by Maria Veronica "Vernie" G. Caparas

On any given weekday, weeknight, or weekend in Vancouver's gyms, parks, or seashores, the thump of volleyball shoes on hardwood or soft earth mingles with the kind of laughter that only comes from a team that genuinely likes each other. This is Panda Power Volleyball - a recreational and competitive club that Anton Castillo and Lester Corre founded in May 2026. Both healthcare professionals navigating the pressures of the healthcare industry, Castillo and Corre are coaches, organizers, referees, cheerleaders, and, above all, community builders. Panda Power has grown into a spirited volleyball outfit - a testament to Castillo and Corre's passion for the sport and their refusal to wait for someone else to create the space they want.

Anton Castillo (L) and Lester Corre (R) display the prize medals, shirts, totes, and towels for the winning teams.

Panda Power tells the story of two friends and a community of migrants who are raring to show foot and hand power in volleyball. Castillo and Corre met on the volleyball courts to shed off the drudgery of their demanding profession. A Canadian-Filipino, Anton has "been playing volleyball for over four years now. It started as my way to de-stress after work."  Lester, on the other hand, recalls, "Kuya Anton and I met over a year ago. I see Panda Power as a reunion of international students who, after a long winter in school, need to relax and unwind. Playing the sport is enjoyable and competitive. When people don't know where to go, Panda Power offers that feeling of having a family, someone to talk to, and to reach out to them emotionally. That is our priority."

Lester and Anton's friendship deepens over their shared interest in playing volleyball with fellow sports enthusiasts. Both echo that this sport is a good antidote to poor mental health. On Victoria Day (May 18), celebrated Canada-wide, around 40 people signed up for the birthing of Panda Power Volleyball over a potluck in Gordon Park. To date, Panda Power consists of eight teams, with each team having eight players. The members' ages range from 15 to 65. The numbers keep rising, and Anton has started looking into "navigating ways and means of organizing tournaments and having Panda Power officially registered with the City of Vancouver as a non-profit recreational group." When asked to elaborate on the sport's venues, Anton says, "Grass is easy. Once you have a net, you can invite people to play. Indoor is different. You have to rent the space." Lester adds, "Weather has a lot of impact on people. When it's too cold, we prefer playing indoors. When the sun is out, the grassy park beckons."  

A myriad of Panda Power teams can put a smiley thump on Gordon Park's grass.

Why Panda Power?  For Lester, "pandas are stronger compared with other animals. They are smart. And if you see how the Japanese take care of pandas, you'd notice how pandas return the favor. Besides, many people requested this type of power - the Panda Power. Anton, on the other hand, loves Po in DreamWorks Animation's Kung Fu Panda. Anton thinks that there is a moment in every Panda Power match that the name makes perfect sense. It happens when a setter's hands meet the ball with that particular softness-before-power that looks almost lazy until the ball screams off a hitter's palm and drops inside the line before a defender can even pivot. Po, the unlikely dragon warrior at the heart of the movie, makes an art form of deceptive physicality - awkward one moment, precise the next, his great paws finding angles that leaner, faster opponents never anticipate. 

The hands tell the story first. A good setter's fingers don't stab at the ball; they receive it the way a martial artist receives a strike - absorbing, redirecting, releasing. At Panda Power, players are coached to think of every touch as a conversation rather than a collision. The wrists are loose until they aren't. The elbows bend like bamboo before snapping straight. There is rhythm in it, a kind of unhurried urgency that mirrors the rolling, rotational power of a panda's movement: deceptively round, quietly relentless.

The feet, meanwhile, do the work that nobody in the stands ever fully credits. Quick, choppy steps to square up for a pass. A long, low shuffle to cover the angle on a sharp cross-court cut. The explosive triple-step approach to a swing that converts all of that quiet preparation into a single loud moment. It is footwork that echoes the discipline at the center of the Kung Fu Panda universe - the idea that mastery is not a thunderclap but an accumulation of ten thousand small, correct movements made before the critical one.

Castillo and Corre did not name their team after a cartoon. They named it after an image of something powerful that the world tends to underestimate, of strength worn lightly, of a creature that moves through the world on its own unhurried terms and somehow always arrives exactly where it needs to be. On a volleyball court, in a gym or a park in Vancouver, their players are doing their level best to live up to it.

What Castillo and Corre have built is not simply an athletic club. For many of its members - a significant number of whom are Canadian-Asians or newcomers to Canada- Panda Power is a community anchor. Post-game gatherings in restaurants and on beaches have turned into friendships, job leads, and mutual support networks. In a city as transient and fast-moving as Vancouver, a team that makes you want to come back week after week is no small thing. Panda Power has managed to bottle that feeling, and two healthcare workers who spend their days putting people back together deserve considerable credit for it.

______

About the Writer:

Maria Veronica "Vernie" G. Caparas. Vernie Caparas finds time to watch and cheer for migrant communities as they play volleyball. Besides, she loves Po in Kung Fu Panda.

Source: Pressenza