Sad news.

DinwiddieProud

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Dec 9, 2013
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This article didn't copy and paste well, but rather than just post the link, I thought everyone should have the opportunity to read about what this remarkable gentleman accomplished, and what he stood for.

Longtime Midlothian High School teacher and coach Jack Olsen dies at age 70





  • 1979, TIMES-DISPATCH
Jack Olsen, coaching at Midlothian High School in 1979, had a difference of opinion with official Scottie Hurst.




  • DEAN HOFFMEYER
Midlothian assistant football coach Jack Olsen (left) talks with Richard McFee after their October contest, telling McFee that this year’s Huguenot team looks like the best ever from the school. NO COLOR VERSION IN MERLIN





At the age of 69, Jack Olsen shot a 69 on the golf course. At the age of 70, he shot a 70.

No one who knew him doubts that had he reached the age of 71, Mr. Olsen would have shot his age, or even lower, once again.

But that day will not come. Mr. Olsen died at his home on Sunday night, surrounded by his family, a victim of colon cancer.


He was 70.

Mr. Olsen was a teacher and coach at Midlothian High School. From 1973 until 2009, he taught government in the social studies department and served as an assistant coach in football, assistant and head coach in basketball, head coach in baseball and even coached, fittingly, the golf team.

“He was an athletics director’s dream,” said Bob Carden, retired basketball coach at Clover Hill High School. “He could coach several sports with a lot of expertise.”

Carden coached against Mr. Olsen and was one of the dozens of retired, former coaches and teachers who regularly played golf together, Mr. Olsen included.

Carden, Charlie Smith, former basketball coach at Manchester, and the late Chuck Tester, former basketball coach at L.C. Bird, also were among the group of coaches who would gather after games, often played against each other since they were in the Dominion District, for pizza and beverages.

The winner picked up the tab.

“When I think of Jack, I think of honesty and integrity,” said Smith. “He would give you the shirt off his back.”

Mr. Olsen was a major influence on the lives of hundreds of students in his years as an educator. That influence was especially strong on his oldest son, Christopher, who is the baseball coach at Matoaca High School.

“I’ve been coaching for 20 years, and my father is exactly the reason I went into the profession,” said Chris Olsen.

“I got to coach football with him for 15 years. I played baseball with my dad (in a Richmond adult league) for 11 years, and not many fathers and sons get to do that.”

As a pitcher, Chris said his father “was still throwing in the low 70s. He’s a member of the Virginia Baseball Congress Hall of Fame.

“We hit back-to-back home runs six or seven times. He was in the top five statistically in the league, and I was in the top 10. He brought that up many times.”

As a coach, Mr. Olsen believed in doing things the right way, but was not an in-your-face disciplinarian.

“He let us play,” said Kim Chambers, who played for Mr. Olsen in basketball and baseball. “He coached us, but he didn’t smother us. When we did something wrong, he would correct us. He helped us learn the game. He didn’t want us to be a bunch of robots.”

Mr. Olsen kept his hand in athletics at Midlothian after retirement.