UBC's second-year receiver Jacob Patten has been one of the bright spots over an 0-2 start to the Thunderbirds' 2019 Canada West season. (Photo by Richard Lam property of UBC athletics 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Football

Patten pending: ‘The Catch’ might be his trademark, but there’s so much more to UBC wide receiver Jacob Patten

VANCOUVER — Precious little has gone right for the struggling and winless UBC Thunderbirds over the first two games of the Canada West season.Yet in a figurative sense, as UBC (0-2) gets set to welcome its undefeated, conference-leading nemesis, the Calgary Dinos (2-0), for Saturday’s crucial Homecoming Game (3 p.m., Canada West TV) at Thunderbird […]

Feature High School Football Podcast University Cross Country

PODCAST — The VL Pod is back, celebrating a big anniversary for Abby Panthers football, and a new cross-country season for the SFU Clan

Varsity Letters — The Podcast is back with episode No. 2 in our re-launch. This week, we open our show with a high school football theme, celebrating Saturday’s 35th anniversary of the Abbotsford Panthers’ 1984 B.C. championship win over the Notre Dame Jugglers. Paul Gill, Denis Kelly and Jalem Catlin are all a part of […]

SFU starting quarterback Justin Seiber will not play Saturday at Angelo State. The team is hoping his ankle injury won't end his 2019 campaign after just one game. (Photo by Paul Yates property of Simon Fraser Clan athletics 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Football

Football Clan will huddle Saturday in Texas without QB-1 Seiber, reserves at the ready as SFU awaits further test on pivot’s injured ankle

BURNABY — The Simon Fraser Clan football team will play this weekend in Texas without its regular starting field general in the huddle.Clan head coach Thomas Ford confirmed Wednesday morning that sophomore quarterback Justin Seiber would not play in the team’s Saturday clash in San Angelo, TX (4 p.m.) against the Angelo State Rams of […]

Simon Fraser running back Solomon Hines is gang-tackled by the Portland State defence during the host Vikings' 70-7 win Saturday. (Photo by Larry Lawson property of Portland State athletics 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Football

Clan’s lopsided loss at Portland State a tale of two halves, now Simon Fraser awaits word on health of injured starting QB Justin Seiber

If you are going to judge a football game solely by its final score, then you didn’t need to watch Portland State’s 70-7 victory Saturday afternoon against the visiting Simon Fraser Clan.Yet if you did watch, at least for the first half anyways, you had to admit that SFU was playing a game which was […]

UBC head coach Blake Nill takes his team into a pivotal week of practice as the 'Birds attempt to rebound from an 0-2 start to the Canada West season. (File photo by Bob Frid property of UBC athletics)
Feature University Football

Saskatchewan 40 UBC 7: Thunderbirds’ first 0-2 start in the Blake Nill-era leaves plenty of questions with Dinos up next

Sometimes clichés are unavoidable, and in the case of the UBC Thunderbirds football team, there is no better way to paint their predicament than to say they are caught between a rock and a hard place.Friday’s 40-7 drubbing in Saskatoon at the hands of the defending Hardy Cup champion Saskatchewan Huskies not only leaves the […]

Impossible to miss, Simon Fraser wide receiver Rysen John has been working on being impossible to stop as he opens his senior season Saturday against an NCAA Div. 1 Portland State team which might be one of the best teams the Clan program has faced in recent times. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Football University Football

SFU’s football mojo is Rysen! As new season dawns, senior wideout Rysen John wants to take Clan to its loftiest NCAA heights yet

BURNABY — You can’t say there are a ton of certainties for a rising football team striving to establish both winning credentials and recognizable identity within the Great Northwest Athletic Conference.Yet Simon Fraser Clan head coach Thomas Ford is willing to put it all on the line when asked about one member of his 2019 […]

Trinity Western's fourth-year defender Kristen Sakaki (left) had her love affair with the beautiful game reaffirmed during the Spartans' 12-day training camp in England last month. (Photo by Scott Stewart property of Trinity Western athletics 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Women's Soccer

TWU women’s soccer: On eve of 2019 season opener, training camp in England reminds Spartans of their “love and joy” for the beautiful game

LANGLEY — It wasn’t a trip planned specifically as a soccer pilgrimage.Training camps are serious business, and when you’ve played in five of the last seven U Sports national title games like the women’s team from Langley’s Trinity Western University have, it’s pretty clear that no part of the process can be ignored.Yet allowing that […]

Simon Fraser's Devin O'Hea is that rare student-athlete able to make the switch fro football to soccer. (Photos by Jacob Hall and Paul Yates property of Simon Fraser Clan athletics 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Men's Soccer

The unique talents of Simon Fraser’s Devin O’Hea: Clan’s super sophomore makes the rare switch from football receiver to soccer striker

BURNABY —  For his entire athletic career, Devin O’Hea has had a tough time defining which version of football best fit his definition of The Beautiful Game.That is, until this season, when one of the most rare dual-sport athletes in a half-century plus of Simon Fraser Clan athletics decided it was time to look at […]

New Westminster Hyacks head football coach Farhan Lalji (left) and UBC head men's basketball coach Kevin Hanson each visit with host Howard Tsumura as Varsity Letters -- The Podcast returns to the pod stream. (Photos by Howard Tsumura and Richard Lam property of VarsityLetters.ca and UBC athletics)
Feature High School Football Podcast University Men's Basketball

We’re back! Varsity Letters – The Podcast makes its return! UBC hoops coach Hanson, New West football coach Lalji stop in to chat

LANGLEY — There’s a sense deja vu filtering through the airwaves this week around the province of B.C. with return of Varsity Letters-The Podcast. Long a weekly staple during my years at The Vancouver Province, we’re back for the first time since 2016, right here at our new home at VarsityLetters.ca This week, we’re honoured […]

UBC rookie quarterback Tommy Yanchuk scrambles from the pressure on Saturday at Thunderbird Stadium. (Photo by Richard Lam property of UBC athletics 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Football

Nightmare at Thunderbird Stadium: Regina’s Magic Man QB Donnelly holds UBC under his spell in Rams’ 46-16 win

VANCOUVER — Two young teams came into Saturday’s Canada West opener at Thunderbird Stadium looking to discover new identities, but only one was able to leave with the answer and it likely enjoyed a raucous flight back to the prairies.The Regina Rams looked like anything but the team picked to finish last in the preseason […]