UBC's Grant Audu was drafted by the CEBL's Fraser Valley Bandits on Wednesday, and will sandwich in a pro season this summer in Abbotsford before returning to War Gym a seasoned vet this fall. (Photo by Richard Lam property of UBC athletics 2021. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Men's Basketball

Grant Audu: UBC basketball’s rising leader vows to soak up his pro experience with the Fraser Valley Bandits

VANCOUVER — There is so much that Grant Audu can do on a basketball court, that for his entire university career, he’s been cast in a series of demanding roles.The UBC Thunderbirds’ rising fourth-year forward has not only made each of those his own, in the process of doing so he’s shown himself to be […]

Burnaby South forward Eric Li (left) was one of several Rebels seniors denied a Grade 12 season due to the pandemic. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of Varsity Letters 2021. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

A season without high school sports: Says Burnaby South AD Robbie Puni: “…when you don’t have it, you gain the valuable element of what you are missing out on”

BURNABY — Finding a way to most accurately describe the loss of the entire 2020-21 high school sports season in B.C. is at once an impossible challenge.Instead, Robbie Puni offered his observations.“We’re seeing a lot of kids without a team walking through the hallways, and some are carrying a basketball or a volleyball,” the longtime […]

As a sophomore this past season with the WAC's Utah Valley Wolverines, SLSS grad Fardaws Aimaq led NCAA Div. 1 rebounding at 15.0 per game. (Photo by Jay Drowns property of Utah Valley University Marketing 2020. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Men's Basketball

Fardaws Aimaq to test the waters of the 2021 NBA Draft! For Steveston-London grad and NCAA’s No. 1 rebounder it’s a win-win situation!

RICHMOND — NCAA Div. 1 basketball’s most prodigious single-season rebounder in over 40 years is set to test the waters leading up to the 2021 NBA Draft, this season scheduled for July 29 at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center.Richmond native Fardaws Aimaq, the 6-foot-11, 245 pound rising redshirt junior centre with the Utah Valley University Wolverines, who […]

G.W. Graham's 6-foot-2 forward Julia Tuchscherer (left) will graduate a year ahead of schedule and join her dad Al and older sister Deanna with the Fraser Valley Cascades next season. (Photo by Wilson Wong property of Wilson Wong photography 2021. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Basketball University Women's Basketball

Post-marked UFV: How GWG Grizzlies’ Grade 11 post Julia Tuchscherer will pivot into the paint with U Sports’ Cascades next season!

ABBOTSFORD — For about as long as Julia Tuchscherer can remember, she’s had a knack for making all of the numbers add up.She’s even done it in these challenging times, heading down the home stretch of her Grade 11 year at Chilliwack’s G.W. Graham Secondary with a 4.0 grade point average within a core of […]

Longtime former Pitt Meadows senior boys basketball coach Rich Goulet passed away Sunday at the age of 74. (Photo by Wilson Wong property of Wilson Wong photography 2021. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

RIP, Coach: For Pitt Meadows & STM’s Rich Goulet (1946-2021), basketball was his student, his teacher and the air that he’d breathe

PITT MEADOWS — On Sunday, on what would be the final day of a life so completely devoted to his greatest passion, Rich Goulet made a simple request.“Scoresheets. He was asking for scoresheets from a Grade 9 basketball tournament,” said his nephew Dave Goulet who was bedside at the hospital, tending to the needs of […]

The RMS Queen Mary chugs into the harbour in New York City in June of 1945, still sporting the grey assemblage it was given during World War II. The story behind the colour of the British passenger liner is directly tied to one of the most unique nicknames in all of B.C. high school sports. (Public domain photo courtesy National Archives Catalog)
Feature High School

A Sunday Read: Why do nicknames matter? The origin story of Vancouver’s Lord Byng Grey Ghosts!

VANCOUVER — The best high school nicknames have always carried an understated power.In just a word or two, they offer not only an instant connection across the generations, but a way of paying homage to unique histories and traditions that each can so proudly call its own.In fact at their very best, they are so […]

The Sardis Falcons mascot welcomes Varsity Letters' readers to our list of B.C. high school sports nicknames. (Photo property of Wilson Wong 2021. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School

Nicknames, nicknames: We’ve got the nicknames (of almost) every high school in B.C. right here!

Somewhere in my head is reserved a sacred space for not just my favourite high school teams of all time, but the ones with the best nicknames.In what started out as an early-pandemic project last March before going into a very extended hibernation, has today, a year later, emerged as something of a finished product.With […]

Imagine a B.C. high school basketball tournament where every team is called the Cougars! Our fantasy nickname invitational list makes it happen, and one of the invitees would be the Gold River Cougars. (Photo property of Wilson Wong 2021. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School

Invitation by nickname alone! Imagine a BC high school tourney just for Eagles, or Cougars, or Bears? Check out our list of the craziest invitational fields ever!

Eagles rule the roost when it comes to the single most popular nickname in all of B.C. high school sports.From Kitimat’s Mt. Elizabeth Eagles in the Northwest, to Surrey’s Johnston Heights Eagles in the south, a total of 15 of the 314 B.C. high schools we list nicknames for today, have the majestic winged-wonder installed […]

The mighty eagle in flight. (Public domain photo)
Feature High School

COMING SUNDAY: The history and the hilarity of B.C. high school sports nicknames, plus, our list of every school’s moniker reveals the most popular!

Hope you will join us Sunday when Varsity Letters unveils a three-part project, all centred around B.C. high school sports nicknames.We will not only provide our list of nicknames for every school in the province with at least one senior varsity team, we’ll explore one longtime school’s particularly unique nickname, explaining in the process how […]

The North Delta senior Huskies pose 50 years ago today with the spoils of victory. (Photo courtesy BCHSBBA 2021. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

Fifty years ago today, North Delta’s basketball Huskies became B.C.’s first-ever dual junior and senior boys champions

Fifty years ago today, on March 27, 1971, a pioneering double-double took place on the hardcourt at the Pacific Coliseum when the North Delta Huskies became the first boys basketball program in B.C. history to win both the junior and senior provincial crowns in the same season.The sweep was completed when the Huskies defeated the […]