A Career Well Served
An Olympia Sports Camp coach for years; 10 years with the CTA prep team in Ottawa; coaching at two different universities- in the same city! National Champion at Prep and University levels. Named to the Cornwall Sports Hall of Fame in 2024. And it all started with a card game.
Coach Trevor Steynor is exactly the type of volunteer and passionate coach that keeps youth sports going, and Trevor took the lessons of his youth coaching and turned it into a career working with athletes at the highest levels in Canada. I steal the opening of Trevor's speech when he was inducted into the Cornwall Sports Hall of Fame in 2024 to capture the philosophy of this basketball lifer. This life coach.
In reference to that infamous card game, the importance of mentors comes to mind. Those who we learn from on our journey play a huge role. A huge mentor for Trevor was his high school coach Bob Clarke, who had played at St. Joseph's of Philadelphia under famous coach Jack Ramsey and who got Trevor excited about coaching basketball. He began coaching in Cornwall in 1995 as an assistant coach with the Cornwall Lions U-15. Very new to coaching, he fell in love with the profession and became one of those coaches that sought out opportunities to learn from others and soak up everything he could.
He had gone to nearby Syracuse University games for years and was a big fan of Orangemen coach Jim Boeheim. He remembers watching games on TV and loving everything about Syracuse. Coach Boeheim was someone that he truly admired and looked up to. In the summer of 1995 he began working at the Syracuse Basketball camp as a counsellor/referee. He also stepped in and helped out with the morning stations. He asked one of the coaches how he could get to know Coach Boeheim and he suggested that he come play cards with Coach B and the other camp coaches. That night he sat beside Coach and a ten year connection was born. He was hired by Bernie Fine as a camp coach and the connection became more personal once Boeheim's kids came to camp and were coached by Cornwall's finest.
The Syracuse camp was also where Trevor met coach Howie Landa, who became a big part of his basketball journey. He met Coach Landa in 1997 and Trevor learned from one of the best. Howie Landa is a member of 10 separate basketball halls of fame. He achieved success at every competitive level at which he has played and coached. When Trevor met him he was doing a lecture on his 26 offensive moves. Coach Linda also ran a basketball camp with NBAer Dave Bing in the Poconos.
The name Dave Bing ( and those 26 moves) would bring a lot of memories to Olympia Sports Camp veterans. Mainstay Olympia pro Walker D Russell referred to the Dave Bing Camp in his lectures at Olympia. When Walker D was younger he went to the Dave Bing Camp and Trevor always smiles when he hears Walker D recite many of the same words shared by Coach Landa. Trevor and Walker D share a laugh when referring to each other as "Landa Kids."
Mentioned earlier was Trevor's passion for coaching and learning as much as he could by attending as many different camps throughout the summer. He started at the Syracuse and Potsdam camps and soon was working 8 weeks of basketball camps across Canada and the U.S. He added camps at Xavier, Cincinnati, Kentucky, Sixers, St Joseph's and Hoop Group in the Poconos. Then another summer he added North Carolina and Duke. In 2003 he spent a month in Ireland working their national camp in Dungarvan and helped train the Irish U-18 boys team.
His list of camps eventually led him to the shores of OxBow Lake and Olympia Sports Camp. His first year was 1999 when he got his coaching certification done through Coach Bill Bourne. He loved the atmosphere so much that he came the following summer for weeks 4 and 9. He found Olympia inviting, with a great culture of togetherness and meeting so many people. He found Dave Grace inspiring not just for the message but the way he could learn everyone's name for opening ceremonies!
Trevor's love for Olympia never wavered and after a few years as a new parent. Trevor returned to Olympia when his daughter Sophie was 5 and they've been back ever since.
The journey through life always has pivot points and for Trevor that came in 2006 when he met his future wife Genevieve while they were teaching at the same school, Rothwell Osnaabruck School in Ingleside, Ont. In the fall of 2006 they moved to Ottawa and Trevor, always looking for opportunities, reached out to Dave De Averio at Ottawa U. He worked with the GeeGees for 4 years before Coach D left for McGill and that left Trevor looking for his next opportunity. Teaching literacy at the prison in Brockville at the time he reached out to Scott James at RMC ( Royal Military College) in Kingston and he loved working with the cadets for a year as they came to prctaive every day with a smile and a willingness to work hard.
Another pivot point. In 2011 he finally got a job in Ottawa and the first person he reached out to was Dave Smart at Carleton. Here is where the 'bird dog' mentality that Trevor possesses really shone. Dave didn't really have a position for Trevor at the time so he just kept going to practice every day and he was eventually accepted as part of the team. He was with the Ravens for 3 years, learning from one of Canada's genius coaches.
A huge highlight for Trevor was when in 2014 the Syracuse Orangemen came to play Carleton as part of a summer tour. What a thrill for Trevor to scout the NCAA Division 1 team but also to chat with his idol Jim Boeheim before the game, No talk of a card game!
Continuing to work at the highest levels in Canada, Trevor then joined the successful Prep program Canada Topflight Academy started by Tony House, combining his role as an assistant coach with acting as team manager and travel coordinator. His connections though his myriad of camps held him in good stead for this job as he got to set up games with coaches he knew who just happened to coach some of the top rated teams in the country. He arranged many games with some of the biggest programs in the U.S. This was an exhilarating experience that he just retired from this year. The picture above is of Trevor and Tony sharing the great moment.
When one looks at the coaching career look at the people he has learned from, and whose knowledge he has been able to share with others.
Whether it be a club team in Cornwall as a novice coach, or working camps across the continent, or coaching USports Champions or working with high school prep stars it was always the same motivation for Trevor. Soak up as much information as you can so you have the tools to help young people meet their goals.
A career well lived. And a retirement well earned.
Thanks and Congrats Coach Trevor!
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
Olympia is blessed to have had such great coaches as Trevor. It is these excellent adult coaches that distinguishes Olympia from other camps.
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