Semiahmoo's Tara Wallack (right) finished with 27 points and 16 rebounds as the No. 1 Totems topped Walnut Grove for a chance to repeat as provincial top-tiered girls basketball champs on Saturday. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2020. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Basketball

Totems’ time is here again! Coach McNeill lauds work rate, grit and depth performances as key factors in Final 4 win over WGSS Gators

LANGLEY — Allison McNeill is quick to point out there is no secret to the success of her defending B.C. senior girls Quad-A champion Semiahmoo Totems.“We work hard and that’s what gets you anything,” said head coach McNeill after No. 1-seeded Semiahmoo wore down Langley’s No. 4 Walnut Grove Gators to the tune of 105-78 […]

Longtime St. Patrick's boys basketball architect Nap Santos shows his emotion as he congratulates the JV Celtics on their run to Tuesday's B.C. JV championship final. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2020. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

Celtics hoping that Tuesday is St. Patrick’s Day! No. 1 seeds storm Walnut Grove in JV semifinals, now set to face Churchill in all-Van City B.C. final

LANGLEY — The St. Patrick’s Celtics spent the first two days of the 2020 B.C. junior boys basketball championships looking like a team seemingly miscast as the 32-team event’s No. 1 overall seed.Yet as the second half of it’s provincial semifinal against the No. 4 seed Walnut Grove Gators of Langley began Monday evening at […]

Abbotsford's Lockhart MacGreggor (centre) battles through the defence of Kelowna's Everett Schmuland (left) and Ryan Braam during B.C. junior boys quarterfinal play Sunday at the LEC. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2020. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

FINAL EDITION B.C. Junior Boys Championships DAY 2: Top seeds all advance as Celtics, ‘Dawgs, Owls, Gators combine for a high-powered Final Four

LANGLEY — How’s that for a seeding committee that knows it’s stuff?It’s a draw that may be distinctly lacking in Cinderellas, yet there is no question that the whichever teams claims the 2020 B.C. junior boys basketball title is going to be full deserving.No., 1 seed St. Patrick’s, No. 2 seed Sir Winston Churchill, No. […]

Walnut Groves Anneke Cairnie (left) eyes the basket in Saturday's TBI 2019 fifth-place game while being guarded by R.A. McMath's Hope Chan. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Basketball

TBI 2019 Girls: Walnut Grove Gators top McMath for fifth place as 2019-20 looks like the start of ‘deja vu, all over again’ for Langley power

LANGLEY — If it was a bit of an unfamiliar place for the Walnut Grove Gators to be on a mid-December Saturday, it’s understandable.For the past two years, the Gators have walked off the court here at the Langley Events Centre as champions of the Tsumura Basketball Invitational senior girls tournament, first behind the MVP […]

Okanagan Mission's Melaina Corrado digs in during a drive to the rim against Walnut Grove's Tabitha Knoedel (left) and Tia Rowell on Friday morning during TBI quarters at the LEC. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Basketball

TBI 2019 Elite Eight: Deep and dangerous Okanagan Mission Huskies too much for Walnut Grove Gators

LANGLEY — It’s still early in the season, yet Meghan Faust is not letting anything get stale with her Okanagan Mission Huskies senior girls basketball team.While the focus is on execution during the games this week here at TBI 2019, it’s pretty clear that B.C.’s No. 1-ranked Triple-A team holds some pretty intense practices, and […]

St. Thomas More's Bella Gaspar (left) gets off a shot while defended by Brookswood's Quinn Jasper during Sweet 16 round of 2019 TBI on Thursday at the LEC. (Photo by Larry Lawson property of Portland State athletics 2019. All Rights Reserved) (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Basketball

FINAL EDITION: Utter madness hits TBI 2019 Sweet 16! Three Double-A schools crash Friday’s Elite 8 quarterfinals

LANGLEY —What a Thursday of upsets here at TBI.The Sweet 16 for 2019 will be remembered for the way that Double A teams sent the bracket into disarray.Hands up if you had Double A’s Langley Christian, Britannia and St. Thomas More knocking off, respectively, Quad A’s Terry Fox, Riverside and Brookswood?Utter madness!We’ve got all eight […]

Walnut Grove's Sophia Wisotzki helps lead the No. 3 Walnut Grove Gators into TBI 2019. The locals will open at the Langley Events Centre against Port Moody's No. 5-ranked Heritage Woods Kodiaks. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Basketball

B.C. senior girls basketball 12.11.19 rankings: Look out for new No. 2 Quad-A Terry Fox! Inspired Ravens top field heading into 2019 TBI!

LANGLEY — With eight of the Top 10 senior girls Quad-A ranked teams set to do battle over the next four days at the Tsumura Basketball Invitational, it’s interesting to note heading into play at the Langley Events Centre, which team comes into the 20-team field with the highest provincial ranking.No. 1 Semiahmoo and No. […]

Centennial's Dominic Parolin make an emphatic first-half statement for Coquitlam's Centennial Centaurs in its clash against the R.A. McMath Wildcats of Richmond during the Sweet 16 round of TBI 2019 on Thursday at the Langley Events Centre. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

FINAL EDITION: Tsumura Basketball Boys 2019 Day 2 Sweet 16! All the game reports from the Langley Events Centre

LANGLEY —We’re going final from Day 2 here at the 2019 TBI.Full game reports are below, but first, a reminder that Friday’s quarterfinal games kick off at 9 a.m., while the semifinals tip off at 6:45 p.m.All championship round games are being played on Centre Court, so if you wanted to get your fill of […]

Kelowna's Avery Chalmers and the rest of the Owls remain at No. 2 in first B.C. Quad-A basketball poll of the new season. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Basketball

B.C. senior girls basketball 12.04.19 rankings: Totems, Owls still rule Quad-A roost, but Terry Fox Ravens jump up to No. 3

LANGLEY — The Semiahmoo Totems and Kelowna Owls maintained their position atop the B.C. senior girls Quad-A basketball Top 10 rankings this week,Meanwhile, Port Coquitlam’s Terry Fox Ravens parlayed a 77-72 win over Langley’s Walnut Grove Gators in the championship final of The Big Ticket tournament last Friday in Abbotsford to jump three spots to […]

Walnut Grove's girls and boys 4x400m relay teams each won gold to close out the 2019 B.C. high school track and field championships on Saturday, giving the school its fist-ever overall team title. They are (left to right) Veronica Robertson, David Midgley, Samantha Matthewman, Cam Calbick, Holly Harrison, Richard Midgley, Prab Wichramaarachchi, Evan Wright, Jordan Jacobs. (Photo by Gary Lutes property of WGSS athletics 2019. All rights reserved)
Feature High School Track & Field

With coaching guru Ken Taylor imploring them to ‘Bring Home the Bacon,’ Langley’s Walnut Grove Gators win first-ever B.C. track & field team title

LANGLEY — Gary Lutes was getting ready to step behind the wheel of the team bus at Langley’s Walnut Grove Secondary School on Thursday morning.Ahead, for Lutes and the rest of the Gators’ traveling party of coaches and athletes, was the near-four-hour drive to Kelowna for the start later that day of the 2019 Subway […]