Simon Fraser's Jessica Jones has endured to enter her sixth season atop Burnaby Mountain. On Tuesday, SFU's senior guard was voted the GNAC's Preseason Player of the Year by the conference's coaches. (Photo property of SFU athletics 2021. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Women's Basketball

The rise of SFU’s Basketball Jones: Jessica Jones doubted her game early, but with perseverance Simon Fraser’s senior guard named 2021-22 GNAC Preseason Player of the Year!

BURNABY — Tuesday was a day for Jessica Jones to understand, with a veteran’s perspective, the meaning of perseverance in the face of adversity.After discovering that she had been named the GNAC’s women’s basketball 2021-22 Preseason Player of the Year, Simon Fraser’s energetic, shot-making senior guard put it all into words as best she could.“It’s […]

Lord Tweedsmuir senior quarterback McCord Leeson leads his team into Abbotsford on Friday for a AAA Eastern Conference Battle of the Panthers. (Photo by Wilson Wong 2021. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Football

B.C. High School Football Weekend Survival Guide 10.18.21 edition: Irish vs. Rams highlights quartet of Big 5-ranked battles!

LANGLEY — October has not disappointed in terms of providing the best match-ups we’ve seen this season.From a pair of games featuring ranked opponents last week, to four more this weekend featuring the same, it’s time to count down to three weeks remaining in the regular season.To keep up with it all, here is another […]

UBC quarterback Garrett Rooker continued to thrive in the pivot, engineering his team's comeback from a 23-point fourth-quarter deficit for a huge overtime win Saturday in Regina. (Photo by Richard Lam property of UBC athletics 2021. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Football

A SUNDAY READ: After his young ‘Birds complete miracle rally from 23-0 down in fourth for a 31-30 OT win over Regina, UBC head coach Nill says “Maybe now the dam will break”

He is nearing a quarter of a century as a head coach in the U SPORTS football world, and along that journey, UBC’s Blake Nill has seen his share of comeback victories.Yet ask him to find something comparable to Saturday afternoon’s stunning rally from a 23-0 deficit in the fourth quarter to a 31-30 overtime […]

Just as they did in their season opener in early September, the Vancouver College Fighting Irish found reason to celebrate Saturday with another win at O'Hagan Field. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2021. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Football

Fighting Irish top Belmont to keep pace with Jugglers atop AAA West as Saturday brings a close to a tough week for B.C. high school football programs!

VANCOUVER — Saturday’s two combatants at O’Hagan Field brought one of the most battle-scarred weeks f B.C. high school football to a close.With games being cancelled by extreme weather, injuries and just overall player shortages, noting about the last seven days was a guarantee for all of those involved with simply getting their teams ready […]

John Barsby's Ches Rednour-Bruckman (centre) splits past West Vancouver's Ryan App (left) and Danny Watts during heavy rains which feel over the North Shore Saturday afternoon. (Photo by Blair Shier property of Blair.photo 2021. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Football

Heavy rains mean power football! Says Barsby head coach Rob Stevenson after win over West Van: “The weather was like a 12th player on the field for us”

One of the great beauties of football is the fact that the elements have a way of forcing your hand, of raining down so hard that the message is clear: Strap it up and run.Yet such atmospheric dictates have never, ever backed Nanaimo’s John Barsby Bulldogs (3-1) into a corner, a fact that head coach […]

Special teams and defence carried the day for Simon Fraser as Burnaby Mountain's resident football team travelled to Montana and snapped a seven-game losing streak in impressive fashion. (Photo by Garrett James property of Simon Fraser athletics 2021. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Football

Simon Fraser’s 30-3 win at Montana State Northern ticks all the old-school football boxes from pick-sixes, to blocked punts to goal-line stands!

From the moment Jerrell Cummings and Dayton Ingenhaag combined on a touchdown-saving tackle to stuff a fourth-and-one on the Simon Fraser goal-line on the first drive of the game, you got the feeling Saturday might indeed be a special day for the dedicated but long-suffering fans of the football team from Burnaby Mountain.Turns out it […]

Carson Graham quartrback Logan Mellish feels the pressure from the Argyle Pipers during Coastal Conference AA crosstown rivalry clash in the rain on Friday. (Photo by Blair Shier property of Blair.photo 2021. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Football

FINAL EDITION: Varsity Letters’ 10.15.21 B.C. High School Football Report, Friday Night Lights early edition! “The defenses were as good as the weather was bad.”

LANGLEY  — Welcome to Week 6 of the B.C. High School football season.The B.C. High School Football Report has been informed of four scheduled games which will not be played this weekend.Friday’s New Westminster at Seaquam, and Abbotsford at Terry Fox games have gone into the books as forfeiture victories for both the visiting Hyacks […]

Covered well by Mt. Douglas defenders, this might have been the only ball Notre Dame cornerback and receiver Antonio Conte did claim as his own on Friday at Burnaby Lakes. (Wilson Wong photo property of Wilson Wong 2021. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Football

Domino and Conte put on a show, No. 3 Notre Dame can’t be slowed following decisive win over No. 2 Mt. Douglas at Burnaby Lakes!

AAA WESTNo. 2 MT. DOUGLAS 7 at No. 3 NOTRE DAME 26(To read the entire B.C. High School Football Report, click here, or go to VarsityLetters.ca)BURNABY — B.C.’s most decorated high school football program has only been waiting for what seems like forever to play a game on it own school grounds.Next week, the Notre […]

Teams like Campbell River's Carihi Tyees, pictured here from their most recent 2019 season, are among the fabulous 40 which find themselves Top 10-ranked at one of B.C.'s four tiers to start the 2020-21 season. (Photo by Wilson Wong property of photographer 2021. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Volleyball

BC Girls High School Volleyball rankings: The Fab 40 have arrived! Top 10s from all four tiers show South Delta, Mt. Doug, Abby Christian and Unity at the top of the charts!

LANGLEY — From every corner of our vast province, girls high school volleyball programs have been getting back to play over the past month.Finally, we’ve got our first set of Top 10 rankings at all tiers.Here’s the first set of B.C. School Sports girls volleyball rankings for the 2020-21 season.A regular landing spot for rankings […]

Kelowna running back Jack Nyrose does his best to elude what has been an Iron Curtain defence in 2021 for Notre Dame Jugglers like (left to right) Noah Banco, Massimo Ryan and Pedro Cabanas. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of Varsity Letters 2021. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Football

No. 2 Mt. Douglas at No. 3 Notre Dame: Who wins? Victoria’s Rams with its Thunder & Lightning at backfield, or the Iron Curtain defence of East Van’s Jugglers!

BURNABY — The heavens have been threatening all week with a distinct dark-cloud scowl, and yet if the football gods do indeed decide to order up rain by sheets for Friday afternoon’s highly-anticipated AAA clash of unbeatens at Burnaby Lake Sports Complex (2 p.m.), then so be it.East Vancouver’s No. 3-ranked Notre Dame Jugglers have […]