Members of the UBCO Heat volleyball teams enjoy Nunavut’s fresh snow.
Natalie Funk remembers the white, and how it disoriented her.
Descending from a sky the colour of paper toward a runway rimmed by snow, it generated the kind of excitement she knew well from her time with the UBC Okanagan women’s volleyball team.
“It was completely white, super snowy,” Funk says of her first impressions. “It almost didn’t even look like Canada. It was a really cool experience just seeing that landscape.”
However, stepping off the plane in Iqaluit, Nunavut, it wasn’t the Okanagan, and it wasn’t a Heat volleyball game. Funk, and a small contingent from the men’s and women’s teams, were there as volunteer coaches for youth.
The gym is where the UBCO players reoriented themselves.
An education with experience
UBCO student athlete Natalie Funk smiles during a school visit in Iqaluit.
Taped lines on the floor, volleyball nets stretching into the air and the familiar thump of forearm passes echoing off the walls, it was the same as the Okanagan gyms the Heat athletes knew so well.
UBCO teammates spent two days teaching physical education at Joamie Elementary, Nakasuk Elementary and Aqsarniit Middle School, meeting more than 600 kids across 33 classes.
At Joamie, an assembly celebrated students who caught fish on a recent trip and marked the start of goose-hunting season. “You could feel the pride,” Funk says. “It’s so connected to place. Being invited into that was an honour.”
The invitation didn’t come out of nowhere. A decade ago, Volleyball Nunavut began sending teams south to train at UBC Okanagan.
The relationship expanded when Volleyball Nunavut coach Scott Schutz witnessed how UBCO hosted its annual Heat senior girls’ high school volleyball tournament.
“Their coach watched our students run everything from top to bottom and said, ‘Bring your crew north and help us run our championship,’” UBCO Heat women’s coach Steve Manuel says. “That’s how it started, and it’s grown because it works for everyone.”
The chance to play
UBCO Heat athletes lead a volleyball clinic for students in Nunavut.
Now, a small UBCO contingent flies north to support Volleyball Nunavut’s big week.
The trip included 16 team practices for surrounding communities and four training sessions with Canada Games squads.
Heat athletes organized and officiated 50 matches, as 14 boys’ and girls’ teams from across Nunavut filled the gym with noise and nerve.
Téo Ardanaz, a recent UBCO graduate and former Heat volleyball captain, joined the team on its early trips north.
“For many of these athletes, the Territorial Championship is their one chance to compete all year,” says Ardanaz. “They took in every moment, gave it their all and never stopped smiling.”
Manuel is careful to place credit where it belongs. The championships are Volleyball Nunavut’s event, delivered by local leaders and community coaches who keep kids playing through long winters and long distances.
Heat athletes slot in where they’re asked. “Our students learn a ton about logistics, humility and adaptability,” he says. “And they see a model of community sport that’s strong, proud and centred on youth.”
The learning continued when Funk returned home.
“It’s about more than volleyball. It’s relationships, listening and figuring out the best way to support what’s already working.”
—Natalie Funk
Last summer, the science student from Strathmore, Alberta., coached Team Nunavut at the Canada Summer Games, completing important National Coaching Certification Program requirements in the process.
“It’s about more than volleyball,” she says. “It’s relationships, listening and figuring out the best way to support what’s already working.”
There are a few important program metrics—a tidy list that fits neatly into reports—but the memory book is where the real payoff is held.
There were mornings on tundra that looked like the moon until you knelt and noticed lichens, or drills that clicked for a team from Pangnirtung. There were always packed gyms down to the last whistle.
Funding anchors return trips
Heat student athletes pose outside the Rankin Inlet airport.
Partnerships need ballast. Manuel points to incremental funding that helped extend the trip by a few days for more school time and community clinics.
Their most recent trip happened thanks to a grant from the Calgary Foundation’s Daryl K. Seaman Canadian Hockey Fund.
Manuel also notes the long view: Heat athletes return home different from when they left—more attentive, more precise about why they play and coach.
“There’s no rule that says we only engage locally,” he says. “This is part of our greater community. It’s good for the game and good for our students.”
Back on the runway, Funk thought again about the white.
The flight south would be loud, and it would take her back to life’s responsibilities, but she had her bearings firmly grounded.
For a week, the gyms amplified more than scores. They held culture in public, competition without noise, and reminded everyone that all of Canada fits onto the court.
“It reminded us that volleyball is a privilege,” Funk says. “Sometimes down south we forget how lucky we are to play every week, but up there it was pure joy, and it made me grateful in a whole new way.”
