Meet the Coaches

2022 Club Season Coaches

We are pleased to introduce this year's all-star roster of Pacific Coast Club Coaches!

17u Girls Head Coach - Brandon Nguyen

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 is working towards the Advanced Development Coach certification. He has experience coaching indoor and beach volleyball with school and club teams across various ages since 2011. He now enters his 3rd year of coaching with PCVC and is looking forward to sharing his knowledge and passion for the sport with this year's 17U team.

Outside of coaching Brandon works as a geological engineer and in his spare time he enjoys ranting about the Canucks!

17U Girls Assistant Coach - Morgan Ehman

Morgan began his school and club volleyball playing days growing up in Nanaimo, B.C. Since then, he’s
worked in youth sports and mental health in several capacities around the province. After moving to
Vancouver in 2017, Morgan found an additional passion for beach volleyball, and he’s been trying to
absorb as much of it as he can ever since. You’ll often find him at Kits Beach when it’s not raining (and
maybe even sometimes when it is).

During the day, Morgan works as a health economist at the BC Cancer Research Institute. With a
background in public health, his research is primarily focused on health equity – in particular, improving
access and outcomes to genetic testing for children with rare diseases.

This will be Morgan’s first year with PCVC. He’s excited to meet the team, share what he knows, and
hopefully learn even more in return.

16U Girls Head Coach - Toni Chico

Toni began his volleyball journey on his high school team, in Barcelona (Spain). He quickly stood out and jumped to a professional level for 10 years. His passion for coaching volleyball made him and some friends start a club in their hometown, Club Volleyball Sant Quirze. He coached there for 8 years in youth categories. Nowadays, this club has 15+ teams and has become a reference in provincial leagues, playing in the First Division on different categories. He recently moved to Vancouver, aiming to combine his work as a Security Engineer with his great hobby, coaching volleyball.
This will be Toni’s first year at PCVC and he is looking forward to sharing his knowledge and enthusiasm for this sport with the rest of the team.

16U Girls Asst Coach - Megan Morton

This is my first year coaching for PCVC and I could not be more thrilled. I quickly fell in love with volleyball when I first played in junior high and that love brought me to play club volleyball and then coach. My experiences have all been in Alberta so far; coaching high-school as well as U14-U17 girls', but I look forward to seeing what BC Volleyball is all about.

My career in nursing is what brought me to the Vancouver area in December 2020. When I'm not working, I can be found hiking, and exploring what this beautiful area has to offer. Those who know me, know I don't stay still for long before I try something new or different. So here I am, beginning my next adventure!

I have found coaching to be very fulfilling (although sometimes I want nothing more than to be on the court playing too). And I am so excited for the 2022 season and to be a part of the PCVC family.

16U Girls Asst Coach - Alda O'Grady

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 first year coaching with PCVC, she is very excited to work with the team and foster the love of the game among the athletes.

15U Girls Co-Coach - Willa Zhu

This is Willa's 2nd year coaching for Pacific Coast. Willa was previously a coach in the Ontario Volleyball Association for 3 years and for the PCVC 14U girls in 2021. 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.

Outside of volleyball, Willa is currently completing her CPA designation and works as a Senior Accountant. Having recently moved to BC in November 2020, she looks forward to exploring and getting acclimated to the West Coast!

15U Girls Co-Coach - Jeremy Bednar

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 was the co-coach of the PCVC 14U girls in 2021 and has coached at numerous PCVC camps and clinics over the past 3 years.

Jeremy is in his last year of studies at UBC Sauder School of Business and will be starting his career as an accountant at Deloitte in September 2021.

15U Girls Co-Coach - Irem Eren

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.

However, Irem wanted to continue her education while she also got the opportunity to play volleyball. So, she 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. Now, she is back at practicing with the UBC volleyball team and preparing for the next beach volleyball season.

14u Girls Co-Coach - Lainna Buch

After coaching with Christian at Leaside Volleyball club in Toronto for 4 years, Lainna now enters into her 3rd year of coaching club with PCVC. She is a Certified Development Coach, currently working towards her Advanced Development Coach certification. She brings lots of energy and focus, and is truly passionate about the sport and its athletes.

