MEI Eagles senior Olivia Sidhu has helped her team maintain a solid grip on the No. 1 ranking in B.C. senior girls Triple-A basketball this season. (Photo by Paul Funk property of MEI Eagles athletics 2025. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Basketball

MEI puts vise grip on AAA No. 1 rank ahead of BC girls championships 75th anniversary tourney! Coach Thiessen calls his 2024-25 Eagles ‘unique’ over his 31 seasons on the bench!

BY HOWARD TSUMURAVARSITYLETTERS.caABBOTSFORD — When you’ve coached basketball for three-plus decades at the same school, you arrive at a juncture of your career where your words begin to carry an-ever deeper meaning.So when MEI Eagles’ senior girls head coach Rick Thiessen, who this season finds himself in his 31st year of guiding either a senior, […]

Oak Bay's Toren Franklin, pictured here in the semifinals of the Terry Fox Legal Beagle earlier this month in Port Coquitlam, helped lead his Bays to the title at the Vancouver College Emerald tournament on Jan. 25, 2025. (Photo by Howard Tsumura exclusive property of VarsityLetters.ca 2025. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

01.29.25 edition: BC Boys Top 10 hoop ranks: What’s hotter than new Quad-A No. 1 Oak Bay and its star Toren Franklin who scored 42 in Emerald title tilt? And how about those No. 7 Heritage Woods Kodiaks!

LANGLEY — Toren Franklin scorched the goals to the tune of 42 points on Saturday in carrying Victoria’s Oak Bay Bays to 95-89 win over Nanaimo’s Dover Bay Dolphins in the championship final of the Vancouver College Emerald tournament.The win lifted the Bays into the No. 1 spot in the B.C. senior boys high school […]

Argyle's Mariia Mayden (left) is guarded by Claremont's Island Campbell during TBI Super 16 Day 1 action 12.11.24 at the Langley Events Centre. (Photo by Ryan Molag property Langley Events Centre-TFSE 2024. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Basketball

01.27.25 edition: B.C. senior girls basketball rankings: It’s a month to the start of the provincials, and No. 1’s and No. 2’s holding ground at all four tiers!

LANGLEY — One month out from the start of the B.C. championships and finding spots in the top four of B.C.’s four senior girls varsity tiers is tough sledding.This week, North Vancouver’s Argyle Pipers move up one spot to No. 3 in Quad-A.Prince George’s College Heights Cougars and the Vernon Panthers each move up a […]

Yale's Besijan Shala (left) protects a rebound against Centennial's Emerson Davis during Day 1 action in the TBI Super 16 bracket Dec. 4, 2024 at the Langley Events Centre. (Photo by Howard Tsumura exclusive property of VarsityLetters.ca 2024. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

01.27.25 edition: SRS boys Top 50 sees Spectrum maintain top spot while Heritage Woods’ six-spot jump portents exciting Fraser North 4A title battles to come!

LANGLEY — Victoria’s Spectrum Thunder hold their spot atop the SRS weekly Top 50 for B.C. boys high school basketball.Here are this week’s latest set of numbers, which also see Walnut Grove and Sullivan Heights make Top 50 entries, courtesy of B.C. Basketball Metrics:

Frank Linder scored 39 points to lead Dover Bay past Spectrum in the semifinals the VC Emerald Invitational on Friday. (File photo by Howard Tsumura exclusive property of VarsityLetters.ca 2025. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

No. 2 Dover Bay tops No. 1 Spectrum in Van College Emerald Final 4 as UBC signee Frank Linder scores 39 points, including winning triple! Dolphins face No. 2 Oak Bay in Saturday final!

VANCOUVER — Frank Linder’s game-winning three-pointer with 24 seconds remaining snapped a 79-79 tie and lifted Nanaimo’s No. 2-ranked Dover Bay Dolphins to an 82-79 win over the previously undefeated, reigning B.C. champion Spectrum Thunder of Victoria in the second of two afternoon semifinals at the Vancouver College Emerald tournament on Friday.“Today, Frank really stepped […]

Tabir Bhangu (left, 5) and the rest of the Fleetwood Park Dragons vaulted to No. 5 in the latest B.C. Quad-A rankings after topping then-No. 4 Tamanawis in Saturday's RCMP final at the LEC in Langley. (Photo by Howard Tsumura exclusive property of VarsityLetters.ca 2024. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

01.22.25: B.C. senior boys basketball rankings: Fleetwood Park finding hoop paradise! Dragons from unranked to Quad-A No. 5 after RCMP upset of Tammy brings January record to 9-1!

