By Howard TsumuraVarsity LettersVANCOUVER — It’s hard to believe that the 2026 Canada West football season is reaching its midway point this weekend.It’s even harder to believe that a UBC Thunderbirds team looking to win its third straight game will reach the halfway juncture without having yet committed a balanced four-quarter performance to tape.Can the […]
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A SUNDAY READ: With nation’s best RB now calling Point Grey home, UBC’s football stakes rise! Coach Nill, at his cautionary best, won’t rest on the laurels of Homecoming win over No. 4 Regina!
By Howard TsumuraVarsity LettersVANCOUVER — No, the UBC Thunderbirds did not steal fire from the football gods.Yet to give credit where it is due, they did maybe the next best thing… they seem to have plucked 18-year-old running back Marvyn Larozar from under the noses of every college and university football program that can claim […]
A SUNDAY READ: The incredible UBC debut of Marvyn Larozar! Behind an incredible stride, how ‘Birds 18-year-old rookie from Ottawa rushed for 285 yards, 4 TDs in Blue-&-Gold home opener!
By Howard TsumuraVarsity LettersVANCOUVER — In its classrooms at UBC, first-year physics students all begin with the knowledge that mass times velocity equals momentum.Across campus on Friday night, those very same principles held true at venerable Thunderbird Stadium where 2,912 fans jammed themselves into the old yard’s cozy confines to watch a first-year running back […]
A Sunday Read: The deliverance of Bruce Langford! After 25 years and 5 national titles, SFU’s retiring women’s hoops coach reflects on how salvation through coaching paved his incredible journey!
By Howard TsumuraVarsity LettersBURNABY MOUNTAIN — Every kid is born with a compass, and from the moment we learn to crawl we can understand it to be our keeper, a talisman of sorts with the mythical power to protect, inspire and enlighten.The first time you hear the story of Bruce Langford’s childhood, however, you might […]
It’s TBI time! We unveil all 64 teams in the 2026 Tsumura Basketball Invitational’s boys and girls Super 16 and Select 16 brackets this December at the Langley Events Centre!
By Howard TsumuraVarsityLetters.caLANGLEY TOWNSHIP — It’s been six weeks since the 2025-26 B.C. high school basketball season wrapped itself up before glorious ovation at the Langley Events Centre.Now, it’s time to start the countdown to a new season, and with it, the 2026 Tsumura Basketball Invitational.This coming season, the boys Super 16 and Select 16 […]
A Sunday Read: With 1967’s champs a mirror to their own basketball souls, Van College’s 2026 Fighting Irish make own mark, ending the curse after 59 years with emphatic win over Dover Bay!
BY HOWARD TSUMURA(Varsity Letters)LANGLEY — This week, while preparing this story, the very story I so often wondered if I’d ever have the occasion to write, a scene remained stuck in my mind.In it, with disbelief easily suspended, two basketball coaches, strangers from vastly different eras, meet in the real-time setting of the Langley Event […]
Coming this weekend to VL: It’s a Sunday Read chronicling the end of the Vancouver College Fighting Irish’ half-century-plus quest to re-capture the B.C. senior boys hoops title!
By Howard Tsumura (Varsity Letters)LANGLEY TOWNSHIP — Hope you will check in with Varsity Letters this weekend for our special Sunday Read!Of course, the topic at hand is the historic win by the Fighting Irish over Dover Bay in last Saturday’s B.C. senior boys Quad-A championship final.We’ve spent the week talking with Irish players and […]
Behind a second-quarter sneak attack led by MVP Elliot McNeil, Collingwood tops Notre Dame in 2A B.C. final as coach Andy Wong wins his third provincial title for Cavs!
NO 2 COLLINGWOOD 78 NO. 1 NOTRE DAME 72By Howard TsumuraVarsity LettersLANGLEY — One of the toughest tasks for a head coach is to stand on the sidelines of a high-stakes basketball game and to somehow summon the patience to wait for just the right moment to introduce a new, potentially tide-changing wrinkle to its […]
To our loyal readers: What’s happening at Varsity Letters this week… an update after the completion of March Madness 2026!
By HOWARD TSUMURAVARSITY LETTERSLANGLEY — What’s happening this week at Varsity Letters?You’d have thought things would have slowed down, yet constant activity within the window before Spring Break is pulling your founder in different directions at the same time.So much so that I am posting this update to all of our loyal readers who are […]
St. Pat’s tops LA Matheson for third B.C. Triple title in five seasons, capping 37-1 campaign… but don’t ask Coach Nap about ‘Best ever’ stuff because “…I don’t care about that stuff”!
(A note to loyal readers of Variety Letters: Cover of the both the 2A BC final between Collingwood and Notre Dame, as well as the Quad-A final between Vancouver College and Dover Bay will appear at some stage over the next two days — Howard Tsumura)NO. 1 ST. PATRICK 94 NO. 2 L.A. MATHESON 67By […]