2025 WBUC Coach Announcement

Overview

Ultimate Canada is thrilled to name the head coaches for the World Beach Ultimate Championships taking place in Algarve, Portugal, 16-22 Nov, 2025.

Coaches

Kpoh is excited to coach the Senior Women's National Team at WBUC 2025, bringing her expertise as a former National Team player (WUGC, WBUC, WUCC, WMUCC, WJUC) and coach (U20 Women's 2016 & 2018, and WU24 Mixed 2017 & 2019) to this 2025 National Team cycle. Since playing Ultimate competitively with Ottawa juniors team OJ in 2004, Kat later took her skills to the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees, first as a player, later a player-coach, and finally as a coach at U of O.

With long-term involvement with Ontario women's club programs Capitals and Stella (as a player and later a player-coach), Kat moved to Vancouver in 2014 where she played in Canadian and USAU club events with Vancouver Traffic. With a versatile playing style, Kpoh has also played Club Worlds with Lotus (2010), QUB (2014), Fusion (2018), and Dyna (WMUCC 2018).

Coaching players from across the country has always been a rewarding experience for Kat, and she's thrilled to have been appointed to coach the Women's National Team at WBUC this year.

Open : Chris Artibello is thrilled to be coaching at the World Beach Ultimate Championships, having beenpreviously appointed as a coach for the canceled 2022 event. This marks his third consecutiveappointment with Canada’s national teams, following his leadership of the U24 Open team in2023 and the Open team at the 2024 World Ultimate Championships in Australia.

With a coaching career spanning over 15 years, Chris began his journey in 2008 and has sinceguided multiple club teams across all divisions in Alberta.

Originally from Toronto, Ontario, Chris discovered Ultimate in 1991 while completing his degreeat the University of British Columbia. His early exposure to the sport through the VancouverUltimate League ignited a lifelong passion for the game, which continues to drive his success asa coach and mentor.

Micheal Kukucska has been involved in Ultimate as a player, coach, volunteer, and professional since 2010. The majority of his playing career was spent captaining the Toronto-based club team, BOAT as well as with the York University Open team. In 2022, Micheal began his transition to coaching full-time and has since spent time with York University, the University of Toronto, Durham Houndd, and Toronto GOAT. In 2023, Micheal helped lead GOAT to a gold medal finish at CUC in Surrey BC. Additionally, 2023 also marked Micheal's first appearance as a Team Canada coach as he took on the role of Head Coach of the WBUC Open Division squad. He is excited and proud to serve as Head Coach with this year's WBUC team in the Mixed Division and hopes to build on the foundations set in the previous cycle.

Habib Atallah is an NCCP Certified Coach who started his competitive coaching journey in 2018 with the Ottawa Junior Competitive Ultimate Program. He has been the Ignite Head Coach since the 2019-2020 season, securing back-to-back regional championships in 2022 and 2023, and strong CUC Junior finishes including a bronze medal in 2023 and a silver medal in 2024. He also was an assistant coach for the 2024 TCU20 Open team for the World Junior Ultimate Championships. Finally, Habib also coaches with the FQU on the Quebec side, helping Hydra (Team Quebec Open) in their player development, and will be coaching Crank, a senior mixed team out of Ottawa in 2025.

Having played also for the University of Ottawa GeeGees and being named Most Valuable Player in 2017, Habib had other passions on his mind; coaching and leading the next generation of Ultimate athletes!

Habib is looking forward to helping Canada perform at the world’s highest level!

Derek Cheng has over a decade of Ultimate coaching experience at both the junior and senior levels. He coached the Open team Blackfish for seven seasons, helping to shape the team’s competitive identity while maintaining a strong focus on player development. More recently, he joined the coaching staff of the Women’s team Traffic, where he contributed to their growth and performance this past season.

Derek is excited to support the Women’s Masters team in their campaign for success at WBUC.

Colin Yeung ’s competitive Ultimate career has spanned multiple divisions from Juniors to Grandmasters with teams from nearly every province and numerous national and international events. Since his first CUCs in 1996, Colin has amassed 20 podium medals of all colours across UC, USAU, and WFDF events, bringing a wealth of experience and knowledge to his return to coaching Team Canada. He has significant beach Ultimate experience, having podiumed in numerous USAU Beach Nationals and World Beach Championships. Colin also strives to compete while valuing Spirit of the Game, and has won team spirit awards at both Canadian and USAU championships as player and coach.

Under Colin’s coaching leadership, Winnipeg’s Junior team, Masters of Flying Objects, asserted its presence as a perennial national championship contender in its formative years before their eventual induction into the UC Hall of Fame in the team category. In the last few years, Colin has been coaching the Saskatchewan Wheaties Junior Open team and helping coach the University of Regina Cougars Open team. He is humbled and honoured to be offered the opportunity to coach Team Canada again and work to reach the top of the podium at WBUC in Portugal.

Andrew Portwine is the Grand Masters Open coach who was introduced to Ultimate in 1997. Over the past 20+ years, he has been an active player, administrator, coach, advocate and tournament director. Andrew has served on the Board of Directors at the local, provincial and national levels, coached beginner to competitive level players / teams, served as live stream commentary for many events, organized equipment / disc drives for various countries, ran clinics internationally, and organized many tournaments.

He began coaching in 2010 and has served as coach in the high school mixed, junior open, university open, university women’s, senior open, masters women’s and grandmasters open divisions. Andrew is trained in the National Coaching Certification Program (NCCP) at the Community and Competition level for Ultimate while completing other multi-sport programs. Andrew is excited to get back to the world stage and lead Team Canada Grand Masters Open at the World Beach Ultimate Championships.

Troë Weston is a long-time Ultimate player and coach. She began with Simon Fraser University’s women’s team in 2003 and has coached youth and women’s soccer before turning to Ultimate coaching. She has coached BC junior provincial teams, the junior mixed team to a Canadian Nationals gold, and various Vancouver-area programs, including Vortex and Alpha (CUC silver in 2015 and 2016) and Stratford Hall Secondary (provincials silver 2016, gold 2017, HS nationals bronze 2018). In 2017 she began coaching with the Vancouver Riptide and consulted with Furious George in sports psychology, then moved into an assistant-coaching role with Furious (2018-2019), winning a gold medal. Troë also earned a bronze medal in 2018 as the coach of the Team Canada U20 women’s team and is honoured to return to the world stage to represent Canada.

Peter Lewis is a long-time Ultimate coach and player with more than two decades of experience. He has competed internationally and domestically, including World Ultimate Club Championships and World Beach Ultimate Championships. He is a National Coaching Certificate Program Competitive Introduction coach and Competitive Development trained for Ultimate. He began coaching in 2019 in the Mixed division and has led Red Circus as Head Coach in the Open division at CUCs in 2024.

As a coach, Pete will prioritize cohesion and respect amongst the team members, emphasizing individual players’ strengths to build a unified team focused on a common goal. He is excited and humbled to be selected as Head Coach for the 2025 Team Canada WBUC Grand Master Mixed team.

The Great Grand Masters Open Team will be chosen by a Selection Committee, more information to follow.

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