By Howard TsumuraVarsityLetters.ca(Editor’s note — due to the ticking of the clock, older sportswriters must first get their proper sleep. Apologies, but the Vancouver College-Brookswood game report will hopefully materialize with the morning rooster! Hopefully not too much later. Here’s my Burnaby South-Holy Cross report. — Howard)LANGLEY TOWNSHIP — Junior varsity basketball games may, at […]
Blog
BC Jr. Quarters: Holy Cross on its road to redemption from last season’s upset loss! No. 3 Crusaders top No. 6 Van Tech for first-ever Final Four berth!
By Howard TsumuraVarsity LettersTOWNSHIP OF LANGLEY — Last season, as No. 6 seeds in the B.C. junior boys basketball championships, Surrey’s Holy Cross Crusaders had any thoughts of a deep run to tournament glory dashed on the first day of the competition.In hindsight, losing to No. 27-seeded Lambrick Park was a classic case of underestimating […]
BC Jr. Quarters: Late surge of local lightning bottled by Langley’s No. 4 Brookswood Bobcats who top No. 5 Heritage Woods to book Final Four passage!
By Howard TsumuraVarsity LettersTOWNSHIP OF LANGLEY — Tyson Kenyon, Mason Nohr and the rest of the hometown Brookswood Bobcats spent virtually the entire game trying to rattle the equilibrium of their foes from Port Moody, the Heritage Woods Kodiaks.Yet it wasn’t until the final two minutes of play Sunday that the 6-foot-3 Grade 10 forward […]
BC Jr. Boys Quarters: Tough lessons learned from 2025 loss to Argyle spark Samson, Ellis and No. 2 seed Burnaby South past Brentwood and into the Final Four!
By Howard TsumuraVarsity LettersTOWNSHIP OF LANGLEY — No one less than Michael Jordan once said “…talent wins games, but intelligence and teamwork win championships.”The Burnaby South Rebels, along with every other teams still in title contention here at the 2026 B.C. junior boys basketball championships, could surely use a Grade 10 version of MJ to […]
BC Jr. Boys Quarters: For Irish ‘vets’ Koen Li, Ren Hethrington, what a difference a year can make! No. 1 VC’s only returnees help Finnegan reach the Final Four!
By Howard TsumuraVarsity Letters(Varsity Letters will attempt to produce separate stories on all four quarterfinals at Sunday’s BC Junior Boys Basketball Championships. Check back throughout the evening. We’ll start here!)TOWNSHIP OF LANGLEY — Last season, Vancouver College junior boys basketball head coach Siamak Salehi was quite content to roll with a roster comprised exclusively of […]
Brookswood Bobcats' head coach Randy Nohr chats with his team during a fourth-quarter timeout in opening round action from Day 1 of the 2026 B.C. junior boys basketball championships at the Langley Events Centre. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of Varsity Letters 2026. All Rights Reserved)
Day 1 at the 2026 Junior Boys tourney: Why opening day in B.C. high school hoops keeps coaches up at night like this one. We explain!
(Updated at 10:50 p..m. with full Saturday scoreboard and Sunday’s quarterfinals schedule)(Updated at 3:10 p.m.)(A note from Howard Tsumura: Welcome to Day 1 at the 2026 B.C. junior boys basketball championships. We’ll update this story later tonight with the full package of scores from the opening two rounds of the 56th annual gathering.)LANGLEY — Welcome […]
UBC’s straight-ahead approach impresses! Here’s 4 things I learned as No. 7 ‘Birds top No. 4 Regina in a 74-68 classic to clinch spot at Final 8 nationals!
By Howard TsumuraVarsity LettersVANCOUVER — The deeper they get into their season, it seems, the muddier, grittier and more single-minded of purpose these UBC Thunderbirds seem to become.On Friday at War Memorial Gymnasium, UBC turned in its second straight pure-guts fourth quarter of their post-season, and as in last Sunday’s 75-69 win over the Alberta […]
Let the Big Dance Begin! All four draws released for 2026 B.C. senior girls basketball championships at the LEC, the home of high school hoops! Study hall begins now!
BY HOWARD TSUMURAVarsityLetters.caLANGLEY — Welcome to the unveiling of the road map to B.C. senior girls high school basketball glory, all set to kick off Feb. 25 at the Langley Events Centre.Click on the links below to plan your four days at the tournament and join us Feb. 25-28 for our filings from the heart […]
02.18.26 B.C. senior boys Top 10 basketball rankings: Unranked Earl Marriott Mariners use upset win to pull within one victory of B.C. Quad-A tournament berth at South Fraser quarterfinals!
LANGLEY — With two weeks to go until the start of the B.C. senior boys basketball championships at the Langley Events Centre, all four provincial Top 10’s experienced barely a ripple on its collective lakefront.The lone exception, last week’s Quad-A poll saw Surrey’s Grandview Heights Grizzlies ranked at No. 3. On Tuesday, following a 77-73 […]
B.C. Junior Boys Basketball Championships 2026: Are No. 1 Van College, No. 2 Burnaby South on a collision course à la 2022? A drama-packed 32-team field hit the LEC court running on Saturday !
By Howard TsumuraVarsityLetters.caLANGLEY — Last season’s pre-tournament rankings were better than any mystic’s crystal ball pronouncements.The Argyle Pipers of North Vancouver and the St. Patricks Celtics of Vancouver were respective No. 1 and 2 seeds heading into the 2025 B.C. junior boys championships, and in the end, it was the Celts topping the Pipers 88-73 […]