Terry Fox Ravens' head senior boys soccer coach John Murphy (right) chats with fellow coach Dustin Corpuz during Fraser Valley third-fourth final earlier this month in Surrey. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca)
Feature High School Boys Soccer

At the crossroads of football & hoops, Terry Fox lifer John Murphy leads Ravens’ nation on a soccer renaissance

PORT COQUITLAM — In a lot of ways, you can call John Murphy the ultimate Terry Fox Raven. If history lessons are needed to sweep away the cobwebs of the 25 years which have passed since the hard-nosed guard helped his school win its first-ever B.C. senior boys basketball title, then so be it.

Let the celebration begin! Langley Saints players (left to right) Htoo Htoo Eh, Eh hser Moo and Say Say Eh attempt to slow down teammate Luke Lay Paul long enough to celebrate his game-opening strike Nov. 8 in the Fraser Valley senior boys AA soccer championship final at South Surrey Athletic Park. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca)
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Langley Secondary to BC’s: Buoyed by joy & spirit of Karen nation refugees, these soccer Saints win Fraser Valley AA title

LANGLEY — Standing just off to the side of pandemonium, Geoff Labine spied the scene unfolding at one end of the pitch at South Surrey Athletic Park just over a week ago.

Harjas Sidhu (right) and the Tamanawis Wildcats topped Kelsey Gahir and the rest of the crosstown rival Fleetwood Park Dragons 1-0 on penalty kicks in a crosstown derby to determine the seventh-and-final Fraser Valley berth to next week's B.C. boys AAA soccer championships. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca)
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B.C. boys AAA soccer championship draw: Sentinel, Oak Bay, Abby and VC’s Irish top seeds ahead of Nov. 22 kick-off at Burnaby Lakes

BURNABY — Coquitlam’s Dr. Charles Best Blue Devils, one season after winning its fifth provincial top-tiered title in nine years, aims for a half-dozen in a decade when the 2018 B.C boys AAA high school soccer championship tournament kicks off Nov. 22 at Burnaby Lake West.

Defending B.C. AA soccer champion Langley Fundamental Titans are captured in action one week ago at South Surrey Athletic Park where they defeated PoCo's Archbishop Carney Stars 4-1 in the Fraser Valley bronze medal final. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca)
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B.C. boys AA soccer championship draw: Langley, Windsor, Sa-Hali, Carihi top seeds ahead of Monday kick-off at Burnaby Lakes

BURNABY — Defending champion Langley Fundamental Titans and Victoria’s runners-up St. Michaels University School Blue Jags will both be among the Sweet 16 pack set for opening kick Monday when the 2018 B.C. AA boys high school soccer championships kick-off a three-day run at the Burnaby Lake Sports Complex.

Abbotsford Panthers' players swarm striker Marley Edwards (left, 15) after his 13th-minute free kick goal opened the scoring and held as the winner in the 2018 Fraser Valley AAA soccer final Wednesday at South Surrey Athletic Park. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca)
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Fraser Valley AAA soccer finals: Abby Panthers end 16-year title-drought, top Matheson Mustangs with early offence, gutsy defence

SURREY — Dean Fetterly wasn’t expecting to have to reconfigure his team’s entire schematic just 20 minutes into his team’s biggest game of the season.

Among the new wave of leaders within the roster of defending B.C. champion Dr. Charles Best Blue Devils is Jaedinn Mushtuk (right) seen here in 2017 B.C. Final Four action against the Reynolds Roadrunners. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca)
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BC boys AAA high school soccer: Oak Bay enters playoffs at No. 1, defending champion Charles Best among Fraser Valley faves

COQUITLAM — You’re the defending champs and you’ve welcomed an octet of eight key players back into the team from last November’s memorable run through the B.C. AAA tournament.

After a rather anonymous start to his post-secondary soccer career, North Vancouver's Kristian Yli-Hietanen (left) has risen to the upper reaches of the Canada West's goal-scoring class as a fourth-year striker with the UBC Thunderbirds.
(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 […]

Sam Bastow (rear) shown celebrating with explosive teammate Quin Desaulniers (8), returns for his Grade 12 campaign with Coquitlam's Dr. Charles Best Blue Devils. The reigning B.C. AAA champs opened the new season at No. 1 in the preseason rankings. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca)
The Vancouver Whitecaps' class of NCAA Div. 1 soccer recruits might be the very best in all of North America. They include (left to right) Reese Moffatt, Ashley Cathro, Kaela Hansen, Julia Grosso, Saje Brar, Tanya Boychuk, Caitlin Arbuckle and Emma Regan. (Photo used through the permission of Vancouver Whitecaps FC)
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Varsity Letters’ B.C. Recruits List 2018: Where 228 men’s and women’s soccer prospects are headed this coming season

LANGLEY — Welcome to Day 1 of B.C. Recruits List Week here at Varsity Letters. We will preview a sport a day through this week with the entire list set for Sunday publication. Today, we begin with soccer.