Trinity Western guard Mason Bourcier keeps a step ahead of Calgary's Jackson Bayles during Canada West preseason action Oct. 7, 2021 at the Langley Events Centre. The game marked the first university game played at the facility since Feb. 8, 2020. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of Varsity Letters 2021. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Men's Basketball

Winless in 2019-20, new-look Trinity Western men’s basketball debuts in style as Q, Mace and the Spartans upset Calgary Dinos 93-84 at the LEC!

LANGLEY — There was a sense of the surreal in the air Thursday night at the Langley Events Centre.Just 96 fans, watching the first university basketball game held in the facility since Feb. 8. 2020, in what would officially be its smallest sell-out crowd ever.No one else was watching because there was no livestream outside […]

Q the return. TWU's dynamic scoring guard Ja'Qualyn Gilbreath leads the Spartans' small ball attack as the Langley school plays the first U Sports men's basketball game since March of 2020 when it hosts the Calgary Dinos on Thursday at the Langley Events Centre. (Photo by Scott Stewart property of TWU athletics 2021. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Men's Basketball

Trinity Western opens its 2021-21 men’s U SPORTS season Thursday vs. Calgary! Debut for Spartans’ dynamic backcourt of Ja’Qualyn Gilbreath and Mason Bourcier!

LANGLEY — The longest dry spell in the history of U SPORTS basketball is set to end on Thursday.“I think we’re (one of) the first U SPORTS team in the country to play,” says Trinity Western Spartans’ men’s basketball coach Trevor Pridie, looking ahead to Thursday’s limited capacity pre-season exhibition opener against the powerhouse Calgary […]

As he launched the TWU rugby program in 2019, head coach Andrew Evans welcomed South Delta's Caleb van Til into the program. Three years later, Evans has pencilled van Til into the first XV in what will be his debut start at blind-side when the Spartans open the Coastal Cup series as decided underdogs at UBC. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2021. All Rights Reserved)
Feature

4 Questions for Andrew Evans… On the eve of Trinity Western’s first-ever men’s XV match at powerhouse UBC, we talk with the Spartans head coach!

LANGLEY — On Saturday, in a 2:30 p.m. clash at the Gerald McGavin UBC Rugby centre, the young Trinity Western Spartans men’s rugby team will mark its first match in the inaugural Coastal Cup series as its’ first-ever 15’s meeting with the powerful, tradition-laden UBC Thunderbirds.In advance of that match, Varsity Letters got a hold […]

They first met in 1993 at Trinity Western when Rob Giesbrecht (right) was a third-year player and Graham Roxburgh a first-year men's assistant coach. Twenty-eight years later, their friendship endures as the pair reunite for the 2021 Canada West season. (Photo by Scott Stewart property of Trinity Western athletics 2021. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Men's Soccer

TWU women’s soccer 2021: Seventeen years after an historic run to 2004 national title, Giesbrecht, Roxburgh re-unite Friday on Chase Field sidelines as Spartans open new season!

LANGLEY — Graham Roxburgh and Rob Giesbrecht first met on the practice pitch at Trinity Western University more than a quarter-century ago.And ever since crossing paths in their early 20’s, they’ve not only worked together, they’ve just spent the past decade scheming against each other.Along their parallel journeys, the pair formed a bond as soccer […]

Mila van der Veen (centre) of the Trinity Western Spartans makes a run past UBC's Josie Claypool (left) and Katalin Tolnai on Monday as the U SPORTS women's soccer season resumed play with an exhibition match in Langley. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of Varsity Letters 2021. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Soccer University Women's Soccer

Trinity Western-UBC women’s soccer: “It’s in the blood of the two schools…” True words as third decade of dynastic rivalry opens with 3-3 draw!