LANGLEY — The Fleetwood Park Dragons are taking a cue from the calendar.Unranked in the Quad-A tier last week, the Dragons finally came through with that so-called signature victory, stopping the then-No. 4-ranked Tamanawis Wildcats 72-65 in the final of the Surrey RCMP Classic on Saturday at the Langley Events Centre.The victory, on the backs […]

King George's Charlie Comrie and Collingwood's Sam Li (2) sandwich Cavaliers' forward Jake McAdam during TBI Select 16 championship final 12.07.24 at the Langley Events Centre. (Photo by Ryan Molag property Langley Events Centre-TFSE 2024. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

01.20.25 edition: SRS boys Top 50 sees Oak Bay Bays take over No. 2! SMUS, King George, Handsworth, MEI make top rises while three other newcomers arrive!

LANGLEY — B.C. Basketball Metrics’ latest SRS Boys Top 50 would have No. 1 Spectrum vs. No. 4 Kelowna, and No. 2 Oak Bay vs. No. 3 Dover Bay if the Final Four was tipping off Jan. 20.(As I add a day after posting, thanks to loyal reader Jack Showers, that of course isn’t possible […]

Always under control, Dover Bay's Frank Linder on his way to tourney MVP honours against the MEI Eagles in 2024 B.C. Triple-A championship final March 9, 2024 at the Langley Events Centre. (Photo by Blair Shier property of Vancouver Sports Pictures 2024. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball University Baseball

UBC Thunderbirds men’s basketball lands a prize Class of 2025 recruit! Dover Bay’s 6-foot-7 Frank Linder, reigning BC Triple-A MVP, brings a universal skill set to War Memorial Gym!

VANCOUVER — Start with his agility, length and power.Then consider that it all comes within a 6-foot-7, 195-pound frame.Those who have seen forward/guard Frank Linder grow into his position as one of the top seniors in B.C. high school basketball over the past few seasons with Nanaimo’s Dover Bay Dolphins know all too well that […]

Oak Bay's Tiem Orser (left) is guarded by Dover Bay's Frank Linder during championship game action at the Kodiak Classic Invitational hosted 11.30.24 by Heritage Woods Secondary School in Port Moody. (Photo by Howard Tsumura exclusive property of VarsityLetters.ca 2024. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

01.15.25: B.C. senior boys basketball rankings: Spectrum, St. Pat’s sitting on the pole! Could RCMP, Catholics, Snowball shake it up?

LANGLEY — Only one change atop the four tiers of B.C. boys high school basketball this week, as St. Patricks flip-flops with St. Thomas More at the peak of the Triple-A rankings following the final of the Rich Goutlet Chancellor final Saturday in Burnaby,.Spectrum staved off the same scenario atop 4A, topping No. 3 Oak […]

Brookswood's Ashely Vande Ven tries to slow the progress of Kelowna's Cali Ausenhus during TBI Super 16 Day 2 action 12.12.24 at the Langley Events Centre. (Photo by Ryan Molag property Langley Events Centre-TFSE 2024. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Basketball

B.C. senior girls basketball rankings: First Top 10’s of 2025 show Yale, LFA, Lambrick Park and Mulgrave making the biggest climbs! Seaquam, MEI, SMUS maintain their No. 1 holds!

LANGLEY — The first B.C. senior girls basketball rankings of 2025 for 4A, 3A and 2A.QUAD-A1 Seaquam Seahawks (North Delta) (SF) (LW-1)2 Brookswood Bobcats (Langley) (EV) (2)3 Riverside Rapids (Port Coquitlam) (FN) (3)4 Argyle Pipers (North Vancouver) (VSS) (4)5 Lord Tweedsmuir Panthers (Surrey) (SF) (5)6 Yale Lions (Abbotsford) (EV) (10)7 Oak Bay Breakers (Victoria) (VI) (HM)8 […]