Fraser Valley Cascades Daniel Adediran (11) and Sukhraj Bains celebrate a two-point victory Saturday over the UBC Thunderbirds. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2019. All Rights Reserved) (Photo by Vancouver Sports Pictures property of VSP 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Men's Basketball

UFV Cascades’ never-say-die defence enough to top UBC and show just how tough one Canada West win can be, let alone 313!

ABBOTSFORD — On a night when one of the biggest coaching records in Canadian university basketball sat on the precipice of falling, a home underdog determined to have a night of its own dug deep and played the role of spoiler, in the process illuminating just how hard it actually is to win games in […]

Fraser Valley freshman guard Jessica Parker, the former PoCo-Riverside standout, announced herself on the U Sports circuit Saturday in the Cascades win over visiting UBC at Envision Athletic Centre. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2019. All Rights Reserved) (Photo by Vancouver Sports Pictures property of VSP 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Women's Basketball

UFV Women’s Basketball: Forget the Fab Five! Cascades’ freshman-filled Fab Four combine for 50 points in win over UBC

ABBOTSFORD — Don’t hold it against Jessica Parker just because she doesn’t know the history of the Fab Five.After all, the Fraser Valley Cascades’ high-scoring pure freshman guard wasn’t even born when Chris Webber, Juwan Howard, Jalen Rose, Ray Jackson and Jimmy King arrived on the scene, baggy shorts and all, way back in 1991, […]

Feature Podcast

The Varsity Letters PODCAST 11.20.19 edition: Vernon football’s Sean Smith, UFV women’s hoop coach Al Tuchscherer & the LEC’s Gary Ahuja

LANGLEY — The Varsity Letters’ podcast is back, and ready to not only chat about football and basketball, but about the home for so many of our province’s top high school invitational and championship tournaments. First, in the spirit of this Saturday’s Subway Bowl Final Four weekend at B.C. Place Stadium, Vernon Panthers’ head coach […]

Fraser Valley Cascades' fifth-year guard Sukhjot Bains has looked to bring a more consistent shooting touch to the floor over his final season of university basketball. (Photo by Dan Kinvig property of University of the Fraser Valley athletics 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Men's Basketball

UFV’s Sukhjot Bains: In his quest for long-distance shooting mojo, Cascades senior guard says it’s the mind that matters most

ABBOTSFORD — Last season, Sukhjot Bains traded snow for rain in a transfer from NCAA Div. 1 Wisconsin-Green Bay back to his home province and a spot in U Sports with Abbotsford’s Fraser Valley Cascades.Yet while frozen tundra gave way to puddles, the former high school superstar with Surrey’s Tamanawis Wildcats is the first to […]

Giving his Cascades' teammates a pair of shoulders to lean on, UFV's fifth-year senior captain and all-time program scoring leader Gurmaan Jhaj closes out his U Sports' regular-season career this weekend with a playoff berth on the line in the nation's toughest conference. (Photo by Dan Kinvig property of University of the Fraser Valley athletics 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Men's Soccer

A Jhaj of greatness: Amidst the emotion of UFV seniors night, Cascades’ all-time scoring leader Gurmaan Jhaj must summon his best game

ABBOTSFORD — Gurmaan Jhaj has brought a rare talent to the fore over the course of his university soccer career with the Fraser Valley Cascades.

MEI Eagles' Hunter Arulpragasam (left) and Tag Neufeld rise for a block against Lake Country's George Elliott Coyotes last Friday during the UBC Invitational at War Memorial Gym. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Volleyball

MEI boys volleyball: Multi-sport players, multi-experienced coach Olfert meld to lift Eagles into B.C. AA title contention

ABBOTSFORD — The 2019 edition of the MEI Eagles senior boys volleyball team has its fair share of standouts, and none of that is a surprise for the team which last week opened at No. 1 in the first B.C. Double A rankings of the new season.Senior Tyson Ardell spent the summer with Team B.C. […]

Fraser Valley Cascades' rookie Bryana Buttar (centre) has played like a veteran over the first six matches of the 2019 Canada West season. (Photo by Dan Kinvig property of University of the Fraser Valley athletics 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Soccer University Women's Soccer

Cascades are better with Bryana Buttar in the batter! Rookie a rare ingredient as UFV hunkers for huge weekend homestand vs. UBC, UVic

ABBOTSFORD — With the same clockwork precision she has shown at every key stage of her soccer career, Bryana Buttar has once again arrived ahead of her time.“I definitely feel that my whole youth career has set me up for this,” the Fraser Valley Cascades’ dynamic midfielder remarked Wednesday of the opportunity she has seized […]

Feature Podcast

Varsity Letters PODCAST visits with Laurier Primeau of UBC track, Ray Moon of Sun Devils football & Tom Lowndes of UFV men’s soccer

Welcome back, loyal listeners, to another episode of Varsity Letters — The Podcast, Canada’s only weekly podcast dedicated solely to the coverage of provincial and university high school sports. This week, our three guests are: *UBC’s Laurier Primeau, the head coach of Thunderbirds’ cross-country, and track and field, reflecting on last spring’s dual national championships, […]

Fraser Valley's Taylor Claggett is headed into her senior season with the Cascades relishing the experiences of her team's recent trip to India (left, with teammate Amanda Thompson). (Photos property UFV athletics 2019. All rights reserved)
Feature University Women's Basketball

A Passage To India: The travels of UFV senior Taylor Claggett yield new perspectives as Cascades star preps for a torch-passing season

ABBOTSFORD — So many time-honoured adages centre around the fact that greatness remains elusive without first taking a willing step outside of your comfort zone.Taylor Claggett wants to lead her team to the top of the Canadian university basketball mountain this coming spring, so maybe it was fitting that she stepped outside of hers earlier […]

Surrey-Kwantlen Park grad Taylor Nekic, entering her third season as a starting central defender, has helped lift the fortunes of Abbotsford's ever-improving Fraser Valley Cascades. (Photo by Dan Kinvig property of University of the Fraser Valley athletics 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Women's Soccer

First signs of a second wind? UFV’s gifted youthful core embraces opportunity as Cascades women’s soccer takes a hopeful forward step

ABBOTSFORD — You can’t really define a second wind, except to say that although invisible to the naked eye, it brings a presence which is undeniably uplifting.In a big-picture sense, that’s kind of how Rob Giesbrecht has felt throughout the course of the most demanding and perhaps most rewarding preseason in the history of Fraser […]