Welcome to the latest edition of the Varsity Letters podcast. Today we chat with longtime basketball referee Karn Dhillon on a variety of topics spanning a career that began not too soon after he graduated from Vancouver’s Sir Winston Churchill in the late 1970s. Dhillon also eulogizes his friend, longtime and well-loved referee Felix Gonzalez […]
Podcast
VL Podcast 02.17.21: From Bby South to SFU to Fox, Moody, Vanier and the world, Larry Street has been a ‘Mr. Basketball’ for the ages!
Varsity Letters is back this week with one of B.C.’s most enduring basketball coaches and personalities: Larry Street. The former Burnaby South grad, who played collegiately at Simon Fraser and has, for the past generation, coached the senior boys varsity at Courtenay’s G.P. Vanier Secondary, Street joins host Howard Tsumura to chat about his lifelong […]
VL podast 01.27.21: UBC head football coach Blake Nill on celebrating the tradition of Blue & Gold and the promise of a 2021 fall kick-off!
The UBC football nation, just like all of the other tight-knit, tradition-laden programs across Canada, mourned the loss of 2020 university football season. Thunderbirds’ head coach Blake Nill, however, is excited and hopeful for the prospects of a 2021 campaign… that much is obvious as the three-time Vanier Cup national championship-winning coach joins host Howard […]
VL Podcast 12.17.20 edition: Richmond Colts’ Ron Putzi on milking cows and making buckets over an extraordinary hoops life!
RICHMOND — He was the leading man on a high school basketball dynasty which ushered in a new era of mainstream popularity for B.C. boys high school basketball. Former Richmond Colts star Ron Putzi stops by to join host Howard Tsumura on this week’s Varsity Letters’ podcast. Tsumura covered Putzi’s high school exploits just as […]
VL Podcast 11.03.20: Terry Fox hoops coach Mark Prinster re-visits B.C.’s Golden Age of 1A-2A basketball (1986-95)!
PORT COQUITLAM — What were the days of B.C. boys high school basketball like in the late 1980s and early 1990s, especially outside of the largest tier of competition? Terry Fox Ravens’ senior boys basketball co-coach Mark Prinster joins host Howard Tsumura on this week’s Varsity Letters podcast to reflect on what now looks like […]
VL Podcast 10.21.20: TWU hoops coach Cheryl Jean-Paul on Spartans’ Super Conference & holistic needs of coaches, athletes during COVID-19
Trinity Western Spartans’ women’s basketball coach Cheryl Jean-Paul checks in with host Howard Tsumura this week to chat about her school’s 2020 Leadership Super Conference, a remote event set to stream this Friday (full details at gospartansca). The focus this year, in this time of global pandemic, has shifted even more squarely on the holistic […]
VL Podcast 10.15.20 edition: Abby football coach Jay Fujimura chats about Chase Claypool’s NFL success with the Pittsburgh Steelers
Welcome back to another edition of the Varsity Letters podcast! This week we welcome Abbotsford Secondary head football coach Jay Fujimura to chat about the record-setting weekend enjoyed by former Panthers’ great Chase Claypool. The four touchdowns Claypool scored for the Pittsburgh Steelers in their win over the Philadelphia Eagles represented a landmark moment […]
10.07.20: Varsity Letters-The Podcast salutes Worlds Teachers Day! Longtime teacher-coaches join Tsumura in saluting our classroom mentors!
Hey, it’s Howard and welcome to another episode of Varsity Letters—The Podcast. Today we open the show with a short tribute to the late Karin Khuong from Mike Carkner, one of her basketball coaches at Terry Fox Secondary in PoCo. Khuong, 16, lost a two-year battle with cancer on Sunday. The theme of the […]
09.30.19: Varsity Letters-The Podcast gets historical with UBC’s Wilson Wong, ex-UVic Vikes radio man Guy MacPherson
Varsity Letters — The Podcast is back on the air. Looking back isn’t our usual habit, but with the pandemic shutting down what would normally be a frenetic fall season of high school and university sports, we’re going to be heavy on history this week. UBC’s manager of Sports Information Wilson Wong joins us off […]
06.09.20 edition: Varsity Letters – The Podcast examines the ramifications of Canada West’s cancelled fall season!
NORTH DELTA — Welcome back to Varsity Letters – The Podcast for June 9, 2020. Big news this week in the world of Canadian university sports means we’ll welcome three guests to the pod this week! Joining us will be UBC Director of Athletics Kavie Toor, longtime Trinity Wester University head women’s soccer coach Graham […]