Team Damian Warner: How 2 English teachers helped turn a London teen into the world's greatest athlete

The story of Canada's Olympic champion decathlete Damian Warner's rise to athletic greatness centres around that old adage: when the student is ready, the teacher will appear.

In this case though, there were two teachers. 

In 2006, Warner was a shy Grade 10 student who had never played organized sport. But his life was to change forever because of two high school English teachers who were obsessed with making Montcalm Secondary School in London, Ont. a basketball powerhouse. 

Gar Leyshon and Dennis Nielsen began teaching together in the late 1990s and shared a love of sport. Nielsen, who first taught Warner English in Grade 10, said there wasn't anything all that memorable about his young student at the time.

"He wasn't a student you'd remember. His attendance wasn't great. School wasn't his priority. There were issues that were more important," Nielsen said. "I don't remember much about him from then."

But there were rumblings around the school that Warner was an athlete Nielson and Leyshon needed to recruit for their basketball team.

"Damian was like a mythological creature. You never saw him. He had never played on a team," Leyshon recalled. "Dennis is a builder-upper. He told me, 'you need to meet Damian.' He finally came out to try and play basketball in Grade 11."

WATCH | What makes Damian Warner so good?

Nielsen remembers an early practice at the school's gym. He and Gar saw Warner sprinting on the treadmill.

"Gar and I looked at each other and I said if you had to pick anyone in here to be on your team for any sport, who would you choose?" Nielsen said. "I said I'll take that skinny kid on the treadmill any day of the week."

Warner played both basketball and football that year. Leyshon was in awe of his talent, but also knew he had a lot of work to do in trying to get through to Warner. 

"He never spoke to me. The entire season he never spoke to me. Never made eye contact with me," Leyshon said.

Unfazed, Leyshon's next goal was to get Warner competing on the track and field team. The only problem with that was neither teacher had any idea what they were doing when it came to athletics.

But Leyshon enjoyed being a coach. And Warner loved jumping. So, in those early days, the two were trying to figure out what that meant in terms of competing.