On his way to a 16-point performance, Mountain;s Kaizer Nostrum hangs in the air to and puts his team up 55-48 with a jumper to beat the third-quarter buzzer agains West Vancouver during Day 1 Sweet 16 play at the 2024 B.C. senior boys basketball championships March 6, 2024 at the Langley Events Centre. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of Varsity Letters 2024. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

Boys 4-A: Langley’s No. 14 Mountain men threaten with upset bit, but No. 3 West Van ties a plaid ribbon around a 67-59 win!

No. 3 WEST VANCOUVER 67 No. 17 R.E. MOUNTAIN 59By Howard TsumuraLANGLEY — Andrew Steinfeld, where are you?You know I’m old school, but more than that, just plain old.And so I ask again, Andrew Steinfeld where are you?Back in the spring of 1988, in one of the most organically-grown stories of the B.C. boys high […]

Burnaby South's Llordrikk Gutierrez has his eyes on the rim as he drives past Lord Tweedsmuir's during Day 1 Sweet 16 play at the 2024 B.C. senior boys basketball championships March 6, 2024 at the Langley Events Centre. (Photo by Wilson Wong property of Langley Events Centre 2024. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

Boys 4-A: Bby South’s under-sized Llordrikk Gutierrez drops 30 in win over Tweedy then says “I’m playing against Goliath and I am David, every time”

No. 7 BURNABY SOUTH 86 No. 10 LORD TWEEDSMUIR 73By HOWARD TSUMURALANGLEY — Pound for pound, inch for inch, it’s hard to find a better player in the Class of 2024 thaN Burnaby South senior Lordrikk Gutierrez.Fire-plug wide and perhaps somewhat generously listed at 5-foot-10, the Rebels’ play-me-anywhere-and-I’ll-still-get-it-done-coach star was at his best as the […]

Justin Hinrichsen of the Spectrum Thunder is guarded by Everett Muratori of the Prince George Polars during Day 1 Sweet 16 play at the 2024 B.C. senior boys basketball championships March 6, 2024 at the Langley Events Centre. (Photo by Wilson Wong property of Langley Events Centre 2024. All Rights Reserved)
Justin Hinrichsen of the Spectrum Thunder is guarded by Everett Muratori of the Prince George Polars during Day 1 Sweet 16 play at the 2024 B.C. senior boys basketball championships March 6, 2024 at the Langley Events Centre. (Photo by Wilson Wong property of Langley Events Centre 2024. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

4-A Boys: Spectrum’s first trip to B.C.’s this century finds its groove after early jitters! No. 2 seeds eventually roll past No. 15 Polars!

No. 2 SPECTRUM 89 No. 15 PRINCE GEORGE 56By Howard TsumuraLANGLEY — If you asked the members of the Spectrum Thunder what one thing they would want to most clean up with regards to their game here at the 78th annual B.C. senior boys Quad-A basketball championship, it’s setting the temp off the opening tip.In […]

One of the most fabled B.C. champs of all time celebrate their 60th anniversary this week at the 2024 B.C. boys basketball championships at the LEC. (Photo property of Winslade Collection 2024. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

How Ken Shields learned to dream! The story of a young boy’s road to the B.C. title 60 years ago with the 1964 Prince Rupert Rainmakers!

By Howard TsumuraNORTH DELTA — When I think about the single most enduring reason that high school basketball has remained my favourite subject on which to write, I continually come back to that near-mystical feeling I get thinking about the moment when a young player catches the game’s fever for the first time and never […]

Guy MacPherson and your author after a great day of strumming this past November. (Photo courtesy MacPherson family 2024. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball University Men's Basketball

Guy MacPherson (1962-2024) To my basketball-writing brother: I’ll miss you at the B.C.’s this week… but I know you will be watching!

