playing while working diligently on the next phase of his journey.

 

" I always wanted to be a health care professional of some sort when I was done with

sports. My ankle injury at Acadia encouraged me to look more into athletic therapy and

physiotherapy for my own benefit. I ended up choosing uOttawa for grad school

because of their basketball program. My main goal at that point was still to be a pro

athlete.  In hindsight, I’m grateful it worked out the way it did because the

physio degree really set me up well in my career after I was done basketball."

Sean played two years for the GeeGees but that was not without further toil on the body as he tore his ACL, further lessons in rehab and recovery. 

While in Ottawa and in between future basketball contracts in Europe, Sean worked at three different gyms, working with a wide clientele and gaining knowledge and experience

"The surgeon who did my ACL. Dr Chris Raynor, owned a clinic called Human 2.0 and my physio mentor there was Jethro Constant, who brought me through the injury and rehab. The other clinics I worked at were   Centre for Strength & Athletic Development - owned by George Chiappa, and Enfort Fitness - owned by Warren Lindsay."

"Doing physiotherapy in French at uOttawa was a very cool experience. Sean's french was

good enough to get by but barely so it was definitely a challenge. A challenge that made me a better physio. All that training and varied experience ultimately led me to the NBA."

He combined his physio in Ottawa with sojourns to Europe to play basketball. He would play the seasons and then come home to work for what was a four month summer. He started his pro career in Armenia in 2021. The next year he went to Germany. He then went to Bulgaria to be a strength coach for a team called Balkan Botevgrad. That summer Sean came back and played for three months for the Ottawa BlackJacks, making him the fourth generation Stoqua to play professional sports in Ottawa. The next fall he went back to Bulgaria and played second division and acted as the team's strength coach.

After accomplishing his goal of playing pro with the BlackJacks Sean sensed his passion wasn't the same and decided to focus on training others. But he needed one more mentor.

" I came home to Canada and worked with Mark Scapacicci in Toronto for a few months before becoming  the Director of Performance for the Ottawa Blackjacks that next season. Half

of the guys I played with the previous season were still on the team and now I was their

strength coach, which was a fun experience. "

So then it was on to OKC. His official title is athletic performance coach. He works with the NBA team as well as their League affiliate. 

 So how did he get the gig where he's working with Shai Gilgis  Alexander and Lou Dort and so any others? Was it his agent? NO. Was it some connection in Europe? NO.

 

 "I saw an ad and applied online." So straightforward a process. Like Sean's whole career.

. So where does he see his career taking him?

"I’m enjoying where I’m at right now so I’m just trying to stay present and make every day count."

Something tells me that the Sean Stoqua story has many more chapters to come.

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.