LANGLEY — Plans for the resumption of the best football rivalry game in the province of B.C. were not actively underway when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March.Put it all together, and the fall of 2020 marks the 10th straight season that the Shrum Bowl, that formerly annual crosstown clash between Simon Fraser and UBC, […]
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Logan Mathers: How the Fraser Valley Cascades’ big-ticket soccer recruit learned what it means to truly stand tall
ABBOTSFORD — Logan Mathers has always been the tallest kid in the park.And although the 6-foot-6 goalkeeper ultimately reached his lofty height without one of those sudden spurts of verticality, the latest recruit of the Fraser Valley Cascades soccer team has never forgotten about the day he experienced his greatest growth.“In the moment it hurt,” […]
Simon Fraser’s Bernd Dittrich: A decade-plus after the iconic quarterback’s passing, a former teammate pays homage to his remarkable spirit and courage
ABBOTSFORD — Mathis Baumbach remembers how he never felt like a stranger in the summer of 2008, even though he had flown halfway around the world from Germany to join his new teammates on the Simon Fraser University football team.And all of that was due to the presence of one of the most iconic athletes […]
In times of pandemic, they are Simon Fraser’s most valuable team! How the student-led SAAC is making a daily difference atop Burnaby Mountain!
BURNABY — Unlike all of the traditional varsity teams competing for Simon Fraser University, their schedule is not built around home and road games, or geared towards the goal of competing in conference championships.Unknown to the vast majority of its own student body, they in fact do their best work while donning the civilian garb […]
VL Podcast 11.03.20: Terry Fox hoops coach Mark Prinster re-visits B.C.’s Golden Age of 1A-2A basketball (1986-95)!
PORT COQUITLAM — What were the days of B.C. boys high school basketball like in the late 1980s and early 1990s, especially outside of the largest tier of competition? Terry Fox Ravens’ senior boys basketball co-coach Mark Prinster joins host Howard Tsumura on this week’s Varsity Letters podcast to reflect on what now looks like […]
Simon Fraser men’s basketball: An ‘attitude of gratitude’ remains their daily motto as 2020-21 season hangs by a thread
BURNABY — Simon Fraser basketball still has about two weeks to wait before it learns whether or not it will be able to beat the odds and have some semblance of a conference basketball schedule.That said, the odds seem longer than a full-court Hail, Mary prayer to beat the buzzer at the team’s West Gym […]
Who’s the kid on the corner? Hard luck shrouds Notre Dame Jugglers’ senior DB Antonio Cusati in anonymity, yet he is one to watch
BURNABY — Antonio Cusati is the cornerback who has been there and back.And if you’re wondering right about now just why his football journey is best described without longitudes, latitudes and the usual wash of statistics that best define a high school career, it’s because hard luck has made the Notre Dame Jugglers’ senior a […]
VL podcast 10.28.20 edition: St. Thomas More teacher/coach and podcaster Aaron Mitchell takes us on ‘A Hoops Journey’
Welcome to the Varsity Letters podcast for Wednesday, Oct. 28. Our guest this week might be the only person to have led a B.C. senior boys basketball team to a provincial title as a head coach, while also having played in a B.C. senior boys hoops varsity final, a CCAA national final, and a U […]
VL Podcast 10.21.20: TWU hoops coach Cheryl Jean-Paul on Spartans’ Super Conference & holistic needs of coaches, athletes during COVID-19
Trinity Western Spartans’ women’s basketball coach Cheryl Jean-Paul checks in with host Howard Tsumura this week to chat about her school’s 2020 Leadership Super Conference, a remote event set to stream this Friday (full details at gospartansca). The focus this year, in this time of global pandemic, has shifted even more squarely on the holistic […]
Will B.C. high schools play? Holy Cross AD Matt LeChasseur puzzled by ‘discrepancy’ between community and high school sports
SURREY — Matt LeChasseur has trumpeted the hard work and the co-operation of everyone who has played a role in helping get children safely back into their classrooms this fall amidst the global pandemic.