Making a sure tackle during the 2019 provincial championships is Sir Charles Tupper's Kiya Vivier-Miller, who earned selection to the 2020 BCSSRU Fab 50 all-star team. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2020. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Rugby

The Fab Fifty-B.C.’s Top 50 high school boys Grade 12 rugby players! Despite a lost season, BCSSRU salutes the skill, heart & grit of its Class of 2020!

LANGLEY — Theirs was a season which was ended in its infancy back in March.Yet while the B.C. boys high school rugby graduating Class of 2020 didn’t get a chance to experience the tests of league, playoff and provincial matches due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there was no doubting its heart and its skill.That’s why […]

Abbotsford Panthers' graduating seniors (left to right) Josiah Levale, Jalem Catlin and Marley Edwards were all members of the senior boys basketball team, yet the entire trio will play different sports at the U Sports level come 2020-21. (Photos by Howard Tsumura, photo collage by Gabriel Lynn property of Varsity Letters 2020. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball High School Football

Three for the show! Abby Panthers’ rare hoops trio of Jalem Catlin, Marley Edwards & Josiah Levale embark on U Sports careers in football, soccer, rugby!

ABBOTSFORD — Greg DeVries is some 30 years into a life of meaningful basketball games and practices, and as such, the head coach of the senior boys varsity at Abbotsford Secondary knows just how special and rare the make-up of his 2019-209 Panthers actually was by asking himself a simple question.

Trinity Western Spartans' blue-chip rugby recruit Josiah Levale, of Abbotsford Secondary, has already represented Canada in international competition. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2020. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Rugby University rugby

“I got some rocks, and I loaded them in a bag”: Trinity Western Spartans’ rugby recruit Josiah Levale never shies from the heavy lifting!

LANGLEY — When you take a second to consider the quality of stone from which Josiah Levale has been chiseled, perhaps it’s not surprising to learn just how resourceful one of the prized signings in Trinity Western rugby’s incoming 2020 class of recruits was in tending to his training regimen over the early stages of […]

Lord Byng rugby players were able to relish some post-game moments with host Matamata of New Zealand just days before its March tour of the Southern Hemisphere was cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic. (Graphic by Gabriel Lynn property of Varsity Letters 2020. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Rugby

A Sunday Read: Song Sung True —  Lord Byng rugby performs profound rendition of the Coast Salish anthem before New Zealand tour cut short by COVID-19

VANCOUVER — Last month, Nathan Berrington-Dom stood on the other side of the world, flanked by his 25 fellow teammates from the Lord Byng Grey Ghosts senior boys rugby team. They were ready to sing a song.

Quinn Ngawati and the SMUS Blue Jags claimed The Boot spoils in 2017. (Photo by Kyle Slavin property of SMUS athletics 2020. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Rugby

B.C. high school rugby 2020: As ‘The Boot’ classic enters its second quarter-century, SMUS vs. Oak Bay gets a TV audience

VICTORIA — One of the gems of the B.C. high school rugby calendar becomes less of a secret outside of the provincial capital beginning this season.That’s because Thursday’s 26th playing of the annual Boot Game (6:30 p.m.) between storied rivals St. Michaels University School Blue Jags and Oak Bay Barbarians at historic Centennial Stadium on […]

B.C. high school rugby coaches, like Lord Byng's Mike Mallette, are part of a rare resource being celebrated by BCSSRU rugby commish Walter van Halst, who has set up free coaching clinics to coincide with B.C.'s Pro D Day this Friday. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Rugby University rugby

BCSSRU offers teachers free rugby coaching clinics on Pro-D Day: “Why can’t we develop coaches the same way we develop teachers?” asks commish

SURREY — During the summer, as Walter van Halst contemplated some of the best ways to both recognize and enhance the many dedicated teachers who volunteer their time to coach rugby in B.C. secondary schools, he kept asking himself the same fundamental question.“Why can’t we develop coaches the same way we develop teachers?” asked the […]

Carson Graham's Austin James (with ball) has been recognized as one of Quad-A's Game Day XXIII for 2019. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Rugby

Meet The Quad Squad: Find out who made the grade in Varsity Letters’ 2019 Game Day XXIII B.C. Quad-A rugby Dream Team!

LANGLEY — The 2019 Premier League season, one which opened with the St. George’s Saints last-second win over the Shawnigan Lake Stags in the opening round of the Stadium Series at Swangard back in April, and closed earlier this month with a B.C. finals re-match won at Rotary by the Stags, showcased B.C. high school […]

West Vancouver
Robert Bateman's Sam Davenport makes his break to the try line during the recent B.C. Triple A Tier 1 championships in Abbotsford. An SFU football recruit, Davenport is also a part of the Game Day XXIII B.C. AAA Dream Team team. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Rugby

B.C.’s best Triple-A boys rugby players! Meet the Varsity Letters/BCSSRU 2019 Game Day XXIII Dream Team

LANGLEY — We opened our look at B.C.’s best high school rugby players, by tier, with our Tuesday look at Double-A. It’s Wednesday and time to shift attention to the Varsity Letters/B.C. Secondary Schools Rugby Union Triple-A team, one defined by not only a heavy Fraser Valley flavour, but by its exclusive public school membership.

Collingwood's Sebastian Hutton helped his team to a repeat B.C. AA Tier 1 title earlier this month. On Tuesday he was named to the Varsity Letters/BCSSRU's 2019 Game Day XXIII. (Photo by Blair Shier property of Blair.photo 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Rugby

B.C.’s best AA high school rugby players of the year! Check out the Varsity Letters/BCSSRU 2019 Game Day XXIII

LANGLEY — After one year away, Varsity Letters is back with one of the most-read features in our young history. Two seasons ago, through the expertise of the B.C. Secondary Schools Rugby Union, we presented our first B.C.’s Top XV player list, featuring the top three high school players from around the province at each position.

Collingwood Cavaliers' seniors Tyler Preston (left) and Graeme Neill-Klein each lost their Grade 11 seasons to shoulder surgery, but finished their senior seasons as leaders on a B.C. championship-winning team. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Rugby

A Sunday Read: Rubbing shoulders with adversity helps Collingwood’s rugby brothers Neill-Klein and Preston fashion a dream ending

ABBOTSFORD — You can never mask elation, yet to see it emerge from the deepest of places in a moment of celebration is to better understand why the best things in life are worth fighting for.