Thor Sturgeon of the Similkameen Spartks battles the No. 1-ranked Argyle Pipers for a rebound Saturday during the opening round of the 55th annual B.C. junior boys basketball championships at the Langley Events Centre. Photo by Howard Tsumura property of Varsity Letter 2025. All Rights Reserved)Photo by Howard Tsumura property of Varsity Letter 2025. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

B.C. Junior Boys Hoops! Opening round updates from Day 1 of the 55th annual championships at the LEC!

BY HOWARD TSUMURAVarsity LettersLANGLEY — We now have complete details from the opening round of the B.C. junior boys basketball championships currently in progress at the Langley Events Centre.Before we get to today’s 16 opening-round contests, here’s tonight’s quarterfinals (note first games start at 4 p.m. as per Group 2)TOP HALF DRAWGROUP 15:30 p.m. — […]

The LEC officially kicks off high school basketball championship season the B.C. junior boys tournament opens a four-day run Saturday. The B.C. senior girls tournament follows beginning Wednesday. (Photo property Varsity Letters 2025. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball High School Girls Basketball

B.C. tourney time! Your schedules for B.C. junior boys, B.C. senior girls at the LEC!

By Howard TsumuraVarsityLetters.caLANGLEY — It’s eight straight days of B.C. high school basketball championship action beginning Saturday morning at the Langley Events Centre, and we’ve got the provincial tournament draws for all five events right here!~First, the B.C. Junior Boys 32-team championship draw gets underway Saturday through Tuesday.Here’s the complete tournament draw:2025JrBoysDrawThat will be followed […]

St. George's Roman Simmons (left) tries to keep Heritage Woods' Afu Bullock under wraps during Game 1 of the TBI Super 16 bracket Dec. 4, 2024 at the Langley Events Centre. (Photo by Howard Tsumura exclusive property of VarsityLetters.ca 2024. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

B.C. boys hoop ranks 02.19.25 edition: Quad-A Top 10 predicts tight Island, VSS and S. Fraser zone finals!

LANGLEY — There’s four zones represented in the Top 10 of the B.C. Quad-A rankings released Wednesday, and if their order counts for anything, it should guarantee three excellent zone championships on Vancouver Island, within the Vancouver Sea-to-Sky and in the South Fraser.Kelowna from the Thompson-Okanagan remains the lone outlier in the Top 10.Oak Bay, […]

After a torn PCL and a fractured left foot hampered her freshman year, UBC's Mona Berlitz has been in attack mode for the Thunderbirds. (Photo by Jacob Mallari property of UBC athletics 2025. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Women's Basketball

A little left, a little right… OK, perfect! UBC’s Mona Berlitz finds her true basketball centre in the presence of team! Her journey from Germany to Vancouver now pointed at run to Final 8 national spoils!

VANCOUVER — When it comes to conversing, German is always going to be her native language.Yet there’s two others that UBC Thunderbirds’ 6-foot third-year forward Mona Berlitz seems to be able to speak with equal fluency.One is the English language and the other is the language of basketball.Put them all together and nothing gets lost […]

Oak Bay's Simon Wiwcharuk-Burr defends Dover Bay's Van Suiter in the championship final of the Kodiak Classic in November at Port Moody's Heritage Woods Secondary. (Photo by Howard Tsumura exclusive property of VarsityLetters.ca 2024. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

From Nanaimo-Oak Bay 1978 to the hoops madness of 2025: As an epic Vancouver Island 4A tourney tips Thursday, Ken Shields and a cast of others reflect on bookend similarities almost 50 years apart!

LANGLEY — Vancouver Island’s trio of Quad-A senior boys Top 10-ranked basketball teams in this, the 2024-25 season, are the single most dominant such bunch from one top-tiered zone in the entire history of the boys game in B.C.There… I said it.Not than anyone ever yells at me any more, but I think I can […]

South Kam's Cruz Parsons (left) and Yeseong Cho of Fleetwood Park meet in the half court during Day 1 action in the TBI Select 16 bracket Dec. 4, 2024 at the Langley Events Centre. Fleetwood Park sits at No. 21 in the latest SRS 50 provincial ratings. (Photo by Howard Tsumura exclusive property of VarsityLetters.ca 2024. All Rights Reserved)
Last season, there was not an empty seat in the house when the 2024 B.C. senior girls Quad-A final tipped off between Seaquam and Riverside. This season, as the tourney turns 75, Saturday's championship[ final will move to the 7,000 seat Arena Bowl. (Photo courtesy Langley Events Centre 2024. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Basketball

Happy, happy birthday… it’s Sweet 75 for the BC girls high school basketball championships! We re-visit a 1994 newspaper article that looked to the future as our girls step onto brightest stage yet!

LANGLEY — In keeping with its date of publication, the hue of its newsprint has begun its fade to yellow.Yet like a perfectly-launched fadeaway jumper, the feeling you get re-reading a pair of articles from the March 8, 1994 edition of The Province newspaper, some 31 years later, seems the same as hitting nothing but […]

Deven Johal (left) of the Kelowna Owls looks to avoid the outstretched shot block attempt of Vancouver College's Ashton Wong during third-place clash at the Kodiak Classic Invitational hosted 11.30.24 by Heritage Woods Secondary School in Port Moody. (Photo by Howard Tsumura exclusive property of VarsityLetters.ca 2024. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

02.12.25 edition: Kelowna tops Oak Bay, St. George’s edges Van College as B.C. Quad-A Top 10 boys emerge from shape-shifting week with eight spots swapping hands!

LANGLEY — About face.Maybe everything we thought we knew about the stretch-drive finish in B.C. senior boys Quad-A basketball was a myth?Not quite.But in one of the most active, topsy-turvy weeks in recent memory, the province’s largest-school tier switched up eight of its top 10 spots from seven days ago.The Kelowna Owls have been taking […]

Brookswood Carly Taylor does her best to affect the three-point shot of Argyle's Sadie Danks during TBI Super 16 Day 3 action 12.13.24 at the Langley Events Centre. (Photo by Ryan Molag property Langley Events Centre-TFSE 2024. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Basketball

02.11.25 edition: B.C. senior girls basketball rankings: Topsy-turvy tumult hits Quad-A! Top five of largest tier thrown for a loop as Argyle Pipers climb to the top of the heap!

LANGLEY — Everyone wants to peak at the right time, especially with provincials tipping off in two weeks.While the rest of B.C.’s tiers remained relatively static since the last polling period, the Quad-A ranks have undergone some mighty upheaval and as the dust clears, coming off Tessa’s Tournament, North Vancouver’s Argyle Pipers are standing tall […]

Zeru Abera (left) of Burnaby's St. Thomas More Knights drives on Dover Bay's Frank Linder in the championship final of the TBI Super 16 invitational Dec. 7 at the Langley Events Centre. Next season the two will be rookie teammates with the UBC Thunderbirds. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2024. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball University Men's Basketball

UBC Thunderbirds’ recruit Zeru Abera has been clutch when it counts! Now, the STM Knights senior is embracing the challenge of bringing his intangibles to the Canada West!

VANCOUVER — Ask Kevin Hanson what he finds most special about his most recent high school recruit and he instantly captures the essence of St. Thomas More Knights’ senior Zeru Abera.“It’s a tough thing to teach anyone how to be clutch in a basketball game, especially at the end of the game, and then to […]