Vancouver College's Cole Pryputsch (centre, 11) grabs a rebound inbetween teammate Aidan Lear and Oak Bay's Tyler Browne in the semifinals of the 2022 B.C. junior boys basketball championships at the LEC. Two years later, both teams are ranked among the top four seeds in the 32-team event set to tip off Saturday. (Photo by Blair Shier property of Vancouver Sports Pictures 2022. All Rights Reserved)
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B.C. Junior Boys 32-team championship bracket unveiled: Traditional powers at No. 1 Oak Bay, No. 2 Van College, No. 3 St. Pats joined by Surrey’s No. 4 L.A. Matheson Mustangs as action tips off Saturday at the LEC!

LANGLEY — If the pre-tournament seedings hold through to Monday’s Final Four, the 2024 B.C. junior boys basketball championship is going to reflect a whole lot of what’s also happening in the senior varsity world.Yet there’s also one newcomer to pre-tourney elite status as the massive-32 team draw for the four-day event set to tip […]

West Vancouver's Max Fraser and the rest of the Highlanders are one of eight teams who were vying for three BC tourney berths out of the brutally-tough Vancouver Sea-to-Sky Quad-A zone as play was set to begin on Wednesday evening. (Photo by Blair Shier property of Blair.photo 2024. All Rights Reserved)
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B.C. Boys Top 10 basketball rankings 02.21.24 edition: A bumper-crop season for Vancouver Sea-to-Sky Quads keeps the drama at high-alert levels in the run-up to March Madness!

LANGLEY — The Handsworth Royals 76-62 win over the West Vancouver Highlanders in last Thursday’s North Shore Quad-A final vaulted the North Vancouverites up the chart to No. 7 this week.Yet all of Vancouver Sea-to-Sky’s trap doors and tipping points continue to unfold in dramatic fashion as four the province’s Top 10 teams continue their […]

Hailey Burnhan of Surrey’s Clayton Heights Riders faces Vancouver's Britannia Bruins during the 2023 Tsumura Basketball Invitational this past December at the Langley Events Centre. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of Varsity Letters 2024. All Rights Reserved)
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South Fraser Triple-A final: A year older, a year wiser, Surrey’s Clayton Heights Riders take zone championship spoils into a B.C. tourney return engagement after win over rival R.A. McMath!

SURREY — Last season’s trip to the B.C. senior girls basketball championship tournament was an ice-breaker moment for Surrey’s Clayton Heights Riders.A group which has played together since sixth grade had arrived as a largely Grade 11 team on the big stage of the provincial Triple-A championships last March at the Langley Events Centre.And falling […]

Burnaby Central's Ankita Chopra (left) and Riverside's Rae Roycroft gt all tied up during Fraser North Quad-A championship game played Feb. 18, 2024 at Simon Fraser University. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of Varsity Letters 2024. All Rights Reserved)
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Fraser North Quad-A final: After Riverside tops Burnaby Central in zone title clash, here’s 5 Things You Need to Know about the Rapids, the Wildcats and the best current rivalry in B.C. girls high school basketball!

BURNABY — The countdown is now on to the tip-off of the 2024 B.C. senior girls basketball championships, and at the largest Quad-A tier, Sunday evening’s marquee Fraser North zone championship game clash which saw the Riverside Rapids defeat the Burnaby Central Wildcats 82-72 was a reminder of one simple fact.In year where there has […]

Byrne Creek's Jelly Fulad (left) attempts to block Jocelyn Boyes of Pitt Meadows during Fraser North senior girls Triple-A zone championship final played Sunday at Simon Fraser University. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of Varsity Letters 2024. All Rights Reserved)
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Fraser North Triple-A final: For the Family Boyes, clinching title and B.C. berth for Pitt Meadows is a true generational thrill!

