St. George's head coach Guy da Silva has his Saints sitting at No. 3 in B.C. Quad-A following its win over arch-rival Vancouver College. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

B.C. boys ranks 02.15.23 edition: All hail Sea-to-Sky hoops! West Van, Kits surge to give VSS five of Quad-A’s Top 10 teams!

LANGLEY — Two of B.C. high school basketball’s tradition-laden top-tiered programs flashed a little something-something, hinting that, late in the campaign, they have each uncovered a little DNA of the yesteryear variety.The West Vancouver Highlanders, 73-70 regular-season winners back on May 7 over its cross-zone rivals from North Vancouver, the Handsworth Royals, carried that momentum […]

Burnaby Central's Jade Hunyh (right) battles for a loose ball with Valleyview's Jocelyn Orr on Day 2 of the B.C. senior girls Triple-A basketball championships at the Langley Events Centre. (Photo property of Langley Events Centre 2022. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Basketball

B.C. girls Top 10 hoops rankings 02.13.23 edition: Quad-A’s Riverside, Walnut Grove, Bby Central and Yale form an early, formidable Final Four!

LANGLEY — If you go by the pollsters provincial point tallies, we’ve got one heck of a Final Four brewing on the road to the B.C. senior girls basketball championships tipping off March 1 at the Langley Events Centre.PoCo’s Riverside Rapids, continue to hold down top spot, yet by only four poll points (71-to-67) over […]

Dover Bay's scoring leader and senior Luke Linder has helped his Dolphins to a No. 2 ranking at Triple-A as the playoff season begins in B.C. senior boys high school basketball. (Photo by Wilson Wong 2023. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

Dover Bay boys basketball 2022-23: Inspired by the legacy of its 2007 B.C. champs, Nanaimo’s Triple-A No. 2-ranked Dolphins put in the hard work needed to make a March Madness splash at the LEC!

Hoops karma is hard to actually describe, but in the early days of February, all you need to do is look at the B.C. senior boys basketball rankings to know that the 2023 Vancouver Island brand is as richly flavourful as anything you’re choosing to spread across your morning toast.From Victoria to Mill Bay to […]

St. Thomas More's Marcus Morales (centre) and the rest of the Knights took a climb from No. 6 to No. 3 in the latest boys AAA Top 10 following a second-place finish at the Rick Hansen tourney this past week in Abbotsford. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2022 All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

B.C. boys hoop ranks 02.08.23 edition: Semiahmoo tops VC Irish to regain No. 1 in Quad-A ranks; STM, Tupper, Westsyde, Nisga’a week’s big climbers!

LANGLEY — The 48th edition of Kelowna Secondary’s Western Canada Invitational has altered the script at the top of the B.C. senior boys Quad-A basketball rankings as the post-season begins.Semiahmoo’s Thunderbirds, the preseason No. 1, moved back into the penthouse suite of the province’s largest tier, getting a game-high 30 points from forward Cole Bekkering […]

Lord Byng's Quinn Handy faces a double-team from North Delta's Harvir Hothi (left) and Krishian Jeet during play at the 2022 Tsumura Basketball Invitational this past December at the Langley Events Centre. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of Varsity Letters 2023. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

Savouring the season! As B.C. high school hoops playoffs begin, we appreciate the game through the eyes of Lord Byng coach Kevin Sandher who says: “The days are long, but the years go quick!”

VANCOUVER — For everything the B.C. high school sports world has endured over the past number of seasons, there is once again, thankfully, that feeling of normalcy… something that comes with the first fully-unencumbered regular-season of basketball since 2019-20.It’s made the simple act of moving from league contests to those of the post-season variety something […]

Splitting the Steveston London defence, Dionycius Bakare of Vancouver's King George Dragons goes up for two of his 27 points in an 82-54 win, Jan. 21 at UBC's War Memorial Gymnasium. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of Varsity Letters 2023. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

King George’s Dionycius Bakare: A study in humility and gravity-defying hops, Dragons’ Grade 10 star already gliding in rare air!

VANCOUVER — Maybe the best way to describe the daily development of one of the most exciting young talents in recent B.C. boys basketball history is to say that Dionycius Bakare is going through two growth spurts at the same time.By the most standard of measures, the prodigiously-talented Grade 10 guard with Vancouver’s King George […]

Finlay Chow-White (right) and the rest of East Vancouver's Tupper Tigers moved into back into familiar territory Wednesday, sitting No. 10 in the most recent B.C. Triple-A rankings. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2023 All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

B.C. boys Top 10 hoop ranks 02.01.23 edition: West Vancouver, Tupper, Mulgrave make late surges as hoop calendar turns to February!

LANGLEY — Top threes remained consistent across all four tiers of B.C. boys high school basketball as the countdown to March Madness hit the one-month mark on Wednesday. Quad-A remained as quiet as it has all season, yet unranked West Vancouver’s 77-68 road win Monday at former No. 9 Kitsilano has pushed the Highlanders into honourable […]

Riverside's Avery Sussex celebrates on the floor with teammate Grace Park in the TBI Super 16 final at the Langley Events Centre. The Rapids have back into No. 1 in the province's largest Quad-A tier. (Photo by Ryan Molag property Langley Events Centre-TFSE 2022. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Basketball

B.C. Girls Top 10 hoops ranks 01.31.23 edition: Riverside re-claims Quad-A No. 1 from Walnut Grove after Yale’s Ella Bohn banks home 3-pt OT winner vs. Gators!

LANGLEY — There seems virtually nothing to choose between B.C.’s top two Quad-A senior girls basketball team.The latest provincial Top 10 rankings have PoCo’s new No. 1 Riverside Rapids seperated by just a single poll point from Langley’s now-No. 2-ranked Walnut Grove Gators after the results of voting were released Tuesday afternoon at 1 p.m.Riverside […]

With its logo featuring both the brain and a basketball, Bigger Than Basketball event founder Bradley Braich is turning the gathering point of the gymnasium into a place where it's just as easy to talk about mental health as it is to work on your jumper. (Photo by Ryan Molag property of Langley Events Centre 2023 All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball High School Girls Basketball

A Sunday Read: Five years his after mental health struggles nearly claimed him, ex-Yale hoops star Bradley Braich is a UBC neuroscience major whose life defines ‘Bigger Than Basketball’

Today, I wanted to share with you a little about the history of the most important story we have been able to tell here at Varsity Letters, and how that story’s subject has grown in ways which truly surpass the margins of the written page.Just weeks shy of five years ago, a courageous 17-year-old basketball […]

The Oak Bay Bays and host Vancouver College Fighting Irish were among the top three finishers this past weekend at the Irish's own Emerald invitational. (Photo by Gary Ahuja property of Langley Events Centre 2022. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

B.C. boys Top 10 rankings 01.25.23 edition: Quad-A V.C. Irish, Triple-A St. Pat’s each nab fresh, new No. 1 ranks as Semiahmoo, Dover Bay each slip to into No. 2 slots! We’ve got all four tiers right here!

LANGLEY — For the first time this 2022-23 B.C. senior boys basketball season, there are new No. 1’s atop of the province’s two largest tiers of competition.Surrey’s Semiahmoo Thunderbirds fell from Quad-A 1 and were replaced by former No. 2 Vancouver College after falling to the host Irish 96-88 at the Emerald invitational final on […]