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Ultimate tournament to honour longtime South Surrey coach

Myles Winch ‘gave so much’ to Semiahmoo Secondary: athletic director

Semiahmoo Secondary has found the ultimate way to honour the memory of one of its longtime teachers.

In March, the South Surrey school will host the first-ever Myles Winch Ultimate Tournament, bringing together a handful of Ultimate Frisbee teams from other local high schools.

Winch – a longtime coach and teacher at Semiahmoo, who was also the former athletic director – passed away last September after a battle with cancer.

Until this year, Winch – an Abbotsford resident who taught in the Surrey school district for more than 40 years – had also been Semiahmoo’s only coach of its Ultimate team, which he spearheaded at the school more than a decade ago.

“For a lot of us, it was a shock when he passed away,” said Semiahmoo teacher Tony Chio, who now coaches the Ultimate team with Thomas Salzmann.

“We wanted to do something, and the students came to us and said they wanted to do something too.”

Ultimate is a team sport in which players pass a disc – or Frisbee – up the field to one another, and points are scored when teams can get the disc into the opposition end zone, not unlike football.

For the inaugural event, set for March 29, 12 teams are set to compete, including Semiahmoo’s senior Ultimate team.

The event will also serve as a fundraiser, with money raised helping fund the Go Play Outside scholarship at Semiahmoo, which Winch’s family created in his honour.

The bursary supports students interested in outdoor education, Chio said.

“He was a big advocate of kids getting an opportunity to play… he gave so much to Semi and it only seems fitting to have a tourney in his name,” said Steve Janzen, Semiahmoo’s athletic director.