Chris Wakelin

Lead Program Coordinator

I had a teacher in high school introduce the sport to a whole bunch of us. We’ve been hooked ever since. Playing was another excuse to hang out with friends and we loved it. I became a high school teacher myself and have been welcoming young people into the sport for a long time now. That’s how I became a coach. So much love for this game! One of them came back after CUC 2011 in Ottawa, so excited having played and wanting to make a women’s team happen in the first year of the gender split era in ‘12 (Victoria). 

Crazy me, I said we’d make it go and I’ve been running Vortex ever since. So many players, coaches and parents to thank for making Vortex live on for as long as it has. My wife always said that it was important to each have our own things in life…I don’t think all of this is what she meant but I’m so grateful to her and our own children for letting me come out to play all these years.

Jonathan He

Back in the 7th Grade, a teacher at my school started an ultimate frisbee club. At the time, I had never even seen a disk, but my friend wanted us to join and so I gave it a shot. It's funny to think about now because I could never have predicted I'd still be involved almost 2 decades later. My relationship with the game has changed a lot in the last 17 years, but the feelings are still the same. 

I remember getting lost in how much fun I was having. My friends and I would play from the last bell of the day until the sun started to set. Now, I'm grateful that I get to take on the role of giving others the opportunity that my teacher gave me.

Jenice Dumlao

I started playing ultimate in Grade 9 when I was not so confident in my athletic abilities and almost immediately felt at home with the welcoming community. I made some of my closest friends through the sport and built a lot of confidence in myself in and outside of ultimate.   

Although I no longer play competitively, I still feel the same joy while playing the sport recreationally and love helping youth athletes gain the same confidence and love for the sport that I experienced in my junior years.

Jacob Layegh

The way I was introduced to Ultimate was through my older brother and his friends while I was in elementary school. At first, like many others, I didn't consider it a sport. However, after attending practices in grade 8, I fell in love with the sport and have continued to play and coach ever since. While playing at my high school, I learned about the Vortex Club from my friends and seniors at the time. I decided to try out and ended up playing for Vertigo (now called Vintage) during my 11th and 12th-grade years before being asked to move up to play with Vortex for CUC. 

Since then, I've been coaching with the programs since 2017, starting with the original Venom open team and then moving up to coach the Vortex open team in 2022. The Vortex program has helped me become the coach I am today and has inspired me to try to build an adult program here in Surrey.

Sandra Nguyen

I was very timid and unconfident with myself when I was younger. I started playing ultimate in Grade 6 at Bridgeview Elementary, which helped me become more confident with myself. There was something about the community that felt so different to all the other sports. Progressing into Grade 8 and trying out for the Kwantlen Park Junior team was very intimidating because it was all so new. Although I wasn’t confident with my chances, I ended up making the team for those next few years from junior to senior ultimate. Across my junior summers, I also got to play in the Vortex program for Velocity (Formerly Voodoo) in 2018 and Venom in 2019. 

Elementary, junior, and senior ultimate all carry their different levels of skill and experience, but they all still encompassed that warm community that I initially was welcomed into in Grade 6. I learned to be more brave, confident with myself, and trusting towards my gut feelings. After highschool, moving onto a coach has given me a full circle moment, and being able to teach familiar and new faces the same experience I had once sought out for when I was their age.