The Varsity Letters time machine spins the knobs and dials and heads back to the year 1971 to celebrate (a wee bit early) a very special 50th anniversary BC high school moment! Our guest? Basketball B.C. president Stu Graham has worn so many hats, and he brings the entire rack to the fore as he […]
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“He has the golden intangibles…” No one in BC high school football plays bigger than GW Graham’s 5-7 lineman & Chin Memorial winner Vince Ibardolaza!
ABBOTSFORD — Don’t try to tell Vince Ibardolaza what he’d can’t do on the football field.Instead, take a seat and watch what the undersized 5-foot-7, 210-pound offensive lineman with Chilliwack’s G.W. Graham Grizzlies can do.“He is really stoic and as even-keeled as they come, but a lot of that is his quiet confidence” Grizzlies head […]
A Sunday Read: Why Dec. 1, 1990 – the day the UNLV Rebels came to town – was the day Vancouver came of age as a basketball city!
VANCOUVER — I can still remember the day that the late, great Jim Taylor, the newspaper sports columnist of my youth and later a co-worker at The Province newspaper, invited me over to his Vancouver home so that I might conduct an interview for a feature story I wanted to write on him for my […]
VL Podcast 12.03.20: TSN’s Farhan Lalji on Subway Bowl, the Seahawks, Claypool and a coaching life well-mentored!
This week, the Varsity Letters welcomes an enduring friend of the podcast! TSN’s Farhan Lalji, a 31-year high school football coach in the province of B.C. stops by to chat with host Howard Tsumura about a whole host of topics. This coming Saturday at B.C. Place Stadium would have been the 2020 Subway Bowl […]
Delivering a fine kettle of fish! Simon Fraser’s women’s basketball hits the dock of Steveston Harbour to support ‘Fishermen Helping Kids with Cancer’ cause!
BURNABY — They were hoping to hit nothing but net when they took to their cozy West Gym court nestled high atop Burnaby Mountain this season.Yet while the global pandemic put a quick end to those aspirations for the Simon Fraser women’s basketball team, they’ve still found ways to cast their net far and wide.This […]
“Ty has one of the biggest hearts I’ve ever coached!” High praise as Walnut Grove’s Rowell drops 32 points in Cal Baptist’s OT loss to USC Trojans
Longtime followers of the B.C. high school basketball scene will remember how Ty Rowell had a penchant for sinking baskets that could take your breath away.On Wednesday, however, as the NCAA Div. 1 college hoops season continued its run of season-opening games, Rowell turned the trick on his biggest stage yet.Almost a full year after […]
‘Your Coach Forever’: Tupper basketball’s Jeff Gourley on what needs to happen now to insure the future vitality of B.C. high school sports in the post-pandemic era
EAST VANCOUVER — If you’ve ever ventured into a gymnasium on the opening night of the B.C. high school basketball season — as a player, coach or spectator — you can attest to the fact that there is a feeling in the air as palpably uplifting as the one you feel on its final day.Sure, […]
VL Podcast 11.25.20: Canadian coaching great Allison McNeill reflects on a hoops life with stops at Oregon, Semiahmoo, Laurentian, SFU and more!
This week, the Varsity Letters podcast welcomes a giant in Canadian basketball circles. Allison McNeill has touched the stars at every level at which she has played or coached, and today we cover some of the facets of her basketball life that don’t get as much attention! But first, we will talk with Coach […]
Climbing Jacob’s Ladder! VC Fighting Irish big man Jacob Holt stokes Santa Clara’s gilded B.C. tradition! Broncos get another one of our very best!
VANCOUVER — Jacob Holt admits he was originally leaning towards playing his university basketball in Canada.One day over this past summer, however, Vancouver College’s then-rising 6-foot-9 senior forward decided to test the waters with a highlight tape he’d put together all by himself.“I probably got 40 calls… it was surreal,” the affable Holt recounted Wednesday. […]
The VL Podcast welcomes Bo Palmer: Simon Fraser’s record-setting running back looks back on Shrum Bowl and the school’s early days in the NCAA!
BURNABY — It’s Wednesday and time to wrap up our two-part series of Shrum Bowl memories by chatting with Simon Fraser University running back Bo Palmer. A man of many talents, Palmer not only left his mark on the NCAA-era of football at SFU, he enjoyed a little-known career as a child actor. Originally a […]