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Doug Player — a lifelong passion for learning

" When you do a thing, do it with all your might. Put your whole soul into it. Stamp it with your own personality. Be active, be energetic, be enthusiastic and faithful, and you will accomplish your object.
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Doug Player

"When you do a thing, do it with all your might. Put your whole soul into it. Stamp it with your own personality. Be active, be energetic, be enthusiastic and faithful, and you will accomplish your object. Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm."

- American philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson

There's a lot of tittle-tattle in Whistler. Gossip, chatter, natter, babble, blather, drivel... call it what you will. Like any small town over endowed with people who have too much free time on their hands, this place virtually pullulates with rumor and innuendo.

Take the stories going 'round about the proponents for the Whistler International Campus project (colloquially known as Whistler U). They're all carpetbaggers, go the tales. They're here to gouge their pound of real estate flesh from us poor locals.

Besides, goes the current line, these WIC guys are masters of smoke and mirrors: their campaign to establish a post-secondary facility in the valley is really all about bed-unit allocations and getting more concessions than they deserve. They're just greedy developers... same as all the others who paved over our little corner of paradise. So screw 'em. We don't need their kind here anymore.

But hang on a minute. Is that really what's going on here? Being the fundamental contrarian that I am, I simply couldn't swallow the current line. So I decided to find out for myself. Here's what I discovered:

There's nothing remotely slick or smooth about Doug Player. A self-avowed education nerd, WIC's project leader reminded me more of an avuncular uncle than a Donald Trump wannabe. As for his teaching credentials and personal roots in Whistler and B.C... Hmmm, how could I put this? You couldn't find a guy with more integrity if you tried.

Look, I'm as skeptical about new Whistler projects as the next person. And I certainly don't support raising the bed-unit ceiling here... for any reason. Still, it would be a huge mistake for us to dismiss Dr. Player (he earned a doctorate in educational leadership in 1996) and what he brings to this community.

So feel free to take the following words with a grain of salt. And remember: this isn't a promo piece for Whistler International Campus — I'm confident you can decide for yourself whether or not their proposal offers a workable model for this place. I'm way more interested in telling you the story of a man who started from modest circumstances and accomplished a heck of a lot in the near-seven decades he's been around.

"I'm a B.C. boy from head-to-toe," says the 68-year old proudly. "I was born and raised in Trail, right on the banks of the Columbia River." He laughs. "And sports — mostly team sports — were really big there while I was growing up. You know, hockey, basketball, baseball..." He sighs. "But I wasn't allowed to participate."

Say what? "It's a crazy story," he says. He laughs some more. "It happened during a Little League baseball game. I was probably 12 at the time." He stops. Lets a few beats go by. "I was playing in the outfield, you know, when the other team's batter hit a ball in my direction. But instead of using my hands to catch it, I used my face..."

It must have been quite a hit. For the resulting impact shattered Doug's upper jaw and sent him to the hospital for numerous repairs. But it was the school board's over-the-top response to the accident that really altered the youngster's life. "I guess they were worried about liability issues," he says. "But they never really explained their decision. They just banned me from physical education."

No more team sports. No more PE. What was a young guy to do? "I loved basketball," he admits. "But that was no longer available to me." A long pause. "So I took up curling..." Curling? "Yep — I even became the skip of the high school team. In the summertime I played golf." He smiles. Chuckles at the irony. "And here I lived right next to one of the coolest ski hills (Red Mountain) in B.C..."

But life in Trail in the early 1960's wasn't just about playing sports. "We were lucky in many ways," explains Dr. Player. "There were a lot of new Canadians living there in those days — mostly Italians. And their first concern — always! — was making sure that their children would have it better than they did. So education was big in Trail. Really big."

And that's where young Doug thrived. "I thoroughly enjoyed school," he admits. "I was the classic nerdy kid." But Trail was just too small for the budding academic, and like so many before him Player didn't stick around long after graduating from high school. He left the Kootenays in 1965 to attend university at UBC. "I took an English degree there and then spent an extra year getting my teaching credentials."

By the Fall of '69, Player had a job teaching English at Windsor Secondary in North Vancouver. Although he didn't know it at the time, the North Shore would become his home and workplace for the next 40 years!

"For me," he says, "the job of teaching has two principal components. The first is to make every child feel significant every day. And the second is to help every child get access to his or her dreams. That's what I focused on during my teaching years. That's where I saw the opportunity to really impact the lives of my student."

And from what I've been able to gather from former students, Dr. Player did make an impact on his students' lives. "To help young people see the possibilities in life — that's really what education is all about," he says.

His teaching credentials aside, what fascinates me most about this man is the driving ambition that saw him move through five schools in five years, become a junior high principal within nine, the superintendent of West Van schools within twenty... and a EdD candidate in educational leadership at the age of 50!

"You want to know about my motivation?" He laughs some more. "That mostly comes from my dear mother. She was the loveliest person in the world, you know. But she had very high standards." He grabs a quick breath. "Like the time I phoned her with the news that I'd just been appointed superintendent of schools. I was so excited. 'I made it mom,' I told her. 'I'm at the top of my profession.' You know what she said? "There are always other challenges, Doug...'" He looks at me. Shrugs. "See what I mean? I can't help myself — it's hardwired in me."

Let me be clear here. Player's march up the professional ladder wasn't just about personal ambition. Seems that wherever he went during those years, he left the place better than how it was before he arrived. Take his stint as principal of West Van's chichi Sentinel high school.

"It was around 1981," he starts, "and I was barely into my first year as principal of the school when I was visited by one of the students' moms. Her name was Betty Rae Hale and she wanted to know if I could do anything to help some of the older Whistler Mountain Club racers fit their school work around their travel and training schedules." He pauses. "Well, back then Sentinel didn't have a great reputation so I was ready to try new things. So I said: 'Sure. Let's see what we can do.'"

The resulting program, termed Super Achievers, was an immediate hit. "It was designed specifically for Whistler ski racers," he says. "But it soon caught the attention of other student-athletes. So we made arrangements for a group of Goh Ballet dancers, then some gymnasts and then some swimmers. In no time we had 25-30 kids in the program." He smiles. "That was my introduction to Whistler..."

But it was his own children's connection to skiing that convinced Player to get involved in the sport himself. "We all got our start on the North Shore — on Grouse Mountain actually. My son, Warren, took to skiing like a duck to water," he says. "As for me, I had to learn how to do it at the ripe old age of 40." He laughs. "When Warren moved up to Whistler to teach skiing in the mid 1990's... well, let's just say that when I saw where he lived in staff housing, I decided it would be better for us to buy our own place." He smiles. "And we've been coming here ever since."

Which brings us back full circle to WIC and Dr. Player's involvement in the project. "I'm retired," he says. "I don't need money or fame. I'm doing it for the good of the cause. For me, it's a legacy project..." And here's the punchline. "I was brought into this project by Whistler residents," he explains. "I've made sure to consult with locals at every stage. If Whistlerites don't want this, then I'm ready to accept their decision." He pauses. Shrugs sadly. "But what a missed opportunity that would be..."