PITT MEADOWS 82 vs. BYRNE CREEK 32BURNABY — Thirty-three years is a long time, but when it comes to high school basketball memories, it can seem all seem as recent as yesterday.That what Jason Boyes thought to himself as the head coach of the Pitt Meadows senior girls basketball team piloted his car up Burnaby […]

Quick as lightning, St. Thomas More Knights' Grade 9 guard Demicah Arnaldo drives through the Archbishop Carney defence for a first-quarter lay-in during Fraser North senior girls Double-A zone championship final played Sunday at Simon Fraser University. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of Varsity Letters 2024. All Rights Reserved)
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Fraser North Double-A Final: With pressure defence that comes from its fun zone, STM’s Knights & MVP Beliveau punch their Big Dance tickets to B.C. tourney!

By Howard TsumuraST. THOMAS MORE 89 ARCHBISHOP CARNEY 32BURNABY — In an era where offence rules the roost at every level of basketball, precisely how does a head coach get her team to make it the No. 1 part of their identity?“I think it’s the most fun part of basketball to be honest,” said St. […]

St. George's head coach Guy da Silva led his Saints to a pair of narrow wins and a resultant five-spot jump up the ladder of the latest B.C. Quad-A rankings issues Wednesday. Veteran St. George's basketball coach Guy da Silva has a teaching moment with his JV Saints on Saturday night in Langley. (Varsity Letters photo by Howard Tsumura 2022. All Rights Reserved)
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B.C. Boys Top 10 basketball rankings 02.14.24 edition: Fast-rising Elgin Park Orcas, St. George’s Saints give boys Quad-A 10 Top 10 a new look!

LANGLEY — Vancouver’s St. George’s Saints and the Elgin Park Orcas of Surrey were the big climbers this week in the B.C. senior boys Quad-A Top 10 rankings.Saints proved their mettle in winning close at home and on the road against traditional rivals, beating St. Patrick’s at home 73-69 and then winning 85-84 last Thursday […]

Wellington's Grade 10 forward Grayson Ritzand is still just 15 years old, yet he's already scored 1,000 points at the senior varsity level. He's pictured dunking here during the 2023 Tsumura Basketball Invitational played this past December at the Langley Events Centre (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of Varsity Letters 2023. All Rights Reserved)
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Grayson Ritzand: At age 15, here’s the origin story of Nanaimo-Wellington’s iron-pumping, semi-ambidextrous star Grade 10 forward who’s already surpassed the 1,000-point senior varsity scoring mark!

NANAIMO — Ask Grayson Ritzand to tell you the story of how he has become a chiseled, semi-ambidextrous senior varsity forward with level of maturity which seemingly overshadows even his own voluminous scoring average, and it almost seems like you’re privy to plot lines of some comic book super-hero origin story-in-the-making.That’s the feeling you get […]

Vancouver College's Roko Maric (right) and Finnley Lillis of Oak Bay met each other in the semi-finals of the 2022 B.C. junior boys championship semifinals. This season, a new group of Bays and a new group of Irish sit Nos. 2-3 in the final JV Top 10 of the season.. (Photo by Paul Yates property of Vancouver Sports Pictures 2022. All Rights Reserved)
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BC Junior Boys Hoops Top 10: It’s 17 days and counting to championship tip-off at the LEC! Will form hold for an St. Pat’s vs. Oak Bay final? Let the madness begin as the chase for 32 berths is heating up!

LANGLEY — The B.C. junior boys basketball championships tip off on the final Saturday of February.That’s Feb. 24, or 17 days.Here’s the final Top 10 of the season as the official stretch drive to provincials is under way. Of note, only four ranked teams from last week survived the cut to remain in the final […]

Santa Margarita's Mason Hawker (left) guards Byrne Creek's Justin Pimintuan during opening day action from the 2023 Tsumura Basketball Invitational this past December at the Langley Events Centre. (Photo by Wilson Wong protected image 2023. All Rights Reserved)
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B.C. Boys Top 10 basketball rankings 02.06.24 edition: Byrne Creek burns it up! Bulldogs take down St. Pat’s North Delta, Lord Byng to win Rick Hansen tourney and move into Triple-A No. 1!

LANGLEY — It was a relatively quiet week atop the upper reaches of the B.C. senior boys high school basketball world.Quiet, that is, unless you happen to be the Triple-A Byrne Creek Bulldogs.The Burnaby-based Bulldogs made about as definitive a late-season statement as is possible outside of league and zone playoffs, beating three straight ranked […]