St. George's Saints guard Jerric Palma (right) helped lead his Saints through a busy opening stretch of the 2018-19 season. (Photo courtesy Jon Hayduk/St. George's athletics)
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B.C. senior boys Big 10 basketball rankings: All four tiers check in as new No. 2 Fox pulls up to No. 1 Burnaby South’s bumper

LANGLEY — Our first B.C. senior boys basketball rankings following late November’s opening tip reveals just how strong the top half of the Triple-A tier’s Top 10 is in relation to the best of Quad-A.

Centennial's Grade 11 forward Dominic Parolin has made a rousing debut at senior varsity and will lead his Centaurs into TBI 2018 Thursday at the Langley Events Centre. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2018. All Rights Reserved)
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Tsumura Basketball Invitational 2018: With Grade 11 big man Parolin on the the scene, Centennial Centaurs a rising force

COQUITLAM — It isn’t always the smoothest of transitions, yet over the past few seasons, we’ve witnessed the sudden impact that top junior teams have had as they have migrated the following season to their respective senior varsity programs.

Terry Fox's Grady Stanyer plays one of the most critical roles in all of B.C.boys high school basketball this season as the lone front court presence on a uber-talented Terry Fox Ravens' squad. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2018. All Rights Reserved)
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Tsumura Basketball Invitational 2018: Great guards galore and a rugged Raven named Grady ready to grind for gritty Terry Fox

PORT COQUITLAM — Oh how far they have come in just 12 months. A year ago, at this very juncture of December, one week into the 2017-18 season, the Terry Fox Ravens were preparing for the opening round of the Tsumura Basketball Invitational as the only unranked Quad A team in the elite 16-team field.

North Delta Huskies' senior guard Suraj Gahir is ready to establish himself as one of the greatest North Delta Huskies of all time this season. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2018. All Rights Reserved)
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Tsumura Basketball Invitational 2018: Led by electrifying Suraj Gahir, senior-laden North Delta Huskies chase first B.C. title since 1990

NORTH DELTA — Twenty-nine seasons after their last grand triumph, Husky pride has once again hit the heights and it will all be on display for three days later this week at the Langley Events Centre.

Burnaby South's Jiordano Khan, pictured in the 2017 B.C. junior boys championship game, gets his chance in front of the home crowd this season when the Rod Thompson Memorial runs Dec. 19-21, one of eight invitationals being hosted at the school this season. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2018. All Rights Reserved)
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B.C. high school basketball’s miracle marathon! Burnaby South to host eight consecutive tourneys from now until the end of January

BURNABY — Maybe it’s not the basketball event of the high school year. Yet when the home team takes on Surrey’s Frank Hurt Hornets at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday in the opening round of the Grade 8 boys Rebels Classic at Burnaby South Secondary, one of the most ambitious single-school undertakings in B.C. high school sports history […]

Burnaby South head coach Mike Bell and blue-chip guard Baltej Sohal are ready to hit the court running in 2018-19. (Photo by Wilson Wong property of UBC athletics 2018. All Rights Reserved)
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Encore, encore 2018: No identity crisis for B.C. Quad-A boys champion Burnaby South, these Rebels love who they are

BURNABY — It’s been an entire off-season since the 11th-hour transformation of the Burnaby South Rebels happened right before our eyes. You remember them, right?

North Delta head coach Jesse Hundal guides a Huskies team which opens 2018-19 at No. 1 in the Triple A rankings and is aiming for its first provincial senior varsity title since 1990. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2018. All Rights Reserved)
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Senior boys preseason basketball rankings: Rebels, Huskies, Seyhawks, Sparks top the polls in B.C.’s four tiers

LANGLEY — Provincial pollsters were all given the option of revamping pre-season rankings from the original versions issued this past March. Beginning Dec. 5, rankings will be updated every Wednesday for the duration of the season, with the exception of the holiday season.

Former UBC Thunderbirds forward Stephanie Bell, pictured in 2014 during the Canada West playoffs at War Gym, got to UBC with an HSBC scholarship. Now, in her new position with The Big Ticket tourney, the former Argyle Piper is helping give back to her high school community. (Photo by Bob Frid property of UBC athletics)
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The Big Ticket: New tourney’s scholarship program brings it all back home for ex-UBC star Stephanie Bell

NORTH VANCOUVER — Stephanie Bell has not forgotten the feeling, even though it happened eight years ago this December.As a star 6-foot senior forward with North Vancouver’s Argyle Pipers, Bell remembers hearing her name called at the conclusion of the former HSBC Classic boys and girls high school basketball tournament, discovering soon afterwards that she […]

Sixteen of the best B.C. senior boys basketball teams will converge on the LEC Dec. 6-8 for the 2018 Tsumura Basketball Invitational. (LEC graphic)
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Tsumura Basketball Invitational: Complete draw for our senior boys 16-team, 32-game classic at the LEC

LANGLEY — If you were at the Langley Events Centre last March, you got a chance to witness just how ever-evolving and fluid the state of a high school basketball team really is.

(Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca)
Doing a double take? Yes, that is Oak Bay's resident basketball star Diego Maffia, this year the starting setter for the Barbers' Top 10 AAA volleyball team, and the leading scorer on the Bays varsity soccer team. Remind you of another Victoria wunderkind of the past? (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca)
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A Sunday read: Oak Bay’s star multi-sport student-athlete Diego Maffia shares a high school resume strikingly similar to you know who!

VICTORIA — He’s the reigning Vancouver Island AAA MVP in one sport. In another, at it’s 2017 B.C. AAA championship tournament, he was the event’s second-leading scorer. And finally, in the sport of basketball, the one he calls his speciality, he is easily among a handful of the best long-range shooters our province has seen in the […]