UBCO student-athletes discover how volleyball unites communities in Nunavut

Story by Brian Swane, special to CW

Sept. 30, 2025 – Each year, members of the UBC Okanagan men’s and women’s volleyball programs travel to Nunavut for a weeklong series of outreach activities, centered around the territorial championships.

With support from the Calgary Foundation’s Daryl K. Seaman Canadian Hockey Fund, the trip has become an annual tradition that exemplifies the power of sport to unite and transcend: the people of Nunavut are introduced to volleyball skills and strategy; the UBCO student-athletes are introduced to Indigenous customs and traditions.

“We're going to remote communities and we're working with young students and coaches and community volunteers that we would never get the opportunity to work with,” says UBCO women’s volleyball coach Steve Manuel, “and learn about a complete new culture, or even several cultures within the Inuit community.

“It's been unbelievably rewarding for our student-athletes, just to be able to experience that community, that culture.”

The UBCO volleyball program made its most recent trek to Nunavut in May. The itinerary each way comprises four flights spanning two provinces and two territories, covering about 4,000 kilometres as the crow flies.

On one side of the journey is the UBCO campus in Kelowna, B.C., where there’s an average May high of 20 degrees Celsius with 40 millimetres of rain in the month; on the other side is the Nunavut capital of Iqaluit, where there’s an average May high of zero degrees with around 11 inches of snowfall in the month.

In Kelowna, many students catch the bus. In Iqaluit, some students ride a Ski-Doo.

Upon arriving in the territorial capital, the student-athletes spread out across Iqaluit, teaching a total of 33 physical education classes to 600 kids at three schools over two days.

“A few of us got to help run gym classes at Joamie Elementary School for a day and we had the opportunity to be a part of their assembly,” says Natalie Funk, who plays middle for the UBCO women’s volleyball team.

“It was really cool to see how they integrated their cultural practices with their education such as encouraging the students to hunt geese and congratulating students who caught a fish on the school's fishing trip.”

From there, the UBCO contingent shifted its efforts to the 2025 Territorial Championships, Volleyball Nunavut’s only major tournament of the year. UBCO’s student-athletes conducted training sessions with each of the participating teams, and largely ran the tournament, officiating 50 matches over a weekend of competition.

“It was so cool to watch the athletes play the game with so much excitement and joy,” says Funk, an Academic All-Canadian.

“It put it into perspective what a privilege it is to have the opportunity to play the game that we love as often as we do. I think sometimes we take that opportunity for granted whereas for some of these teams this is the one big tournament they get to play in all year and it was so cool to talk with the athletes and hear about what an amazing opportunity this is for them.”

This was the third year of UBCO volleyball being completely immersed in Volleyball Nunavut’s territorial championships, but the relationship dates back to 2014, when the Nunavut territorial volleyball teams traveled to Kelowna to train at UBC Okanagan.

From there, the Heat sent individual student-athletes to Nunavut to help teach P.E. classes, and the initiative has evolved from there into where it is today. Manuel says he has a waitlist of student-athletes who want to be involved with the Nunavut trip, and there are plans to begin going up North more than once a year.

Because of the many challenges of traveling across Nunavut, from flights canceled by weather to the remote location of many communities, it’s not uncommon that teams which are slated to play in the territorial championships are unfortunately unable to make it. But this year, Manuel is happy to report, every participating team arrived in Iqaluit as scheduled.

“I picked up a team, and they jumped in, and I said to the coach, ‘Wow, they're really excited,’” Manuel recalls. “And she said, this is the first time some of them have been in a truck. Their community has very few vehicles so most transportation is with snowmobiles and quads.”

“Things like that stick with you the most and are the memories. It's the people; they're so genuine and sharing their culture and their stories, and that's what sticks with me.”

About Canada West

As the leading university athletic conference in the country, Canada West is home to student-athletes that excel in the classroom and their communities. The conference is comprised of 17 member institutions spanning from Victoria to Winnipeg, with over 3,200 student-athletes competing across 14 sports. Canada West’s mission is to train leaders and build champions by providing leadership in the delivery, regulation, and promotion of university level high performance sports programs throughout western Canada.