Ty Martens (right) got into the swing of things on Friday, throwing a touchdown pass and helping lead the host Robert Bateman Timberwolves to a season-opening win over Surrey's Sullivan Heights Stars in Abbotsford. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Football

FINAL EDITION: Varsity Letters’ Week 1 B.C. High School Football Report for 09.06.19

That’s a wrap for Week One of the Varsity Letter’s B.C.High School Football Report!We’ve got an abbreviated schedule on Saturday, but check back with us for the results of some very big games!Thanks to all of the coaches who took part today.FRIDAYEXHIBITIONCARSON GRAHAM 0 at CLEVELAND (Wash.) 13 SEATTLE — Host Cleveland made it a battle for […]

Impossible to miss, Simon Fraser wide receiver Rysen John has been working on being impossible to stop as he opens his senior season Saturday against an NCAA Div. 1 Portland State team which might be one of the best teams the Clan program has faced in recent times. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Football University Football

SFU’s football mojo is Rysen! As new season dawns, senior wideout Rysen John wants to take Clan to its loftiest NCAA heights yet

BURNABY — You can’t say there are a ton of certainties for a rising football team striving to establish both winning credentials and recognizable identity within the Great Northwest Athletic Conference.Yet Simon Fraser Clan head coach Thomas Ford is willing to put it all on the line when asked about one member of his 2019 […]

New Westminster Hyacks head football coach Farhan Lalji (left) and UBC head men's basketball coach Kevin Hanson each visit with host Howard Tsumura as Varsity Letters -- The Podcast returns to the pod stream. (Photos by Howard Tsumura and Richard Lam property of VarsityLetters.ca and UBC athletics)
Feature High School Football Podcast University Men's Basketball

We’re back! Varsity Letters – The Podcast makes its return! UBC hoops coach Hanson, New West football coach Lalji stop in to chat

LANGLEY — There’s a sense deja vu filtering through the airwaves this week around the province of B.C. with return of Varsity Letters-The Podcast. Long a weekly staple during my years at The Vancouver Province, we’re back for the first time since 2016, right here at our new home at VarsityLetters.ca This week, we’re honoured […]

After returning from Hawaii this weekend, the St. Thomas More Knights get right back to action Friday at Burnaby Lakes against Notre Dame. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Football

STM’s Knights fall at undefeated Honolulu-Damien, but RB Nick Osho cracks century mark, aerial attack shows great promise

HONOLULU— Led by the performance of running back Nick Osho, Burnaby’s St. Thomas More Knights hit the ground running Saturday night in Hawaii, and now they hope to keep their stride as they return to B.C. for this coming Friday’s official start to the 2019 provincial high school football season.As well, senior Alex Cordeiro caught […]

St. Thomas More's Rickey Parsons opens his 2019 season Saturday night in Honolulu along with rest of Burnaby's Knights. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Football

Aloha, it’s time for BC High school football! St. Thomas More Knights kick it off Saturday in Honolulu

The B.C. high school football season has never started further from its home base.Burnaby’s St. Thomas More Knights will kick-off the 2019 campaign Saturday (6 p.m.) in Hawaii as they face Honolulu’s Damien Monarchs, a tradition-laden program playing out of the state’s Div. 1 tier.The Knights enter the campaign looking to see which players will […]

For a mythical mug, The Howie is still pretty heavy. (Graphic property of Dan Murphy 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School University

The Howies: Our mythical, season-ending awards celebrate the author’s Top 25 moments of the 2018-19 season

LANGLEY — The idea to hand out a mythical set of season-ending awards called The Howies was first hatched in this corner way back in the winter of 2005.Back then, during my days at The Province, it was my way of honouring the top men’s and women’s university basketball talent playing at B.C.’s then-CIS schools.The […]

Calvin Westbrook, head coach of Haida Gwaii's Gudangaay Tlaatis’gaa Nay senior boys basketball team cheers on his charges at last March's B.C. championships at the LEC. (Photo by Wilson Wong 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

Calvin Westbrook: How the record-setting G.P. Vanier & TWU guard found his coaching paradise amidst the remote splendour of Haida Gwaii

LANGLEY — It had been a long while since Calvin Westbrook had anything to do with a B.C. senior boys provincial basketball championship tournament. In fact you’d have to go back 13 years to find the last time.

Killarney racewalker Daniel Soliven takes his purposeful stride to the UBC Thunderbirds track and field program next season. (Photo by Wilson Wong property of UBC athletics 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School University

THE COMPLETE LIST: Varsity Letters’ B.C. Recruits List 2019! Where 1,039 athletes in 19 sports are headed this coming season

LANGLEY — We know there are still many more names and post-secondary destinations going unanswered once again, yet in our never-ending quest to bring you the most complete list of post secondary-bound B.C. high school student-athletes, we’re happy to report that the annual B.C. Recruits List has reached a milestone.

Liam McChesney of the Charles Hays Rainmakers is headed to NCAA Div. 1 Utah State. (Photo by Wilson Wong property of UBC athletics 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball University Men's Basketball

Varsity Letters B.C. Recruits List 2019: Where 88 boys basketball prospects are headed this coming season

LANGLEY — Even over an offseason in which the majority of local university programs are not brining in big classes, there almost 100 names to note provincially in the world of high school-to-post-secondary men’s basketball. All told, that adds up to 182 names between our boys and girls lists, among the most we’ve ever had.

Riverside's Tessa Burton (left) is part of deep recruiting class headed to Kelowna to bolster the fortunes of the UBC Okanagan Heat. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Basketball University Women's Basketball

Varsity Letters B.C. Recruits List 2019: Where 99 girls basketball prospects are headed this coming season

LANGLEY — B.C.’s graduating class of girls high school stars will deliver their talent all over the continent this fall, touching all three NCAA divisions, as well as U Sports, CCAA, NAIA and NJCAA institutions. Here’s your guide to who’s going where. If we’ve missed someone, let us know at howardtsumura@gmail.com and we’ll make the additions. And […]