2023/24 Club Season Coaches
We are pleased to introduce this year's all-star roster of Pacific Coast Club Coaches!
12U Girls
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TBA
Head Coach |
13U Girls
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TBA
Head Coach |
14U Girls
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Jeremy Bednar
Co-Coach Jeremy played three years with the UBC Men’s volleyball team as a libero. In his second year they won the U sports national championship. Jeremy is now focusing on beach volleyball and plays in tournaments across BC. Jeremy has coached for PCVC for the past six years as both a competitive club coach and as a skills clinics/camps leader. |
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Willa Zhu
Co-Coach This is Willa's 4th year coaching for Pacific Coast. Willa was previously a coach in the Ontario Volleyball Association for 3 years. Last year, she led the PCVC 13U girls alongside Jeremy Bednar to a provincial championship. Coaching has brought her the pleasure of acting as a positive role model for young girls, by motivating them both on and off the court. Her love for the sport began when she was just 8 years old while training with Husky Volleyball club in Connecticut. She went on to earn bronze at Nationals and gold at Provincials playing for Eclipse Volleyball in Toronto. She has been seen as a leader on many teams including a 9man volleyball league where her team claimed the championship title in 2019 & 2022. Outside of volleyball, Willa is a CPA and currently works as a Senior Financial Analyst. |
15U Girls
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Brandon Nguyen
Head Coach Brandon started playing volleyball in his junior year of high school where he quickly fell in love with the game. Since then he's been an active member of the indoor, beach, and grass volleyball communities where he coaches, plays and simply engages as a fan in the amateur and professional scenes. Brandon is a Certified Development Coach and trained Advanced Development Coach. He has experience coaching indoor and beach volleyball with school and club teams across various ages since 2011. He now enters his fifth year of coaching with PCVC and is looking forward to sharing his knowledge and passion for the sport with this year's 15U team. Outside of coaching Brandon works as a geological engineer and in his spare time he enjoys ranting about the Canucks! |
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Meltem Kocak
Assistant Coach Meltem is from Konya, Turkey. Her volleyball career started when she was 9 years old with a school team and Club team. Besides volleyball, she participated in other sports such as swimming, track and field (long distance running) and skiing. However, her main sport was always volleyball. She has represented her school and her club with both junior and youth teams and earned many achievements with her team. At age 17, she signed her first professional Volleyball contract with Eregli Belediye Sport club where she was already playing for its youth team. She played for this team till age 20. Then she signed a contract with another super league team called Ted College Sports Club. Furthermore, she studied at Istanbul University in the department of Physical Education and Sport Science. She represented her university in Volleyball and skiing from 2010 to 2016. Most of her volleyball experience is as a player for 18 years and she has over 5 years coaching experience. Outside of Volleyball, she loves mountain biking, backcountry skiing and hiking. |
16U Girls
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Lainna Buch
Head Coach After coaching with Christian at Leaside Volleyball club in Toronto for 4 years, Lainna now enters into her 5th year of coaching club with PCVC. She is a certified Advanced Development Coach. She brings lots of energy and focus, and is truly passionate about the sport and its athletes. Lainna started a charity called Artists4Athletes, which raises funds for Beach Volleyball athletes and their basic athletic needs. She was a member of the University of Waterloo Warriors Volleyball Team from 2009-2012, and in 2013 she played for the Humber College Hawks Volleyball team. That year she helped the team to win their 6th consecutive OCAA championship and bring home 4th at Nationals. Lainna is inspired and driven to coach not only players, but young women to be the very best people they can be, and is very excited to bring her strengths to Pacific Coast Volleyball Club athletes. |
17U Girls
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Irem Eren
