With a capacity crowd of 1,600 taking in the sights, SFU's Jordan Lyons scores two of his nine points on the night Saturday against UBC in the Buchanan Cup. (Photo by Wilson Wong property of SFU athletics 2021. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Men's Basketball

Buchanan Cup 2021: The rivalry returns as a sell-out crowd of 1,600 packs Simon Fraser’s West Gym to watch the hosts top UBC Thunderbirds 90-82!

BURNABY MOUNTAIN — As Steve Hanson made his way across campus Saturday evening for the biggest men’s basketball game at SFU in recent memory, he just knew that nobody was in for an ordinary night.“When I got here at 5:45 (p.m.), I could already hear the 400 people who lined up,” Simon Fraser’s head coach […]

Vernon Panthers' running back Joe Murphy carried 20 times for 129 yards and two TDs in Saturday's playoff win over Duchess Park. (Photo by Darren Hove property of photographer 2021. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Football

Vernon Panthers roar back from early deficit to topple Duchess Park Condors in Subway Bowl AA North/Interior semifinal clash!

(Note, Triple A game reports will not be published until later on this evening due to prior broadcast commitments)The Vernon Panthers advanced to what would normally have been the team’s fifth straight B.C. high school Subway Bowl B.C. AA semifinal.And although those plans were scuttled earlier this week after a decision to play a regional […]

Simon Fraser's Olivia Willett, pictured here at the NCAA Div. 2 West Region championships, closed out her collegiate career Saturday in the national championship race by making a statement about the size her heart. (Photo courtesy Simon Fraser athletics 2021. All Original Rights Reserved)
Feature University Cross Country

SFU’s pure-guts harrier Olivia Willett collapses on course at NCAA XC nationals 300m shy of finish: “My brain was telling me to keep going but my legs were Jello”

The late, great U.S. middle distance runner Steve Prefontaine would likely have been smiling from above Saturday morning.And not because a talented collegian, in the final race of her NCAA cross-country career, had collapsed on the course at the national Div. 2 women’s championship race just 300 metres from the finish line.“To give anything less […]

Carson Graham's speedy Griffin Withers broke the 10--yard receiving mark Friday as the Eagles' Air Raid offence had one of its best days of the season in a win over Ballenas. (Photo by Blair Shier property of Blair.photo 2021. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Football

Despite mid-week re-start, Carson Graham’s Air Raid offence is on point, QB Mellish and Co. top Ballenas, head to B.C. Place to face No. 1 Langley!

NORTH VANCOUVER — The Carson Graham Eagles are flying high just when it matters most.When the B.C. School Sports ruling came down mid-week regarding the creation of two separate regional Subway Bowl championships, the Eagles went from preparing for the Langley Thunderbirds to preparing for Parksville’s Ballenas Whalers.Despite having to change everything mid-stream, the Eagles […]

The Sands Scorpions (white) and the Burnsview Griffins, crosstown North Delta rivals shown clashing earlier this season, are two of the 12 teams taking part in the Coastal AA championships set to begin Monday at Burnaby Lakes. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of Varsity Letters 2021. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Soccer

Double-A boys high school soccer championship draws are here: Nov. 22, 23 kick-offs for Coastal and North/Interior titles

LANGLEY — B.C.’s best senior boys high school soccer teams will begin a three-day finale starting Monday to determine the best within its provincial Double-A tier, except, like the Subway Bowl football model unveiled earlier this week, teams will be competing for two separate banners.B.C. School Sports released the Double-A draw late Friday afternoon, one […]

Feature University Men's Basketball

Josiah Mastandrea: For the underdog in all of us, Simon Fraser’s gutsy senior brings heart-on-sleeve grit into Saturday’s Buchanan Cup clash with visiting UBC!

BURNABY — Josiah Mastandrea never figured he’d be a part of a night like this Saturday night, a night where the basketball-karma-ooze-o-metre breaks, the mercury spills and the crowd packed into the West Gym on the campus of Simon Fraser University goes wild.Yet as a testament to those players draped in the kind of never-say-die […]

Sir Charles Tupper head coach Jeff Gourley (with grandson Elliott) said a heartfelt good-bye to his players as the impact of COVID on his family business has forced a sabbatical from the coaching front. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2020. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

Longtime Charles Tupper hoops coach Jeff Gourley takes leave of his Tigers in 2021-22: In a changing world, here’s his heartfelt good-bye!

(Jeff Gourley has given heart and soul to breathe life and community into the East Vancouver basketball world. On Thursday, he announced his reasons for stepping away this season from the boys program at Sir Charles Tupper where the Tigers have been his extended family for most the last quarter century… the team, to be […]

Feature High School Boys Volleyball

B.C. Boys High School Volleyball rankings 11.18.21 edition: No. 1’s all hold court, big movers are AAA Sa-Hali Sabres, and AA Revelstoke Avalanche!

VICTORIA —Lots of jockeying in the B.C. boys AAA and AA senior volleyball rankings this week, but the rise of Kamloop’s AAA Sa-Hali Sabres from unranked to No. 10 in the span of one week is seismic.AA’s Revelstoke Avalanche moved from No. 15 to No. 9.Single-A remained unchanged.Here’s a look at the latest polls from […]

Point guard to point guard... UBC head coach Kevin Hanson confers with second-year point guard Jack Cruz-Dumont, who on Saturday at SFU follows in the footsteps of his later father John, a former 'Birds great, by playing in the Buchanan Cup crosstown rivalry clash. (Photo by Richard Lam property of UBC athletics 2021. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Men's Basketball

UBC’s Jack Cruz-Dumont: As the Buchanan Cup grudge match resumes Saturday at SFU, ‘Birds starting point guard follows his family’s footsteps!

VANCOUVER — Even though it is arguably still one of a handful of the best basketball rivalries in B.C. basketball lore, it also is one which has been played so infrequently as to almost be forgotten by today’s generation of players.Yet something as glorious as the Buchanan Cup, the formerly annual men’s hoop grudge match […]

The Trinity Western Spartans headed into their Canada West bye week with a perfect 4-0 conference record. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of Varsity Letters 2021. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Women's Basketball

Off to a perfect 4-0 start, Trinity Western Spartans women’s hoops reaps rewards of studious work during 2020’s cancelled campaign!

LANGLEY — They are the kinds of numbers which, through the real-life rigours of a cancelled COVID campaign, seem even more distant and faded than they really are.Yet ask Trinity Western women’s head basketball coach Cheryl Jean-Paul about the early signposts she has spotted with her Spartans’ club in the formative stages of the Canada […]