Suraj Gahir (left) of the 3A North Delta Huskies, as well as both Valdi Alarie-Hill (middle) and Ewan MacKenzie of the 4A Oak Bay Bays both have their teams in the top four of their respective tiers this week. (Varsity Letters photo by Howard Tsumura)
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02.21.18 B.C. senior boys Big 10 basketball rankings: Tweedsmuir, Mouat the big 4A climbers

LANGLEY — With just one more set of rankings will follow after the completion of zone championships, it’s that time of year that even ranked teams face: Sudden elimination.

Tyus Batiste (front row, fifth from left) is already a coaching veteran at age 20, leading the defending B.C. champion Burnaby South Rebels back to the LEC for the 2018 JV provincials. (Photo courtesy Burnaby South athletics)
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Tyus Batiste: Burnaby South grad gives back, young coaching lifer has Rebels ready for another B.C. junior title run

BURNABY — Think about our province’s most durable high school basketball coaches and in many instances, their careers started when they themselves were still high schoolers, coaching the younger grades in the programs they were still an active part of as players.

A packed house watched Burnaby South defeat Sir Charles Tupper in last season's BC JV final at the LEC. (Varsity Letters photo by Howard Tsumura)
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Fighting Irish, Tupper Tigers take top two seeds into 2018 B.C. Junior Boys Basketball Championships

LANGLEY — Welcome to March Madness, February style.The B.C. junior boys basketball championships is, by the odds, the toughest high school basketball title to win, given it’s open-tiered, 32-team format.Vancouver College’s Fighting Irish go in with the No. 1 seed while its public school rivals, East Van’s Sir Charles Tupper Tigers, go in at No. […]

Yale's Bradley Braich is bravely speaking out about his battle with mental illness. (Varsity Letters photo by Howard Tsumura)
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Bradley Braich: Yale’s star guard won’t hide from mental illness, wants to help others avoid his nightmare journey

ABBOTSFORD —He was born into a sport where, during solitary jump-shooting drills, finding a stretch of perfection was not entirely impossible. Yet when held to a standard that existed only in his mind, it became an act which on too many days proved agonizingly unattainable.

Reppin' his jersey number with pride, Tupper's Gaurab Acharya has knocked down 101 treys already this season. (Varsity Letters photo by Howard Tsumura)
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One tough Tiger: Over a season of adversity, Tupper’s compact Gaurab Acharya thinks big, plays even bigger

VANCOUVER — Jeff Gourley, like so many of our province’s veteran high school basketball coaches, is often asked the question that centres around the ‘R’ word.

Gurlal Mann and the rest of the defending B.C. Triple A champion Rick Hansen Hurricanes of Abbotsford are making a late run among the provincial elite. (Varsity Letters photo by Howard Tsumura)
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02.14.18 Valentine’s Day edition: B.C. boys Big 10 high school rankings for all four tiers, plus their preseason ranks

LANGLEY — The countdown from Valentine’s Day to tip off at the 2018 B.C. boys high school basketball championships at the Langley Events Centre hit precisely 21 days at 8:30 this morning. Can you wait?

Both the Kelowna Owls and WJ Mouat Hawks are teams deserving of spots in the B.C. AAAA top 10 rankings, but incredible parity and a glut of teams makes it impossible to include everyone. (Varsity letters photo by Howard Tsumura)
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B.C. boys Big 10 basketball rankings 02.07.18 edition: All four tiers check in, Quad-A jockeying continues

LANGLEY — We’ve got all four tiers of B.C. senior boys basketball checking in with new Big 10 rankings this week. In many precincts, the playoffs have arrived and in all the rest, it’s down to the nitty gritty of league play.

Semiahmoo Totems head coach Ed Lefurgy met Adam Paige (left) and Vlad Mihaila on the same day six years ago, and the trio have seen eye-to-eye ever since. (Varsity Letters photo by Howard Tsumura)
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Vlad and Adam: How two senior Totems passed a special eye-test and helped lift Semiahmoo hoops to B.C. elite status

SURREY — In these days of wireless hi-tech everything, there is something about the telekinetic link between Adam Paige and Vlad Mihaila which makes you want to call them Bluetooth basketball brothers.

W.J. Mouat senior point guard Sukhi Kang is stepping up as a much-needed leader for the Hawks. (Varsity Letters photo by Howard Tsumura)
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It’s Hawk-talk time: W.J. Mouat’s battle-tested, senior-laden birds of prey are worthy of March chatter

ABBOTSFORD — Study the resume of Abbotsford’s W.J. Mouat Hawks, then project it against those of the rest of B.C.’s best AAAA senior boys basketball teams and you surely can’t argue with mantra they’ve had in place since the season tipped off back in late November.

South Kamloops' big man Ripley Martin, sporting the scars of an on-court battle last month in PoCo, has gone through a crash course in basketball fitness after a serious pre-season ankle injury. (Varsity Letters photo by Howard Tsumura)
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Ripley Martin: South Kam’s battle-scarred big man fights for his fitness as AAA Titans think big on road to the LEC

LANGLEY — If you happened to catch Ripley Martin with his teammates at the recent Legal Beagle Invitational at Port Coquitlam’s Terry Fox Secondary, just one look at his face would have told you that battle scars are all a part of the journey when your goal is to return to the B.C. AAA championship […]