Heritage Woods' Kate Mean (left) drives against Sir Winston Churchill's Claire Huang during TBI this past December at the Langley Events Centre. The same two teams meet in the opening round of the B.C. Quad-A championships March 2 back at the LEC. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of Varsity Letters 2022. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Basketball

Follow the B.C. Girls Basketball road map through March Madness: We’ve got the 2A, 3A and 4A tourney draw here!

LANGLEY — The Langley Events Centre will play host to the three largest tiers of B.C. girls high school basketball championships beginning March 2.Love to study the draws?Planning each of your four days at the LEC?Keep coming back for all three provincials draws in one place!QUAD ATRIPLE ADOUBLE AIf you’re reading this story or viewing […]

Argyle's Nathalie Francis (centre, 22) scored a game-high 24 points, yet Seaquam's Amar Thiara and the rest of Seahawks (pictured here in Dec. 15 game at TBI) rallied to earn a last-ditch berth to the provincials on Tuesday at Port Coquitlam's Riverside Secondary. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of Varsity Letters 2022. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Basketball

Seaquam girls end three decades of Big Dance silence! Comeback win over Argyle in last-chance clash sends Seahawks, along with Yale Lions, into B.C. Quad-A championships!

PORT COQUITLAM — They hadn’t punched their tickets to the Big Dance in so long that even the school’s historians were having a hard time trying to figure out when the last time the senior girls basketball team from Seaquam Secondary last qualified for the B.C. championships.One thing was certain, however, as the fourth-quarter clock […]

Grade 10 point guard Ashley Chio has played beyond her years in helping West Vancouver punch its ticket to March Madness. (Photo by Blair Shier property of Blair.photo 2022. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Basketball

The Power of Plaid: In lending a hand to All My Relations indigenous women’s team, Big Dance-bound West Van Highlanders tap a collective vein to their own gritty hearts!

WEST VANCOUVER — A return to the Big Dance for the first time in a quarter century is turning out to be the ultimate win-win for the senior girls basketball team from West Vancouver Secondary School.After all, what head coach doesn’t want their team dialled in with 100 per cent focus, ready to sacrifice for […]

Marah Dykstra has averaged just north of a 20-10 double-double this season for Vancouver's Sir Winston Churchill Bulldogs. (Photo by Blair Shier property of Blair.photo 2021. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Basketball

Sir Winston’s Churchill’s Marah Dykstra: With D1 career at Montana State awaiting, star senior guard leads Bulldogs back to the Big Dance for first time in five seasons!

VANCOUVER — Ask Marah Dykstra about some of the very best things happening in her life these days, and without taking her eyes off the prize for even a second, she lets you know she’s determined to savour every last moment of her high school basketball career.Of course, following Thursday’s 62-29 victory over the West […]

Prior to officiating a senior boys basketball between host Byrne Creek and St. Patrick's on Feb. 3, 2022, veteran officials Dindo Cobarrubias (left) and Karn Dhillon take a moment to remind everyone of the Pink Whistle Campaign. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of Varsity Letters 2022. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Basketball

In tough times, BCBOA’s Pink Whistle Campaign hits its all-time high! “Little by little, one whistle at a time, one donation at a time, we’re all making a difference…” says founder Karn Dhillon!

LANGLEY — In the B.C. basketball community, pink whistles attached to the ends of pink lanyards have become the ties that bind… even in the toughest of times.And if you ask Karn Dhillon, the longtime, respected basketball referee, about the Pink Whistle/Call A Foul on Cancer campaign that he launched as an annual February initiative […]

While B.C. senior girls basketball teams, like the Yale Lions and its star guard Maggy Curtis begin their journey to the B.C. championships, the Langley Events Centre is looking to find volunteers to help make the 2022 event a big success. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of Varsity Letters 2022. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Basketball

B.C. senior girls 2021-22 basketball championship tournaments look to fill key volunteer roles, including tournament director!

LANGLEY —  The Langley Events Centre is accepting submissions of interest from individuals interested in volunteering at the 2022 B.C. School Sports Girls Basketball Provincial Championships.LEC is hosting the 2A, 3A, and 4A Tournaments from March 2-5, 2022, and the LEC Tournament Committee is responsible for working with LEC staff towards the planning and execution […]

Brookswood head coach Chris Veale and his Bobcats moved up to No. 2 at Triple-A. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2021. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Basketball

B.C. Girls Basketball Rankings 02.14.22 edition: Riverside, Burnaby Central, Langley Christian maintain holds on No. 1, Seaquam takes over top spot at junior!

LANGLEY — Moving into the Top 10 was tough sledding this past.In the latest B.C. senior girls basketball rankings for Tiers Quad, Triple, Double and Single-A, there was some minimal jockeying but no new teams did enough to crack the Top 10.With all that said, Riverside of Port Coquitlam, Burnaby Central and Langley Christian stayed […]

What a memory! Lord Tweedsmuir's Arjun Samra is carried around the court at the Langley Events Centre just prior to being named the 2019 B.C. Quad A tournament MVP. We're looking for some of your fondest as March Madness inches closer. (Photo by Wilson Wong 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball High School Girls Basketball

March Madness comes to the LEC! Attn: Past players, coaches and media members, too… share your favourite B.C. boys or girls tourney memories with us via video!

Hey Varsity Letters’ readers, here’s a note from all of the dedicated people working behind the scenes at the Langley Events Centre who are determined to make March Madness as special as it deserves to be following last season’s cancelled 2020-21 provincial basketball championship tournaments:LANGLEY — With the Junior Basketball Provincial Invitational Tournaments and the […]

Seaquam's Amar Thiara (left) looks to dish in the face of defensive pressure from Argyle's Nathalie Francis during the Tsumura Basketball Classic in December of 2021. A re-birth in girls basketball at Seaquam has both its senior and junior varsity teams each sitting in the Top 10 rankings as March Madness approaches. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of Varsity Letters 2022. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Basketball

Seaquam revels in a girls basketball renaissance! The Seahawks of Sunshine Hills bring long-lost, late-1980’s vibe back to their North Delta neighbourhood!

NORTH DELTA — When it comes to senior varsity girls basketball, the high school from that North Delta neighbourhood known as Sunshine Hills is finding out how good it feels to find its place in the sun.When rankings were released earlier this week, not only was the Seaquam Seahawks senior girls team ranked at No. […]

The Langley Christian Lightning seem ready to make a third run at the thus-far elusive B.C. senior girls Double A basketball championship title this March at the Langley Events Centre. It's a quest being led by the team's talented trio of seniors (left to right) Taelor Coxford, Sydney Bradshaw and Lainey Shelvey. (Photo graphic by Gabriel Lynn, photos by Howard Tsumura property of Varsity Letters 2022. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Basketball

The ‘Strikes Thrice’ magic of the Langley Christian Lightning! In a tier-free girls high school basketball world, might Double-A powers be BC’s No. 1 overall team?

LANGLEY — Imagine a B.C. girls high school basketball world without any tiers of classification.Instead, replace it with a soup pot of sorts in which every team in the province is thrown together to form a chowder-like broth.Bring to a boil.Cover.Simmer.Let the cream rise to the top.And when you lift that cover, who might you […]