Ken Kowalski

Ken Kowalski is the Speaker of the Alberta legislature and currently the longest-sitting Member of the Legislative Assembly in the province.

In the 1970s, he was the Reach for the Top coach at Lorne Jenkins High School in rural Barrhead, Alberta. The 1973 team won the national championship, defeating, in order, teams from Nova Scotia, Ontario, Manitoba, and Quebec. He credited his success in the 1979 provincial elections to voters in Barrhead remembering his coaching work at the school.

In an Edmonton Journal article reflecting on his Reach for the Top years ("Speaker Kowalski careful reaching for his buzzer" by Mike Sadava, June 18, 2000, page B2), Kowalski appeared quite dedicated, including transforming a classroom at the school so that it resembled the TV studio and offering a Reach credit course in which students studied and wrote questions.

A quote near the end of the article suggests that Reach had hoses, even back in the 1970's TV days: "One of the key skills was being patient at listening and being attentive to the words. There was always a trick. You might think you have the answer until the last few words."