Wendy Barlow was renowned for her great mental toughness and big heart on the tennis court. She was involved with the Canadian national team program for seven years and won 12 national titles and many prestigious international matches in a short, but impressive career. She began playing at age 10 in the Victoria Parks program and won her age category that first year. Wendy stepped up her training and tournament play and went on to claim six national junior age titles in four years. When her father's pro hockey travels took the family to Phoenix, Wendy and sister Lori's training became an all-year activity. In her mid-teens she continued to win titles and began representing Canada on the junior international tour. At 16, and playing under-18, she was rated #3 in Canada. Wendy represented Canada in three Federation Cup matches against the world's best, and competed five years on the WTA pro tour. Possibly her biggest victories came in 1977, in qualifying for one of eight junior spots into Wimbledon and winning the Canadian women's doubles with Nicole Marois. Wendy realized a life-long dream by winning the Canadian National Championship and the #1 ranking in Canada in 1980. She was Victoria's Female Athlete-of-the-Year in 1978 and capped off her impressive tennis-playing career at the age of 20.

Ken Shields had a taste of coaching glory in his first season as a co-coach of the 1969/70 UBC Canadian Ladies Championship team. He then switched to the men's game and while guiding Laurentian University through six seasons he collected his first CIAU Coach-of-the-Year award. Ken moved to UVic to take on the dual roles of men's Varsity Coach and Coordinator of Athletics for the blue-and-gold. In his first year the Vikings finished second in Canada West. Soon after things turned to gold for the young coach and then came the "Streak." Between 1980 and 1986, the Vikings won an incredible seven straight CIAU titles. In his 13 seasons at the helm, Ken coached his Vikes to nine CIAU national finals and won three more CIAU Coach of the Year awards. During this same time he worked with the national team program and was soon the National Team Coach and Program Director. He went on to guide Canada to seventh place at the 1994 World Basketball Championships. His legacy includes the creation of a National Coaching Institute at UVic and the development of High Performance Training Centres for rowing, soccer and middle-distance running. He also was a key committee member for hosting the Commonwealth Games in Victoria and was founding president of the Commonwealth Centre for Sport Development.