It\u2019s been a sensational sports season for South Surrey\u2019s Semiahmoo Secondary School, with 24 out of 38 teams making it to provincial championships throughout the 2025-2026 school year.<\/p>\n
From cross-country, swimming, table tennis (co-ed), badminton (senior boys and girls) to senior girls volleyball, Grade 8 boys basketball, Grade 9 boys basketball, senior boys basketball, junior girls basketball, senior girls basketball; from wrestling (boys and girls), senior girls soccer, and tennis (boys and girls) to Grade 8\/junior\/senior track and field (boys and girls) and senior ultimate Frisbee (co-ed), student athletes had a banner year as Thunderbirds.<\/p>\n
With provincial play still underway for some sports (golf provincials finish June 4 in Langley, while track and field provincials go Thursday, June 4 through Saturday, June 6 in Langley, the school\u2019s senior girls badminton team won the provincial championship over the weekend (May 31) as well.<\/p>\n
Semiahmoo Secondary athletic director Colin Plumb credited the school\u2019s student athletes as well as all of the coaching staff whom, he noted, contributed their time on a volunteer basis.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had a profoundly successful year. It\u2019s Amazing. Twenty-four of our 38 teams went to provincials, which is insane,\u201d he said \u201cThat\u2019s obviously a credit and a testament to the coaches. I always start with the coaches, because if there\u2019s no coaches, there\u2019s no teams. One thing we preach in the program is appreciation for the coaches and just gratitude \u2026 it\u2019s exclusively volunteer. They do not get paid, and they\u2019re given their energy, their expertise, and their efforts to our kids.\u201d<\/p>\n
While racking up sports wins is always nice, whether at the local, regional or provincial level, Plumb noted he and the rest of the coaching staff tend to focus on the process rather than the outcome.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe process is is honestly more important to us \u2026 just facilitating the growth and development of these kids (as they become) functional, contributing members of society. That\u2019s the biggest thing for us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Seniors girls basketball coach Simrit Bindra agreed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want them to leave (as) good human beings who set good examples in their communities \u2026 obviously winning is the main goal, and we want to win, but I do get a lot of satisfaction out of just seeing them be strong women,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Track and field coach Andrew Sidhu noted he gets his students to sign athlete contract to make the commitment and outline why they wanted to join the program.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat their motivation was, what their goal was \u2026 and then to make a series of commitments \u2026 just to to be present when they come at practice, to give their best effort, because you\u2019re building them into adults for the real world, so you want them to have tools that they can use and continue to use (after graduation).\u201d<\/p>\n
Soccer coach Isaac Kyei said he enjoys seeing how each athlete progresses through the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s the development from the players, and seeing them from the start, maybe being a little bit timid and shy to kind of opening up \u2026 finding their confidence,\u201d he said, noting he and the team were getting ready to board a bus to Kamloops for provincials after school that day.<\/p>\n
The shared team bonding and memories made on road trips are another highlight for student athletes, all coaches agreed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI tell the girls, \u2018These are going to be the memories where \u2014 even if you win or lose \u2014 you\u2019re going to talk about this 20 years down the road. You\u2019re going to be saying to your friends \u2018Oh, do you remember when we went to Kamloops?\u2019\u201d Kyei said.<\/p>\n
Ultimate student athletes Fraser Janzen, Sophia Segismundo and Eric Zhang shared their enthusiasm for the Frisbee sport, and the fun they had travelling and playing throughout the 2025-2026 season.<\/p>\n
Segismundo credited club coaches as well as her teammates for her improvement in ultimate over the three years she\u2019s played.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve learnt a lot from (Janzen and Zhang), about not only having fun in this sport but also, a lot of discipline and how to coach,\u201d she noted, adding Team Canada may be a goal in the not-too-distant future.<\/p>\n
All three say they plan to play the Frisbee sport after they graduate high school.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t need to be super duper athletic to play it \u2026 anyone can play it,\u201d Zhang said.<\/p>\n
Janzen agreed, and encouraged people to just throw a Frisbee around for fun whenever possible.<\/p>\n
\u201cI always keep an ultimate Frisbee in my the back of my car. And it\u2019s come in handy many many times,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Janzen, who graduates this year, also issued a neighbourly challenge to Elgin Park, another South Surrey secondary school.<\/p>\n
\u201cI challenge Elgin to a friendly game. Anytime, anywhere, you\u2019re going down,\u201d he said with a grin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s been a sensational sports season for South Surrey\u2019s Semiahmoo Secondary School, with 24 out of 38 teams…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":710779,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194299],"tags":[49,48,163792,87674],"class_list":["post-710778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-surrey","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-lower-mainland","tag-surrey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/710778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=710778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/710778\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/710779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=710778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=710778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=710778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}