The late West Vancouver Highlanders' senior girls volleyball head coach Mike MacNeil was an inspiration to so many, including current Simon Fraser Clan volleyball star Betsie de Beer (second from right). (Photo by Jo-Anne McKee property of West Vancouver Secondary athletics 2019. All rights reserved)
Feature High School Girls Volleyball University Women's Volleyball

SFU’s Betsie de Beer: Clan volleyball star’s homage to her late high school coach Mike MacNeil reminds us all of the power of mentorship

BURNABY — Betsie de Beer doesn’t try to hide the fact that she is playing her final season of collegiate volleyball with a heavy heart.At the same time, however, Simon Fraser’s talented 6-foot-1 outside hitter and health sciences major can’t exactly offer a scientific explanation as to why of late, that heart of hers has […]

Feature High School Football University Football

Varsity Letters PODCAST welcomes a football coaching trio: SFU’s Thomas Ford, UBC’s Taylor Nill, Langley’s Ryk Piche

Welcome back to Varsity Letters — The Podcast! You’ll find an embedded player below to listen to this week’s episode! As mid-September hits, footballs are in the air everywhere, including the respective home bases of our three gridiron guests this week. Off theta, Simon Fraser head coach Thomas Ford takes us from fall camp through […]

SFU starting quarterback Justin Seiber will not play Saturday at Angelo State. The team is hoping his ankle injury won't end his 2019 campaign after just one game. (Photo by Paul Yates property of Simon Fraser Clan athletics 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Football

Football Clan will huddle Saturday in Texas without QB-1 Seiber, reserves at the ready as SFU awaits further test on pivot’s injured ankle

BURNABY — The Simon Fraser Clan football team will play this weekend in Texas without its regular starting field general in the huddle.Clan head coach Thomas Ford confirmed Wednesday morning that sophomore quarterback Justin Seiber would not play in the team’s Saturday clash in San Angelo, TX (4 p.m.) against the Angelo State Rams of […]

Simon Fraser running back Solomon Hines is gang-tackled by the Portland State defence during the host Vikings' 70-7 win Saturday. (Photo by Larry Lawson property of Portland State athletics 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Football

Clan’s lopsided loss at Portland State a tale of two halves, now Simon Fraser awaits word on health of injured starting QB Justin Seiber

If you are going to judge a football game solely by its final score, then you didn’t need to watch Portland State’s 70-7 victory Saturday afternoon against the visiting Simon Fraser Clan.Yet if you did watch, at least for the first half anyways, you had to admit that SFU was playing a game which was […]

Impossible to miss, Simon Fraser wide receiver Rysen John has been working on being impossible to stop as he opens his senior season Saturday against an NCAA Div. 1 Portland State team which might be one of the best teams the Clan program has faced in recent times. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Football University Football

SFU’s football mojo is Rysen! As new season dawns, senior wideout Rysen John wants to take Clan to its loftiest NCAA heights yet

BURNABY — You can’t say there are a ton of certainties for a rising football team striving to establish both winning credentials and recognizable identity within the Great Northwest Athletic Conference.Yet Simon Fraser Clan head coach Thomas Ford is willing to put it all on the line when asked about one member of his 2019 […]

Simon Fraser's Devin O'Hea is that rare student-athlete able to make the switch fro football to soccer. (Photos by Jacob Hall and Paul Yates property of Simon Fraser Clan athletics 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Men's Soccer

The unique talents of Simon Fraser’s Devin O’Hea: Clan’s super sophomore makes the rare switch from football receiver to soccer striker

BURNABY —  For his entire athletic career, Devin O’Hea has had a tough time defining which version of football best fit his definition of The Beautiful Game.That is, until this season, when one of the most rare dual-sport athletes in a half-century plus of Simon Fraser Clan athletics decided it was time to look at […]

Simon Fraser freshman running back Solomon Hines (right) makes a pair of defenders miss badly as part of a 45-yard touchdown run Saturday during the Clan's training camp-ending fall scrimmage at Terry Fox Field. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Football

Clan have a ‘eureka’ moment, strike gold at running back as speed merchant Solomon Hines joins friend Mason Glover in SFU backfield

BURNABY — Back in the spring, the Simon Fraser Clan were a team in search of a starting running back.On Saturday, as the team wrapped up its fall camp atop Burnaby Mountain with an energy-filled scrimmage on Terry Fox Field, all questions had seemingly been answered.Not only has the transformation of sophomore Mason Glover (5-9, […]

SFU starting quarterback Justin Seiber says his comfort level in standing in to deliver down field is enhanced this season by the team's exciting blend of veterans and rookies along its offensive line. (Photo by Paul Yates property of Simon Fraser Clan athletics 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Football

Leave it to Seiber? SFU’s super-soph quarterback summered atop Burnaby Mountain, now he’s ready to make starving fan base true Seiber Believers

BURNABY — The newspaper headline said it all: Leave It To Seiber.That was back in early October of 2017, Justin Seiber’s senior year at Kentwood High, located about a half hour’s drive southeast of Seattle.In a wild and crazy North Puget Sound 4A clash, quarterback Seiber went 35-of-48 for 526 yards and four touchdowns as […]

Simon Fraser freshman kicker Kristie Elliott has enjoyed an historical fall camp with the NCAA Div. 2 Clan football team. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Football

“Do you believe in Kristie Elliott?” From out of nowhere, SFU’s new kicker has become the Clan’s first female football player

BURNABY — The second day of fall football camp was coming to an end last Thursday on Simon Fraser University’s Terry Fox Field when Clan head coach Thomas Ford posed an inspiring question to his team.“Do you believe in Kristie Elliott?” the effusive Ford asked his charges, all of whom were staring at the possibility […]