LANGLEY — You could say it was a pretty quiet day for the resumption of the greatest rivalry game in the history of U Sports’ women’s soccer.An early-week 5 p.m. start on a day which began with some drizzle, on a campus still weeks from the opening of classes, accompanied by the calendar’s earliest-ever clash […]

Trinity Western freshman guard Shemaiah Abatayo was forced to hit the court running this season after six straight months of COVID lockdown in the Philippines kept her out of B.C. from March through August. (Photo by Mark Janzen property of Trinity Western athletics 2021. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Basketball University Women's Basketball

Shemaiah Abatayo: As Trinity Western’s ‘rookie’ guard preps for a hopeful 2021-22 re-start, she dishes on six months of COVID-forced lockdown in the Philippines!

LANGLEY — Shemaiah Abatayo, like the rest of Canada’s hard-luck Class of 2020 university freshmen recruits, will get a second chance to make a rookie impression when U Sports basketball courts flash their figurative green lights this coming fall.Nothing could have beaten the on-court experience that a 2020-21 Canada West season would have provided Abatayo […]

The Tessa Beauchamp Foundation has been aided in its fundraising efforts by the WLA's Langley Thunder. Pictured at a fund-raising event are (left to right) Amy Beauchamp, Caitlin Nagel née McNaughton, Cecile Dadson née Ehman and Steve Beauchamp. McNaughton and Dadson each played basketball at Holy Cross with Tessa Beauchamp. (Photo by Garrett James property of Langley Evens Centre 2021. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Basketball

Adversity’s award: Why the Tessa Beauchamp Scholarships mean so much more to B.C. high school’s courageous Class of 2021!

SURREY — For almost a decade, it has distinguished itself as a memorial scholarship by asking its many Grade 12 student applicants to ponder a question so deeply understood by its namesake.And when you very fittingly digest that same question these days, over the final weeks of the most challenging of school years, it’s hard […]

Trinity Western Spartans prop Josh Halladay credits the program's shared coaching staff as a source of unity through the tough 2020-21 season. (Photo by Mark Janzen property of Trinity Western athletics 2021. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Rugby University rugby

Trinity Western rugby: By sharing the same coaching staff, Spartans’ men’s & women’s teams strengthen team bonds!

LANGLEY — Its blueprint leads you to believe it has been designed specifically to guide its student-athletes through the unique emotional demands of the current global pandemic.Yet the coaching co-operative which was poured as part of the foundation of the Trinity Western Spartans men’s and women’s rugby teams back in 2019 is proving itself to […]

Resilient through all his hurdles, prodigious Trinity Western guard Ja'Qualyn Gilbreath is gearing up for his U SPORTS finale in 2021-22. (Photo by Scott Stewart property of Trinity Western athletics 2021. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Men's Basketball

‘Q’ the comeback! As TWU preps for Shoot for the Cure fundraiser, Spartans’ coach Pridie can’t hide pride for resilient superstar guard Ja’Qualyn Gilbreath!

LANGLEY — One year later, it’s time to cue the comeback… or should that be ‘Q’ the comeback?Fans of the men’s basketball team at Trinity Western University are clearly hoping so.On Thursday, the Spartans faithful as well as Canada West hoops afficionados will have their first opportunity since the early days of 2020 to watch […]

The pandemic may have scrubbed the 2020 B.C. senior girls volleyball season, but nothing can stop the Varsity Letters annual B.C. Super 15 poll. Among this season's top players are (left to right) Kelowna Owls' Anya Pemberton and Madison Shanks, Sydney Wright of Surrey's Lord Tweedsmuir Panthers, Madison Gardner of Vernon's W.L. Seaton Sonics and Eva Person of Victoria's Stelly's Stingers. (Photo by Paul Yates property of Vancouver Sports Pictures 2020. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Volleyball

Our 12th annual edition: Who are B.C.’s Top 15 Grade 12 girls volleyball players? Check out our 2020-21 Dream Team!

LANGLEY — Way back in December of 2009, when UBC Thunderbirds’ head coach Doug Reimer floated an idea past me to honour the best girls and boys high school volleyball players in B.C. on an annual basis, little did either of us know that a dozen years later, the concept would be as fresh today […]