Sir Charles Tupper head coach Jeff Gourley (with grandson Elliott) said a heartfelt good-bye to his players as the impact of COVID on his family business has forced a sabbatical from the coaching front. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2020. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

Longtime Charles Tupper hoops coach Jeff Gourley takes leave of his Tigers in 2021-22: In a changing world, here’s his heartfelt good-bye!

(Jeff Gourley has given heart and soul to breathe life and community into the East Vancouver basketball world. On Thursday, he announced his reasons for stepping away this season from the boys program at Sir Charles Tupper where the Tigers have been his extended family for most the last quarter century… the team, to be […]

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Boys TBI 2021: Our Dec. 8-11 draw unveils Burnaby South, Kelowna, Yale and Winston Churchill among our headline field at the LEC!

LANGLEY — Hello high school boys basketball fans!We’ve done a lot of waiting since we all last gathered at the home of B.C. high school basketball back in March of 2020.Today, precisely two weeks ahead of the official start of the 2021-22 season, it’s time to celebrate the return of our great game.And with that?From […]

A dunker, a high jumper, and a guy who looked like he had "...just arrived from Woodstock", Ted Cusick was a beloved coach who brought out the best in kids while having fun during a near 50-year coaching career. (Photo provided courtesy Cusick family 2021. All Rights Reserved)
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Ted Cusick (1942-2021): B.C. boys basketball loses a coach for the ages, but impact of The Cuz, in the hearts of five decades of his former players, will never be forgotten!

VANCOUVER — When he arrived on the first day of classes at Point Grey Secondary School, in September of 1973, he was a well-traveled first-year student-teacher with a fashion sense for the times.Fu Manchu moustache. Huge sideburns. Flared pants. Platform shoes.It was a look that made Ted Cusick so instantly relatable to the students he […]

There are still tickets available to attend the Rich Goulet celebration of life on Nov. 7 in Pitt Meadows. (Photo by Wilson Wong 2021. All Rights Reserved)
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Rich Goulet Celebration: Still plenty of available tickets to honour late B.C. high school coaching great on Nov. 7 in Pitt Meadows!

PITT MEADOWS — If you are still interested in attending next month’s ‘Celebrating the Wonderful Life of Richard ‘Rich’ Goulet’ event, being held in honour of the late, great B.C. high school basketball coach, there is still plenty of room available.The Nov. 7 gathering for the Pitt Meadows Marauders and St. Thomas More Knights head […]

The life of late basketball coaching great Rich Goulet will be shared and celebrated next month in Pitt Meadows. (Photo by Wilson Wong 2021. All Rights Reserved)
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An afternoon for storytelling: Celebration of life for late basketball coaching legend Rich Goulet set for Nov. 7 in Pitt Meadows!

PITT MEADOWS — The storytellers will share as the B.C. basketball community comes together in just over one month’s time for a special event entitled ‘Celebrating the Wonderful Life of Richard ‘Rich’ Goulet’.Goulet, the longtime boys basketball coach at Pitt Meadows Secondary and St. Thomas More Collegiate, who passed away this past March at the […]

After testing the NBA's pre-draft evaluation waters, Utah Valley star and Steveston-London product Fardaws Aimaq announced Wednesday he is pulling out of the 2021 NBA draft in favour of a junior season with the Wolverines over which he hopes to make himself a 2022 NBA first-round pick. (Photo by Isaac Hale property of Utah Valley University marketing 2021. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball University Men's Basketball

‘Daws takes one season pause on NBA draft: Richmond native and Utah Valley star Fardaws Aimaq on why his NBA sights now set on 2022!

Fardaws Aimaq is coming back to college, and he’s smiling wide because he’s doing so with a whole lot of NBA knowledge.The 6-foot-11 Richmond native and reigning NCAA Div. 1 rebounding champion this past season at Utah Valley University had announced back in early April that he would be testing the NBA’s demanding pre-draft waters […]

The late Pitt Meadows senior boys basketball coach Rich Goulet. (Photo by Wilson Wong property of Wilson Wong photography 2021. All Rights Reserved)
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Tsumura: On what Rich Goulet’s after-hours home at Pitt Meadows was really like, and why its gym should forever bear his name!

You know what the most disappointing aspect of the movement currently afoot to have the gymnasium at Pitt Meadows Secondary School named in honour of its late, great basketball coach Rich Goulet?That the request wasn’t met with an automatic ‘Yes.’Of course I understand that the answer is ‘No’ and that tensions have built over the […]

The late Rich Goulet, valedictorian of the first graduating class at Burnaby's St. Thomas More Collegiate and later a two-time provincial championship-winning coach at the school, will see his name forever linked with the Knights' tradition-laden tournament, heretofore known as the Rich Goulet Memorial Chancellor. (Photo by Wilson Wong 2021. All Rights Reserved)
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Welcome to the Rich Goulet Memorial Chancellor! St. Thomas More to honour its late, great pioneering coach with lifelong tournament dedication!

BURNABY — In its early days, St. Thomas More Collegiate’s Chancellor Invitational enjoyed the distinct blessing of being run by a basketball visionary.From his very start as boys varsity head coach in 1970, Rich Goulet knew just what the Burnaby school’s annual tournament needed to represent to both student-athletes and coaches, and he worked tirelessly […]

Former Semiahmoo star Adam Paige has risen above the pack with the Alberta Golden Bears. This summer, the Surrey native will play professionally for the Fraser Valley Bandits. (Photo property University of Alberta athletics 2021. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball University Men's Basketball

Adam Paige: He’s Alberta’s rising hoops leader, and now Fraser Valley Bandits pro stint will make ex-Semiahmoo Totems star even better!

In one manner of speaking, you can say that Adam Paige can’t wait to write the next chapter of his basketball story.Yet in another, it’s not a stretch to say that by getting a chance to play professionally in the midst of his university career with the Alberta Golden Bears, that the 6-foot-8 Semiahmoo Totems […]

Burnaby South forward Eric Li (left) was one of several Rebels seniors denied a Grade 12 season due to the pandemic. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of Varsity Letters 2021. All Rights Reserved)
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A season without high school sports: Says Burnaby South AD Robbie Puni: “…when you don’t have it, you gain the valuable element of what you are missing out on”

BURNABY — Finding a way to most accurately describe the loss of the entire 2020-21 high school sports season in B.C. is at once an impossible challenge.Instead, Robbie Puni offered his observations.“We’re seeing a lot of kids without a team walking through the hallways, and some are carrying a basketball or a volleyball,” the longtime […]