B.C. boys and girls high school basketball, originally set to resume on Nov. 29, has now been moved to Dec. 1 by B.C. School Sports. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2020. All Rights Reserved)
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B.C. boys and girls high school basketball has its tip-off delayed by at least two days following latest BCSS ruling!

LANGLEY — If you’ve got plans to be playing in, coaching, watching or officiating a B.C. high school basketball game over the first two days of the season, you may have to cool your sneakers for a couple of days.B.C. School Sports announced late Wednesday that the start of the winter season of play has […]

We're looking for one more senior girls basketball team to play in the 10th annual Tsumura Basketball Invitational Dec. 15-18 at the Langley Events Centre. (Wilson Wong photo property of Wilson Wong 2021. All Rights Reserved)
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Attention B.C. senior girls basketball coaches! We’re looking for one team to complete our 20-team field at the Tsumura Basketball Invitational!

LANGLEY — Greetings B.C. high school senior girls basketball head coaches!We are short one team for our 10th annual Tsumura Basketball Invitational tournament set to run Dec. 15-18 at the home of the B.C. championships: The Langley Events Centre.I have been empowered by the tournament committee of the TBI to accept the names of any […]

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Girls TBI 2021: Our Dec. 15-18 draw unveils Terry Fox, Kelowna, Riverside, Langley Christian among our headline field!

LANGLEY — Hello high school girls 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 […]

Trinity Western freshman guard Shemaiah Abatayo was forced to hit the court running this season after six straight months of COVID lockdown in the Philippines kept her out of B.C. from March through August. (Photo by Mark Janzen property of Trinity Western athletics 2021. All Rights Reserved)
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Shemaiah Abatayo: As Trinity Western’s ‘rookie’ guard preps for a hopeful 2021-22 re-start, she dishes on six months of COVID-forced lockdown in the Philippines!

LANGLEY — Shemaiah Abatayo, like the rest of Canada’s hard-luck Class of 2020 university freshmen recruits, will get a second chance to make a rookie impression when U Sports basketball courts flash their figurative green lights this coming fall.Nothing could have beaten the on-court experience that a 2020-21 Canada West season would have provided Abatayo […]

Jayden White of the Yale Lions has overcome the odds to rebound from injury and find a place next season at the University of Alberta. In Edmonton, she will play hoops, major in education and continue her studies in American Sign Language. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of Varsity Letters 2021. All Rights Reserved)
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Jayden White: Special signs along the way speak the truth of compassion, tenacity Yale Lions forward carries to Alberta Pandas!

ABBOTSFORD — Ask Jayden White what it means for her to have walked the walk through a star-crossed high school basketball career, and she’ll show you this photo of the inside of a Gatorade bottle cap containing the bone chips surgeons extricated from her knee back in 10th grade.“The biggest one is the size of […]

The Tessa Beauchamp Foundation has been aided in its fundraising efforts by the WLA's Langley Thunder. Pictured at a fund-raising event are (left to right) Amy Beauchamp, Caitlin Nagel née McNaughton, Cecile Dadson née Ehman and Steve Beauchamp. McNaughton and Dadson each played basketball at Holy Cross with Tessa Beauchamp. (Photo by Garrett James property of Langley Evens Centre 2021. All Rights Reserved)
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Adversity’s award: Why the Tessa Beauchamp Scholarships mean so much more to B.C. high school’s courageous Class of 2021!

SURREY — For almost a decade, it has distinguished itself as a memorial scholarship by asking its many Grade 12 student applicants to ponder a question so deeply understood by its namesake.And when you very fittingly digest that same question these days, over the final weeks of the most challenging of school years, it’s hard […]

G.W. Graham's 6-foot-2 forward Julia Tuchscherer (left) will graduate a year ahead of schedule and join her dad Al and older sister Deanna with the Fraser Valley Cascades next season. (Photo by Wilson Wong property of Wilson Wong photography 2021. All Rights Reserved)
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Post-marked UFV: How GWG Grizzlies’ Grade 11 post Julia Tuchscherer will pivot into the paint with U Sports’ Cascades next season!

ABBOTSFORD — For about as long as Julia Tuchscherer can remember, she’s had a knack for making all of the numbers add up.She’s even done it in these challenging times, heading down the home stretch of her Grade 11 year at Chilliwack’s G.W. Graham Secondary with a 4.0 grade point average within a core of […]

Sir Winston Churchill's Marah Dykstra will help lead her team as one of the new additions to the 20-team field at the 2021 Tsumura Basketball Invitational at the Langley Events Centre. (Photo by Wilson Wong property of Wilson Wong 2021. All Rights Reserved)
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Tsumura Basketball Invitational: Churchill, Seaquam, SMUS join girls draw as boys, girls 40-team field now official for December 2021!

LANGLEY — We are thrilled with the 40 teams who have now finalized their participation in this coming December’s 2021 boys and girls Tsumura Basketball Invitationals at the Langley Events Centre.(The full list of finalized teams is included at the bottom of this story)Yet what has us even more excited is the response we have […]

Anthony Luyken and his daughter Aieisha. (Photo by Dan Kinvig property of UFV athletics 2021. All Rights Reserved)
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The Luyken Legacy: For UFV’s father-daughter duo of Anthony & Aieisha, building community through basketball is a lifelong calling!

ABBOTSFORD — Anthony and Aieisha Luyken are a father and daughter with a most special tie to the sport of basketball.Today, Varsity Letters is happy to help share, through the efforts of one of our founding partners, the Fraser Valley Cascades, the story of their incredible, life-defining love affair with the sport and its impact […]

Sage Stobbart has carved out her niche as one of the top defenders in the Big West Conference. (Photo by Mark Honbo property of UC Davis athletics 2021. All Rights Reserved)
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Sage Stobbart: Seycove’s former B.C. AA MVP turns her shot-blocking/three-point shooting skills into a sweet science with D1 UC Davis Aggies!

As an environmental sciences major at UC Davis, Sage Stobbart is gaining an ecological understanding that makes her feel more at home than ever in the great outdoors.Yet ask the redshirt junior forward about the other side of her life as a student-athlete, that of the agile and versatile 6-foot-3 junior forward with the Aggies’ […]