Lainna is a Graphic Design and Interactive Media student and part-time freelancer. On the side, she has 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 will be the coach of Pacific Coast Volleyball's U14 Girls team this year. She 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

14U Girls Co-Coach - Maddy Cote-Dear

At 15 years old, Maddy began coaching volleyball. She has experience coaching indoor and beach volleyball clinics, along with school and club teams across various ages. For five seasons, Maddy was the assistant coach for Crofton House’s varsity volleyball, winning back to back BC Provincials Championships. She has also coached the PCVC u12 and u13 girls team for the past three years. Maddy is excited to coach the PCVC u14 girls team this upcoming season, and she hopes that she will connect with and positively influence the younger generation of girls volleyball players.

Maddy is a born and raised Vancouverite. As a player, she played four years on Crofton’s Varsity team along with playing for Thunder and Ducks volleyball clubs, winning a provincial club championship and a couple provincial all-star awards. She went on to play for the McGill Martlets for one year before hanging up her knee pads and deciding to focus on school and coaching. Outside of coaching, Maddy works at a local high school in the Life Skills program, and she hopes to continue onto grad school studying Clinical Social Work in the near future. In her spare time, you can find Maddy obsessing over her dog.

13U Girls Co-Coach - Danae Shepard

Danae has a full British Columbia experience of volleyball; she grew up playing club in Kelowna for the Jr. Heat, then moved to North Vancouver in 2014 and played for the Capilano Blues, and in 2017 she was recruited to the UBC Thunderbirds where she helped her team earn a bronze medal at nationals in 2018. She then finished off her 5th and final year with a gold medal at the national championships in March 2019. However, she didn't stay away from volleyball for long after completing her last year...competing in beach volleyball events at Kitsilano this past summer and coaching for VVL and PCVC for the past year.

Danae has been coaching volleyball consistently since she was in high school herself, when she began her experience with volunteering to head coach the OKM Huskies grade 8 girls team along with another fellow senior girls teammate for both her grade 11 and grade 12 year. Since then she has coached at multiple camps, training clinics, and tryouts over the past 5 years.

This will be Danae's second year coaching a club volleyball team at PCVC. Danae is very enthusiastic, competitive, passionate, and excited to help inspire and develop young female athletes to become their most confident selves.

13u Girls Co-Coach - Anna Price

Anna is a recent graduate from UBC where she played all 5 years on the varsity women’s volleyball team, winning two USPORTS National Championships along the way and serving as team captain in her 5th year. Anna has been playing volleyball for over 12 years and coaching for over 8, all in the Vancouver community.

In her spare time, Anna loves to hike, cook for loved ones, and discover new music! She is currently pursuing a Masters Degree in Counselling Psychology.

13u Girls Co-Coach - Meltem Kocak

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 3 years coaching experience.

Outside of Volleyball, she loves mountain biking, backcountry skiing and hiking.

12U Girls Co-Coach - Kylie Banki

Kylie began playing volleyball back in middle school and continued to represent her school teams throughout high school in Ontario. During this time she was a coach for both her middle school and high school house league programs. Although Kylie played field hockey throughout university back in Ontario, she continued to play volleyball in various adult and intramural leagues. After her undergrad she was a coach for the EVP Eagles 12U team in Oakville and assisted with the 14U team when she was needed.

Moving to British Columbia back in January 2021 she continues to play volleyball recreationally in addition to exploring everything BC has to offer.

12U Girls Co-Coach - Lika Yeung

Lika was born and raised in Hong Kong and recently moved to Vancouver. She started playing indoor volleyball when she was 12 years old and later fell in love with beach volleyball.

Volleyball is her life. She has represented her university and club teams for over 20 years and won many achievements in Hong Kong's top league.

This will be Lika’s first year at PCVC. She is excited to share her knowledge and enthusiasm with all the young women and help them become good team players who enjoy playing the sport they love.

15U Boys Co-Coach- Jared Krause

With over 20 years of experience on both the beach and indoor volleyball courts; 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.

15U Boys Co-Coach - Tim Stubbs

Tim is an NCCP certified coach with over 11 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.

14U Boys Head Coach - Aidan Simone

Bio coming soon...

13U Boys Head Coach - Mike Hughes

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

13U Boys Coach - Ross Ballard

Ross Ballard, brings his extensive knowledge and understanding of High Performance Volleyball to PCVC. He is a former men's national volleyball team member (from 1995-2004). He also played professional volleyball throughout Europe and South America for teams in France, Greece, Portugal, Spain and Argentina.

Ross has transitioned from player to coach seamlessly where he has directed Little Flower Academy for the past 12 years. In this time the school has won the AAA Provincial title three times and has two bronze medals. He is excited to coach with the boys program and share his exuberance for volleyball with his players.