Rob Wille has lived in Greater Victoria for the better part of 45 years and his pride for the city is unwavering.
Around town, he has endearingly become known as ‘Coach Rob’ due to his dedication to his community and his drive to help kids stay active.
“I’ve been helping out at Lambrick Park High School with their cross-country track and field since about 2003, like helping coach the kids,” Coach Rob told Victoria Buzz.
“People would always spell my name wrong… everyone just started calling me Coach Rob, like the school kids and their parents.”
To highlight some of what he loves so much about the city he’s called home for so long, Coach Rob began a YouTube channel and started to produce videos about local businesses and sports.
He and his friend Shannon attend Victoria Royals games together, and occasionally, Coach Rob reviews them. He is an avid fan and holds season tickets to the Royals games.
He says that he met Shannon when she was looking online for tickets and he was able to give her the tickets. Since then the two of them have had fun with each other by making wholesome reviews and talking hockey.
“Sometimes I’ll go to a Royals game and I’ll talk about that, or a Canucks game,” said Coach Rob.
“I’ve been doing the Royals videos off and on for the past three years and I’ll just do a Canucks review if they play really, really well.”
He is a passionate cook, and because of that passion, he has poured that drive into making short cooking videos for fun and reviewing some of his favourite restaurants, often with Shannon.
Wille has reviewed Victoria staples such as Naughty Nellies, the White Spot on Fort Street, the now defunct Sassy’s diner. One of his most recent reviews was of Esquimalt’s Sushi Story.
“Me and my friend Shannon, if we’re out and about and we decide to get like, the fish and chips from Naughty Nellies, we just decided to do a review,” he explained.
“It’s just kind of random or maybe a special occasion.”
His focus with these videos is to bring some positivity into the world. Instead of griping or complaining about the things he has problems with, Wille looks for silver linings and highlights the positive things that Victoria has to offer.
“If a restaurant didn’t do a good job it’s really not for me to say,” Coach Rob told Victoria Buzz.
He says that he’ll avoid somewhere because a friend will tell him it isn’t very good, but oftentimes, once he actually tries the food from that spot, he will really enjoy it.
“It’s sort of subjective, it’s better to be positive and let people decide for themselves.”
In addition to the Royals games and the food reviews, Coach Rob has created some unboxing videos and tutorials which have garnered nearly 30,000 views on his YouTube channel.
In the future, Coach Rob says he will keep making these videos and he wants to start doing some running content and some camping content.
Check out the rest of Coach Rob’s content on his website and YouTube channel.