VANCOUVER — “Hey Howard, I’ve got someone you have to meet” my friend, the former Victoria Times-Colonist basketball writer Jeff Rud said, finding me in my customary position, slumped over my laptop while transcribing an interview during one of the frequent media gatherings called by the Vancouver Grizzlies in the run-up to their first season […]

Riverside's Avery Sussex (left) and Riverside's Grace Bradshaw turned in two of reporter Howard Tsumura's most impressive moments over the course of the BC senior girls high school basketball championships. And none of them had anything to do with statistics. (Photos by Wilson Wong and Garrett James property of Langley Events Centre, TFSE 2024. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Basketball

The story of Grace and Avery: On a red-letter day for BC girls hoop, two high school seniors show, through their incredible selflessness, why our great game has never stopped doing what it does best!

LANGLEY — There is a good case to make for Saturday’s menu of four B.C. senior girls basketball provincial championship finals as the stuff which constitutes the greatest single day in the history of the girls high school game in this province.The Double-A, Triple-A and Quad-A games were all decided by six points, each characterized […]

All season, he told his players that basketball is a game of runs and to never stop believing. On Saturday, Seaquam head coach Lucky Toor was wearing the spoils of victory as his Seahawks became the first team in Delta history to win a B.C. senior girls basketball championship title. (Photo by Garrett James property of Langley Events Centre 2024. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Basketball

BC Girls Quad-A final: In a zone of their own, Seaquam rallies with a perfect fourth quarter to stun defending champs & No. 1 seed Riverside, becoming Delta’s first-ever senior girls provincial hoop champs!

No. 3 SEAQUAM 79 No. 1 RIVERSIDE 73By Howard TsumuraLANGLEY — It’s one thing to have a secret weapon you’re pretty sure can get you out of just about any sticky situation you might run into on the basketball court.It’s another thing entirely to have the patience which allows you to actually keep that secret, […]

Simon Fraser head women's basketball coach Bruce Langford reached the 500-win milestone on Saturday with a win over Western Washington. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Women's Basketball

Bruce Langford: Simon Fraser women’s head basketball coach reaches 500-win milestone with Seniors’ Night win over WWU! “Who would have thought a 51-year-old high school coach could get 500 wins? Not me!”

BURNABY MOUNTAIN — It was about two years ago that Bruce Langford decided to make a donation.Just ahead of his 70th birthday, Simon Fraser’s longtime women’s basketball coach decided to pay forward his own hoops education by packing up his 100 or so coaching books and manuals so that the impressionable minds of the future […]

Brookswood Bobcats guard Jordyn Nohr led her team to the B.C. senior girls Triple A title Saturday over St. Michaels University School at the LEC. (Photo by Wilson Wong property of Langley Events Centre 2024. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Basketball

As Bobcats edge SMUS Blue Jags in B.C. Triple-A overtime thriller, MVP Jordyn Nohr talks Ace Konig, showtime passes & helping to re-kindle past glory at Brookswood: “I think we have the group to do it”

No. 1 BROOKSWOOD 69 No. 2 ST. MICHAELS UNIVERSITY SCHOOL 63 (OT)LANGLEY — Jordyn Nohr knows her way around the historical section of the annual B.C. girls basketball championship program.And the Grade 9 guard with Langley’s top-seeded Brookswood Bobcats, who on Saturday added yet another MVP trophy to place up on the family mantle following […]

Burnaby South Rebels head coach Mike Bell has his Rebels ready to roll as a No. 7 seed and 10 am date this Wednesday against the Lord Tweedsmuir Panthers. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of Varsity Letters 2024. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

B.C. Boys Basketball Championships 2024: Your roadmap to the LEC’s March Madness adventure! Here’s all four tiers to follow all four glorious days of action at Arena Bowl, Centre Court, South Court and the Fieldhouse!

LANGLEY — Here’s all four 16-team draws as the B.C. senior boys high school basketball championships open Wednesday for a four-day run at the Langley Events Centre.QUAD ATRIPLE-ADOUBLE-ASINGLE-AIf you’re reading this story or viewing these photos on any website other than one belonging to a university athletic department, it has been taken without appropriate permission. […]