St. Thomas More's Sebastian Gorrie sacks Vancouver College quarterback Finn Teasdale, forcing the Irish to kick a short field late in the third quarter of Subway Bowl B.C. AAA Coastal junior varsity final. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of Varsity Letters 2021. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Football

Coach Dave Ruzycki gets a hero’s send-off! STM coach ends 20-year career with Subway Bowl B.C. junior AAA Coastal title after win over Fighting Irish!

VANCOUVER — The championship photo had been taken under the goal posts at B.C. Place Stadium on Saturday, and that’s when St. Thomas More’s Subway Bowl B.C. junior AAA Coastal championship final was official.Wait, not until virtually every player on the squad came over to offer a hug to the Knights’ longtime head coach Dave […]

Carson Graham's Ethan Samuels slows John Barsby's Kai Rednour-Bruckman during Subway Bowl AA JV Coastal final Saturday at BC Place. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of Varsity Letters 2021. All Rights Reserved)
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Key fourth-quarter plays lift Bulldogs past Eagles, John Barsby gets all it can handle from Carson Graham in Subway Bowl AA JV Coastal finale!

VANCOUVER — It was a game filled with enough highlight-reel scoring plays to stuff an entire season-long hype video.But in the end, two huge plays wound up being the difference as Nanaimo’s John Barsby Bulldogs outscored the Carson Graham Eagles of North Vancouver 34-28 to capture the Subway Bowl B.C. AA junior varsity Coastal championship […]

Kelowna running back Jack Nyrose celebrates his third quarter touchdown which, after the point-after, held as the winning margin in the Owls 21-20 Subway Bowl win over Vernon. (Photo by April Anderson property of A-Game Photography 2021. All Rights Reserved)
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Kelowna holds on to edge Vernon, Owls’ last-second tackle thwarts Panthers in dramatic 21-20 Interior/Subway Bowl final!

VERNON — The Kelowna defence came up with their play of the year to end their season on Friday, and it was a team tackle which lifted the Owls to a 21-20 win over the Vernon Panthers for the Subway Bowl B.C. Interior/Northern championship title.Trailing 21-14 with 1:17 to go in the fourth quarter, Panthers’ […]

The 2021-22 B.C. high school sports season opened this past Sept. 2 with its first event in 18 months. On that day, Carson Graham head coach Brian Brady addressed his team before a game at Vancouver College. On Saturday, the Eagles close out the campaign by playing in the Subway Bowl AA Coastal final at BC Place against Abbotsford's Robert Bateman Timberwolves. (Photo by Blair Shier property of Blair.photo 2021. All Rights Reserved)
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Football to the power of two: Carson Graham builds strength in numbers as Eagles’ senior and junior teams, season-long practice mates, each vie Saturday for Subway Bowl AA titles!

NORTH VANCOUVER — Ask Brian Brady what all the buzz is about these days within the football program at Carson Graham Secondary, and the Eagles’ head coach can’t help but speak in the most literal sense possible.“We’re in the dome last week against Langley, it’s late in the game and the phone in my pocket […]

G.W. Graham head coach Luke Acheson (right), pictured with defensive coordinator Ian Parks (left), has seen first-hand how high school football has helped his players better deal with the real-life adversities brought on by extensive flooding in the eastern Fraser Valley. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of Varsity Letters 2021. All Rights Reserved)
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Open roads to B.C. Place await G.W. Graham! Grizzlies’ AAA maiden voyage has navigated toughest of roads en route to Championship Saturday!

CHILLIWACK — Figurative road blocks can be tough enough to overcome, but when you add in the real ones… the ones brought on by the mass flooding which has wreaked havoc in their eastern Fraser Valley community, Saturday’s journey to B.C. Place Stadium has been as daunting as they come for Chilliwack’s G.W. Graham Grizzlies.Yet […]

Brothers in arms, these two Robert Bateman football players, faces obscured in celebration, represent the true meaning of high school football to David Mills, the team's head coach. (Photo by Rick MacDonald Photography 2021. All Rights Reserved)
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A Bateman, ready for framing: In Subway Bowl’s championship week, here’s why this photograph stands for the true meaning of high school football!

VANCOUVER — It was a picture that made me feel good from the second I saw it.Perhaps, in the run up to this coming Saturday’s 4 p.m. Subway Bowl B.C. Double-A Coastal championship final between North Vancouver’s Carson Graham Eagles and Robert Bateman of Abbotsford, you saw it, too.In the photo, taken by Bateman team […]

Gavin Whittingham rushed for a pair of touchdowns in last Saturday's Subway Bowl BC AAA Coastal semifinal. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of Varsity Letters 2021. All Rights Reserved)
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Terry Fox’s Gavin Whittingham: As Subway Bowl hits Super Saturday, Ravens’ rousing running back the perfect barometre of what the game truly means to us all!

VANCOUVER — When the high school and college football calendar turns to December, the games have a way of transcending the ordinary on their way to becoming epic.And when you’re a high school senior, it goes without saying that the stakes are magnified by 10.On Saturday, when the B.C. AAA Subway Coastal championship final between […]

Simon Fraser's Jessica Wisotzki has undergone a renaissance in her offensive game at the university level. (Photo courtesy Simon Fraser athletics 2021. All Rights Reserved)
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Jessica Wisotzki: How the simple game of one-on-one helped show Simon Fraser’s super sophomore the way to unlock her true scoring talents!

BURNABY MOUNTAIN — Sometimes simple works best. Just ask Jessica Wisotzki.As the Simon Fraser women’s basketball teams continues preparation this week for its Great Northwest Athletic Conference opener Saturday (7 p.m.) in Bellingham against its arch rivals, the Western Washington Vikings, perhaps you have noticed a defined uptick in the sophomore guard-forward’s scoring numbers throughout […]

St. Thomas More Knights senior boys basketball coach Aaron Mitchell. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2020. All Rights Reserved)
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Tip-off Wednesday: B.C. high school basketball is back, and minutes after news breaks, we catch up with six of our veteran coaches!

B.C. high school basketball coaches could barely contain their excitement Tuesday evening as they spoke with Varsity Letters just minutes after the official decision came down that B.C. high school basketball’s delayed opening was over, and that tip-off around the province would take place on Wednesday.“They have been waiting to go now for weeks,” said […]

B.C. high school volleyball will cap the 2021 fall campaign with a full slate of seven senior varsity B.C. championship tournaments. (Photo by Riverside athletics 2021. All Rights Reserved)
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Volleyball keeps its full B.C. championship status as BCSS give green light to all seven boys and girls high school championships Dec. 7-11

LANGLEY — When it comes to spiking, the only variety you’re going to see as it pertains to the B.C. high school volleyball championships, will be the actual ones taking place on the court.Despite concerns caused by mass flooding throughout the province the past two weeks, B.C. School Sports announced Tuesday evening that all seven […]