Robert Bateman's rising senior linebacker/fullback Jack Weinkauf (right) celebrates with SFU-bound teammate Sam Davenport during the Wolves' decisive Subway Bowl AA semifinal win over Holy Cross last November at B.C. Place. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Football

Robert Bateman looks to its rising senior Phoenix! Wolves come in at AA No. 5 as countdown to B.C. high school football 2019 begins

High school football season may still be over three months away. Yet how far can it really be when Varsity Letters starts its annual countdown of B.C.’s best teams?

Centennial's Meghan Harder (centre) kept her head in the game, helping lead the defending B.C. AAA champion Centaurs past host South Delta in a Fraser Valley semifinal clash at Winskill Park in Tsawwassen. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Soccer

Encore, encore? Constant refinement the key as defending B.C. AAA champ Centennial preps for FV title match

TSAWWASSEN — As accomplished as they are as B.C.’s reigning top-tiered girls high school soccer champions, Coquitlam’s dynamic Centennial Centaurs aren’t above having their collective re-set button pushed in preparation for what they hope is a long and healthy run to a repeat title.At their best, like they were upon hitting full attack mode Monday […]

Collingwood's Sebastian Hutton goes airborne in his team's Hatch Shield win last week against the Rockridge Ravens in North Vancouver. (Photo by Blair Shier property of Blair.photo 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Rugby

Varsity Letters BC Rugby Report 05.13.19 edition: Saints, Sun Devils and Cavs highlight three tiers of impressive victories

Welcome to Varsity Letters’ B.C. boys high school rugby report.Here’s a look at match reports from the past week:QUAD APREMIER LEAGUENo. 2 ST. GEORGE’S 34 at No. 4 OAK BAY 24VICTORIA — If you’re the visiting Saints, it wasn’t a bad way to move from the regular season to the playoffs.St. George’s, in much the […]

The words say it all. Former Yale basketball star Bradley Braich is shooting for new goals these days, including ending all of the stigmas surrounding mental illness. (Photo by Luke Ouellette property of Bigger Than Basketball 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

A Sunday Read: Why Bradley Braich counts his blessings and still celebrates the game through ‘Bigger Than Basketball’

ABBOTSFORD — It hasn’t even been 15 months since Bradley Braich delivered one of the most profoundly impactful messages I’ve received in almost 40 years as a reporter.Despite being just 17 years of age at the time, the direct message he sent me via Twitter was so heartfelt, a part of it which read: “Hey […]

After winning its first game on the final day of the regular season, Burnaby's Byrne Creek Bulldogs are playoff bound in their first-ever season of play. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Rugby

Byrne Creek rugby’s historic first win! Said ‘Dawgs head coach Stefanon: “You would have thought we had won just won a B.C. title”

BURNABY — The greenest team in B.C. senior boys rugby has done nothing but grow over its first-ever season. On Thursday at the Burnaby Lake Sports Complex however, the hometown Byrne Creek Bulldogs enjoyed an historic coming of age.

Fleetwood Park's Simran Billen (right) celebrates her first goal Wednesday in the Dragons' 5-1 win over Sullivan Heights at Cloverdale Athletic Park. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2019. All Rights Reserved)
South Kamloops' Maddy Gobeil (right) is headed to a university basketball career in U Sports beginning next season with Abbotsford's Fraser Valley Cascades. Help us find at least 999 more graduating B.C. high school Grade 12 student-athletes headed to post-secondary careers in 2019-20. (Photo by Paul Yates property of Vancouver Sports Pictures 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School University

B.C. Recruits List 2019! Please help Varsity Letters break 1,000 Grade 12 names as we chart the Class of 2019’s university sport destinations!

NORTH DELTA — It’s that time of year again.For our province’s select community of high school seniors who are looking to continue their careers as post-secondary student-athletes, it’s a time to tip our collective hat.For the 13th straight year it’s time to begin the task of compiling the names and destinations of as many of […]

Simon Fraser could send as many as five steeplechase athletes to the NCAA Div. 2 national championships later this month. They are (left to right) Julia Howley, Chelsea Ribeiro, Olivia Willett, Aaron Ahl and Pierre Louis-Detourbe. (Photo by Brad McLeod property of SFU Athletics 2019. All Rights Reserved)
UBC Thunderbirds' sophomore Jamie Hennessey (55) posted the fastest NAIA time this season in the 3,000m steeplechase, despite her Type 1 diabetes. (Photo by UBC athletics copyright 2019. All rights reserved).
Feature University Track and Field

UBC’s Jamie Hennessey: Despite her Type 1 diabetes, Thunderbirds’ courageous sophomore sits among the NAIA’s steeplechase elite

VANCOUVER — If you had asked Jamie Hennessey five years ago if she was capable of having a day like the one she had last month, she would have nodded a decisive “No.”

Argyle's Gerial Larose (right) wraps suits up Wednesday at the North Shore all-star basketball game at Capilano University. (Photo by Wilson Wong 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball High School Girls Basketball

Capilano U hosts North Shore boys, girls all-star games as 2018-19 high school basketball season ends Wednesday

NORTH VANCOUVER — Capilano University’s Centre for Sport and Wellness will host on Wednesday what is surely the final event on the 2018-19 B.C. high school basketball calendar. The occasion?