Simon Fraser Red Leafs Tate Christiansen (left) and Matthys Van Bylandt, a pair of North Vancouverites and Handsworth Secondary graduates, have an emotional and energetic surge to the Simon Fraser Red Leafs in their redshirt-freshman seasons on the hill. (Photo by Wilson Wong property of Simon Fraser athletics 2023. All Rights Reserved)
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Rookie Red Leafs rise to new challenges atop Burnaby Mountain! Ex-Handsworth stars Van Bylandt, Christiansen lead with work ethic while their talents begin to shine for Simon Fraser!

BURNABY — A mere three minutes of viewing may not be enough to constitute any kind of a scientific sample size.Yet if you were among the small crowd gathered earlier this month for the CCA Div. 2 Canadian Tip-Off Classic at the Langley Events Centre, you might have at least developed a pretty strong hunch […]

Back in the early 1980s, Jay Prepchuk, who would go on to serve on both the UBC and SFU coaching staffs, was a record-setting pivot for Simon Fraser. (Photo property SFU athletics 2021. All Rights Reserved)
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Having grown up in the game, Simon Fraser’s 1980 Shrum Bowl MVP Jay Prepchuk, a former UBC and SFU coach, cherishes the return of the grand game!

BURNABY MOUNTAIN — If there’s one area that any wannabe Shrum Bowl historian will find tough sledding, it’s determining the reasons why the series stuck to either U.S. or Canadian rules for extended periods of time throughout its history.For example, as local broadcaster and Football Canada president Jim Mullin points out, the reason the first […]

Carson Graham senior quarterback Logan Mellish engineered the winning drive on Friday as Carson Graham edged West Vancouver. (Photo by Blair Shier property of Blair.photo 2021. All Rights Reserved)
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FINAL: Varsity Letters’ 10.08.21 B.C. High School Football Report, Friday Night Lights LATE-NITE edition!

LANGLEY — Welcome to another addition of the 2021 Varsity Letters B.C. High School Football Report for the Thanksgiving Day long weekend.Keep checking back on this post throughout the evening as we continue to update games from around the province and remember that the records you see for all of the teams is their conference […]

Despite the team's early-season carousel at quarterback, Carson Graham is 1-1 following a gutsy second-half performance by senior pivot Logan Mellish, a fact that has Eagles' head coach Brian Brady beaming with pride. Carson Graham topped Hansdsworth in the annual Buchan Bowl game Friday morning. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of Varsity Letters 2021. All Rights Reserved)
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FINAL EDITION: 09.10.21 Varsity Letters’ B.C. High School Football report: Friday Night Lights late-night edition!

Welcome to Week 1 of Varsity Letters’ B.C. High School Football ReportAs this is the first time we’ve posted with a full schedule of games since late in 2019, remember that in order to read about all of the contests played in our Friday Night Lights editions, you’ve got to keep checking back throughout the […]

Back in 1981, SFU opened its season in Idaho against the Vandals with a young Jay Prepchuk at quarterback. On Saturday, exactly 40 years to the weekend, SFU will open in 2021 campaign statside against the very same team, this time with Prepchuk serving as the program's new quarterbacks coach. (Photo property SFU athletics 2021. All Rights Reserved)
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Forty years after starting at quarterback in SFU’s 1981 season-opener at Idaho, new QB coach Jay Prepchuk helps his alma mater go back to the future on Saturday!

BURNABY MOUNTAIN — Jay Prepchuk turned 60 on Sunday, but he has spent a lot of his time channeling his former 20-year-old self this week.Prepchuk, Simon Fraser’s first-year quarterbacks coach, is of course the school’s former record-setting quarterback from the early 1980s, a homegrown North Vancouver-Handsworth product who left the school having set virtually every […]

After a running career spent climbing to the top of the mountain, Lindsey Butterworth, Simon Fraser's former NCAA champion 800m runner, today sits on the precipice of qualifying for this summer's Tokyo Olympic Games. (Photo by KK Law property of Grand Uproar Marketing Company 2021. All Rights Reserved)
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A Saturday Salute: In a time of tumult, quiet miles and a quiet mind keep Simon Fraser grad Lindsey Butterworth focused on her bid for Tokyo Olympics!

BURNABY — Lindsey Butterworth has always been good at putting in the quiet miles.Now, as she navigates the unpredictable homestretch of her bid to qualify for the 2021 Tokyo Summer Olympics, the North Vancouver native knows it’s just as important to maintain a quiet mind.“If you look at the big picture… start to look at […]

North Vancouver's Robert Sacre has returned from an NBA and international playing career to begin his foray into basketball management with the CEBL's Fraser Valley Bandits. (Photo by David Sherman/NBAE via Getty Images)
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Robert Sacre: Energized by his Gonzaga/Lakers past, Fraser Valley Bandits’ new assistant GM makes a hoops homecoming!

He attended Vancouver Grizzlies games as a kid, then went on to play in the NBA for the Los Angeles Lakers.And through it all, it’s hard to think of anyone who has more passionately repped B.C.’s Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley regions as rightful professional basketball territory than Robert Sacre.With all of that in mind, […]

Handsworth's head coach Randy Storey trumpets the leadership skills of graduating senior forward George Horn, who will play for the OUA's Western Mustangs this coming season. (Photo by Blair Shier property of Blair.photo 2020. All Rights Reserved)
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George Horn: Leadership, confidence blossom from within as Handsworth’s B.C. 4A all-star forward charts course for OUA’s Western Mustangs

NORTH VANCOUVER — If you saw George Horn doing his thing in the paint this past March during the B.C. senior boys Quad-A basketball championships at the Langley Events Centre, from those outstretched arms down to the solid base of that 6-foot-8 frame, his presence seemed to mimic that of a mighty oak tree.

Handsworth's Aidan Chubb (left) is one half of the Royals' twin tower front court attack. (Photo by Blair Shier property of Blair.photo 2020. All Rights Reserved)
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B.C. girls championships 2020: Rick Mark, a high school hoops lifer, helps get Handsworth Royals back to The Big Dance

NORTH VANCOUVER — Absence makes a basketball coach’s heart grow fonder, and in the case of Rick Mark, you can almost hear that excited pulse the second his voice comes over the telephone wires.“I thought I was getting too old for this, but after 15 years off, here I am again,” laughed Mark, 70, as […]

Cutting a path through the Centennial Centaurs this past December at TBI 2019 is Kelowna's Jonathon Haughton. The senior guard and the rest of the Owls play host to this weekend's Western Canada Invitational. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2020. All Rights Reserved)
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Western Canada 2020: No. 3 Owls bring the best to Kelowna! No. 1 Rebels, No. 4 Royals, No. 6 Saints joined by Alberta, Manitoba’s best

KELOWNA — Like every head coach hosting an invitational tournament, the one accepted advantage is the built-in ability to schedule as cushy a first-round opponent as is possible.