It's no stretch to say that the biggest game of new Simon Fraser running back Jason Nelson's career will be his first with the team as the Clan looks to snap a 33-game losing streak Saturday against visiting Willamette. (Photo by Brad McLeod property of SFU athletics)
Feature University Football

SFU’s Jason ‘Mini-Marshawn’ Nelson embraces the challenge: “Life ain’t easy. It’s going to hit you in the face no matter what. I’m ready.”

BURNABY — Jason Nelson is adamant about wanting to carve out his own identity, but as the new guy getting ready to take his share of hand-offs in the offensive backfield of the Simon Fraser Clan, he admits that embracing a snappy nickname which pays homage to an NFL great is never a bad thing.

After stops at Seaquam, Queen's, UBC and New Westminster, Gord Randall has shot for the stars as new head coach at Surrey's Sullivan Heights Secondary. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca)
Feature High School Football

The Stars align! Rookie head coach Gord Randall has learned from the best en route to start-up launch at Sullivan Heights

SURREY — Launching a high school football program is not unlike attempting to create your own gridiron galaxy, complete with so much heavy lifting through the launch phase that the small touches which represent the genesis of team tradition can almost seem like insignificant specks.

Trinity Western's fifth-year senior midfielder Joel Waterman (right) wants to help lead the Spartans back to the U Sports' national championship tournament. (Photo courtesy UBC Okanagan athletics)
Feature University Men's Soccer

Joel Waterman: TWU’s tide is high and so are its hopes as Spartans’ soccer feeds off the presence and purpose its fifth-year leader

LANGLEY — It may be the simplest game of Xs and Os ever invented, yet the ability to consistently win in the ancient discipline of tic-tac-toe doesn’t come without a complex level of sureness and clarity, which in intangible terms, might be best described as having an instant presence.

Even during stationary drills, like this one last Thursday at Simon Fraser, Clan junior receiver Rysen John is the picture of focus. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca)
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Rysen John: Checking in on the rise of the Simon Fraser Clan’s charismatic junior wide receiver

BURNABY — He boasts a given name which, in the musical hands of a Sunday morning gospel choir, could come out sounding pretty darn inspirational. Rysen… Rysen… Rysen.

UBC's Sean Einarsson (left), a former Canada West Rookie of the Year, returned to his former side Friday for its clash against reigning GNAC Player of the Year Matteo Polisi and the Simon Fraser Clan at Thunderbird Stadium. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca)
Feature University Men's Soccer

SFU vs. UBC: Preseason paths converge at soccer crossroads! Now, directions diverge in the quest for national title spoils

VANCOUVER — One has secured all seven of its conference’s preseason votes as the No. 1 team, a position which has become as familiar as its annual perch on the top branch of NCAA Div. 2 national title contenders. The other, its time-honoured traditional crosstown rival, holds a similar spot in the Canada West

New UBC Thunderbirds' tight end Blake Whiteley has been working off the rust after an injury-filled career with the Texas Longhorns as the fourth-year former West Van star returns to live duty this Saturday at home to Manitoba. (Photo by Richard Lam property of UBC athletics)
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Blake Whiteley: An epic comeback underway at UBC as West Van tight end looks to shake years of rust, injury at Texas with hometown Thunderbirds

VANCOUVER — It’s no easy task to spend the years of a college football life in anonymity when you stand 6-foot-5, tip the scales at 248 pounds, and own an on-field intangible that those in the sport label as ‘a presence.’

Simon Fraser senior defensive lineman Rey Arcega, a Calgary native, will suit up for the fourth Clan head coach of his career Sept. 1 when the team opens its season at home to Oregon's Willamette Bearcats. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca)
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SFU Football: Six seasons on, senior red-shirt walk-on Rey Arcega toils to recapture the feeling of victory as Clan opens the Ford era

BURNABY — Have you only sipped the current flavour of Kool-Aid that is part-and-parcel of the new gridiron regime atop Burnaby Mountain?

Holy Cross' Uyi Ologhola (right) drives on Vancouver College's Jack Cruz-Dumont during 2017 B.C. championships. On Sept. 1, Cruz-Dumont's family will present the third annual John Dumont Classic as a fund-raiser for Ologhola following the recent passing of his mother Edna to cancer. (File photo by Wilson Wong property of UBC athletics)
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John Dumont Classic: Tourney’s third edition pays it forward by helping lift the heavy heart of Surrey hoops star

BURNABY — When Jack Dumont thinks about the past two years, the rising UBC Thunderbirds freshman can’t help but reflect on the help and support which was extended to himself, his mom Trixie and his younger brothers Hunter and Cole through the outstretched arms of B.C.’s tight-knit basketball community.

Parker Simson is enjoying his first basketball-only off-season and that's good news for his new team, the Douglas College Royals. (Photo by Wilson Wong property of UBC athletics)
Feature University Men's Basketball

After CCAA national title-game appearance, Douglas men’s hoops looks to build new Royal family with UBC as first test

NEW WESTMINSTER — The Douglas College Royals may only be six months removed from their journey to the CCAA national men’s basketball championship final, yet the sport’s insuppressible nature of seasonal renewal is helping head coach Joe Enevoldson keep things very real.

Gritty Isaiah Solomon (left), pictured during his 2012-13 rookie season, is hoping to make a return to the UBC men's basketball roster after an extended absence. (File photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.com)
Feature University Men's Basketball

UBC men’s basketball: Asian international the newest ‘Bird, an Isaiah spotting, Shook joins coaching staff

VANCOUVER — The UBC Thunderbirds men’s basketball team may have had its highly-anticipated clash with NCAA Div. 1 UC Santa Barbara, scheduled for Friday at War Gym, cancelled by the visitors concerns with local air quality. That doesn’t mean, however, that in the dead of summer, there was any lack of news emanating from head coach […]