Welcome to another edition of Varsity Letters-The Podcast. This week, we speak with Walter Van Halst, the commissioner of the B.C. Secondary Schools Rugby Union, on the future of the sport within the provincial high school ranks. B.C. high school rugby was coming off one of its most successful seasons ever in 2019 with […]
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Small-school stars! Meet Abby Christian’s Zach Meinen and the rest of the BCHSBBA’s 2019-20 Double- and Single-A all-stars
ABBOTSFORD — If you want to know just how good a point guard Abbotsford Christian’s Zach Meinen was over his senior year, first ask his basketball coach to tell you a story about how well Meinen played his second-favourite sport: Volleyball.“Zach’s had been an outside hitter his whole high school career,” begins Abby Christian head […]
A northern migration: Why Burnaby South’s Vujisic and Sehic seem a perfect fit in their hoops reunion with Kamloops’ TRU WolfPack
BURNABY — Back in 2018, over a precious few weeks of March Madness, Jusuf Sehic and Sasha Vujisic wrote one heck of a first chapter together on the basketball court.It was a budding storyline, co-penned between a pair of Burnaby South Secondary stars, which seemed to cry out for more.After all, when was the last […]
The Last Dance, Vancouver style! Thirty years later, the story behind Michael Jordan’s planned 1990 trip to Richmond High
RICHMOND — Cell phones had not yet gone mainstream, and the internet was about a year away from its official launch.The year was 1990, although that might not seem like so long ago to some, the world was still an innocent enough outpost that picking up the phone and making one call could still get […]
Bill Stebbings 1949-2020: The architect of Seaquam Seahawks boys basketball always saw the big picture first
NORTH DELTA — He was a basketball coach who wanted the world for his players.And in the end, Bill Stebbings helped them find it by showing them that their commitment to the game was redeemable in later life in the form of wisdom and a deeper appreciation for the value of family and friends.On Tuesday, […]
05.12.20 edition: Varsity Letters-The Podcast welcomes new Fraser Valley Cascades men’s basketball coach Joe Enevoldson
Welcome back to another episode of Varsity Letters – The Podcast!
Varsity Letters’ 15th annual B.C. Recruits list! Send us your name if you’re a university-bound student-athlete in our B.C. grad Class of 2020!
Hello B.C high school student-athletes, as well as your parents, and the entire community of coaches, athletic directors and administrators around our great province.It’s time to begin compiling the 14th annual Varsity Letters’ B.C. Recruits List, a project which had its genesis back in the spring of 2006 when I worked at The Province newspaper.Each […]
B.C. coaches say “…basketball is going back to being about you and a hoop” How to summon your inner-Naismith in a time of social distancing
NORTH DELTA — What defines a self-made athlete?As the 2019-20 B.C. high school basketball season was coming to an end last March, just days ahead of a province-wide COVID-19 shutdown, it was certainly not a topic I spent much time pondering.Yet some two months later, I can say with great confidence that it has emerged […]
Garrett Rooker: How the UBC Thunderbirds found a Texas 6A-tier football/basketball standout in time for the 2020-21 season!
VANCOUVER — UBC reputation as one of the world’s great universities is certainly no secret to academia’s global community.On Friday, however, that same reputation not only earned the the school a top-flight entrant into its kinesiology program, but a blue-chip high school senior from Texas with the ability to be a difference maker both barking […]
Picked for last, but all alone in first place when COVID cancelled GNAC season, SFU Clan softball sees bright future in 2021 under coach Tina Andreana
BURNABY — Getting a second chance to continue making a great first impression is all Amanda Janes and the rest of her Simon Fraser Clan softball teammates could have hoped for.