Head Coach Irem is from Izmir, Turkey. She started to play volleyball when she was 6 years old. Besides going to volleyball practices, she also did gymnastics and swimming for a couple years. However, volleyball was her favourite. Thus, she started to focus on volleyball once she got recruited to a professional club team. Irem and her teammates won the youth Nationals a couple times and their worst ranking was 5th in the country. Then, she got recruited to the professional league when she was in 9th grade, signing her first contract. Irem then came to the UBC Thunderbirds to study Biology and play on the varsity volleyball team. After a year, she had to take a break from playing high level due to a medical condition but she never stopped practicing volleyball. Irem started to play beach volleyball in 2020 and had her first competitions in 2021. She won a couple tournaments including a 2 star Volleyball BC tour. |
18u Girls
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Jana Weir
Head Coach |
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Alda O'Grady
Assistant Coach Alda grew up in a small town in Eastern Ontario and discovered her passion for volleyball at the age of 13, playing competitively as a libero during her teens. After graduating, she continued to play recreationally and assisted with coaching summer camps, club teams and high school teams. Alda's focus is on creating an inclusive environment to help athletes develop and achieve their goals. Off the court, Alda completed her Bachelor's degree in Kinesiology at Western University in Ontario and moved to BC in the summer of 2021 to work at SFU as a Research Project Manager. This will be Alda's third year coaching with PCVC, she is very excited to work with the team and foster the love of the game among the athletes. |
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Kanon Tsubokawa
Assistant Coach Kanon is from Japan, where she began playing volleyball at the age of 6. In university, she played for Aoyama University, winning the national championship as assistant captain and receiving MVP. When she moved to Canada four years ago, she continued to play in as many competitive tournaments as possible, joining the Vancouver indoor, beach, and grass volleyball communities. As a short outside, she trained with a focus on passing, defense, and alternative ways of scoring. Kanon was an assistant coach for University of Alberta before relocating to Vancouver. She also enjoys coaching for VVL Sunday league. Outside of volleyball, you can usually find her in the mountains with her cameras, or at home editing photos and videos. |
14U Boys
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Steve Woo
Head Coach Steve is a dedicated volleyball coach who rediscovered his passion for the sport through his children's involvement in high school and club volleyball. His journey as a coach has been nothing short of remarkable, marked by a deep love for the game and an unwavering commitment to nurturing young talent. One remarkable achievement stands out in Steve’s coaching career – was his very first club team that clinched silver medal at the National Championships. It was a testament to his ability to inspire and motivate young athletes to reach their full potential. Steve instilled in his players not only the technical skills required to excel but also the values of teamwork, sportsmanship, and perseverance. Steve's passion for volleyball burns as brightly as ever. He continues to coach and mentor today's youth, passing on his knowledge and love for the game to the next generation of players. His coaching philosophy is simple but effective: work hard, play with heart, and never stop learning. |
15U Boys
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Mike Hughes
Head Coach As a player, Mike played setter at Langara College from 1994-1997. As a coach, he has an impressive resume spanning 24 years, including: BCO U18 Girls Assistant Coach- 1997-2000, 2005-2007 Langara Men’s Assistant Coach - 2001-2003 UBC U21 Men’s Assistant Coach - 2001 UBC U21 Men’s Head Coach - 2002 UBC Men’s Assistant Coach - 2003 - 2005 BCO U17 Girls Head Coach - 2004 (Provincial Champs) LFA Sr Girls Assistant Coach - 2007 Capilano Blues Women’s Assistant Coach - 2014 - 2018 PCVC U13 Boys Head Coach - 2019-Now |
16U Boys
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Iraj Mozafarri
Head Coach |
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Aidan Simone
Assistant Coach |
17U Boys Black
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Jared Krause
Co-Coach With over 20 years of experience on both the beach and indoor volleyball courts as a setter for UBC; having played professionally for over a decade, Jared now brings his knowledge and experience into a coaching role. He also competes domestically on the beach volleyball circuit. |
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Tim Stubbs
Co-Coach Tim is an NCCP certified coach with over 13 years experience coaching volleyball. As an athlete, Tim spent three years competing in the CCAA, playing with and against some of Canada's top performers. Tim continues to compete in volleyball, dedicating much of his time to studying and practicing the beach discipline. He is currently pursuing a career in teaching. |
17U Boys Red
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Andrew Remedios
Head Coach |