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Former Holy Cross star basketball player Jonathan Kongbo gave football a late try, and now goes from the Tennessee Volunteers to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. (Photo by Andrew Ferguson property of Tennessee athletics 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Football University Football

Eight B.C. high school football alums picked in 2019 CFL Draft! Coaches agree player development is on the rise

LANGLEY — B.C. high school football’s best night ever at the CFL draft? No one can be sure, yet what is certain is that the eight players chosen from some of this province’s top programs is the most in over a decade.

On Thursday, Michael O'Connor found out his CFL home will be in Toronto. On Friday, he goes to NFL rookie mini-camp with the Seattle Seahawks. (Photo by Richard Lam property of UBC athletics)
Feature University Football

Michael O’Connor: UBC’s humble superstar pivot finds a CFL home with Argos, takes to field with NFL’s Seattle Seahawks on Friday

VANCOUVER — Michael O’Connor wasn’t afraid of taking a road less traveled to achieve his dream of becoming a professional quarterback, and now more than ever, you can see the purpose in his steps.

Lord Tweedsmuir's Arjun Samra is carried around the court at the Langley Events Centre last March prior to being named the 2019 B.C. Quad A tournament MVP. (Photo by Wilson Wong 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball University Men's Basketball

Arjun Samra: Tweedy’s Quad-A B.C. MVP willing to risk university hoops career as walk-on hopeful in order to chase UBC medical degree

SURREY — Earlier this month, he pulled on a jersey, laced up his sneakers and made his entrance onto the court at UBC’s War Memorial Gymnasium, running with the Thunderbirds’ veterans in what was his first post-secondary basketball experience.

Fleetwood Park, wearing its home whites, blanked visiting Fraser Heights 8-0 in Fraser Valley West senior girls AAA action last Thursday. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Soccer

B.C. girls high school soccer Top 10: Charles Best retains No. 1 heading into Monday derby vs. B.C. champ Centennial

LANGLEY — Decisive wins over Riverside and Heritage Woods pushed Coquitlam’s Dr. Charles Best Blue Devils to a perfect 5-0 in Fraser Valley North play this past week.

St. George's Connor Palmer (centre) was a handful for the Shawnigan Lake Stags in Saturday's B.C. senior sevens provincial final. (Photo by Jon Hayduk property of St. George's athletics 2019) All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Rugby

It’s home, sweet home as St. George’s wins BCSSRU’s B.C. Sevens! Saints combine the best of their “…run, pass, catch” to top Stags!

VANCOUVER — They’re entirely different games, yet St. George’s head rugby coach Mike Stiles can clearly see the common threads which run through both his Quad A No. 2-ranked 15-man squad and his more streamlined squad which on Sunday finished a two-day run by capturing the BCSSRU’s provincial sevens title on their home field.

North Vancouver's Carson Graham Eagles lost in last season's New Zealand Shield clash at Brockton Oval (above) but managed to win a Premier League Quad-A rematch last week at Klahanie Park. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Former W.J. Mouat and UFV coach Trevor Pridie has left his job as video coordinator with Raptors 905 to fill the vacant head coaching chair at Trinity Western. (Photo by Scott Stewart property of Trinity Western athletics 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Elphinstone's Elan Kimpton-Cuellar is just now coming to grips with his vast array of skills. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball University Men's Basketball

A sleeper awakens to his potential: Elphinstone grad Elan Kimpton-Cuellar a true find for TRU’s basketball WolfPack

GIBSONS — Plug his given name into one of those on-line origin sites, and in the case of Elan Kimpton-Cuellar, you get more than a little foreshadowing.

On the other side of the world, some 11,000 kilometres away from their childhood home in Syria, Sir Charles Tupper Tigers' senior Mohammed Suliman (right) found reason to embrace his Grade 11 brother Ahmad during a recent Vancouver Tier 1 rugby match against Point Grey. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Rugby

At Sir Charles Tupper, rugby’s welcoming scrum provides needed refuge for three Syrian youths building new lives in a new country

VANCOUVER — In the midst of a melee of mud and pelting rain, Mohammed Suliman still made sure he was the first to find his younger brother Ahmad on the rugby pitch.

A long shot from the outset of her university basketball career, Fraser Valley Cascades head coach Al Tuchscherer now calls rising fourth-year forward Veronica Kobes the ultimate walk-on. (Photo by Dan Kinvig property of University of the Fraser Valley athletics 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Basketball University Women's Basketball

UFV’s Veronica Kobes: The walk-on who refused to walk away speaks to her dual dreams of a career with Cascades hoops and a med school future

ABBOTSFORD — In its most figurative sense, basketball has grudgingly given in. For years, it had watched the unrelenting will to learn from the walk-on who refused to walk away, deciding finally that she had earned the right to be its friend and confidant.