In 1972, Steve Pettifer worked out in the Langara Gym for an audience which included then-national team head coach Jack Donohue. (Photo courtesy Steve Pettifer)
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VL Podcast 03.03.21: Centennial’s Steve Pettifer reflects on playing days at SFU and UBC, and a 40-year high school coaching career!

Welcome to the Varsity Letters podcast. There is no better time than this week, one traditionally reserved for the B.C. senior girls basketball championships, to catch up with former Centennial head coach Steve Pettifer, who in the last 1980s, led the Centaurs to five straight provincial Final Fours, including a pair of titles. Pettifer, brought […]

Karn Dhillon (left) who has reffed in parts of the last six decades posed at KitsFest with the late Felix Gonzales. Dhillon eulogizes his friend, who passed suddenly this week, remembering him for his huge heart and his love for his family. (Photo by Tim Braund property of Tim Braund Photography 2021. All Rights Reserved)
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VL Podcast 02.24.21: Veteran referee Karn Dhillon, who reflects on the sudden passing of friend Felix Gonzalez, speaks to the tight-knit bond of BC’s hoops community

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 […]

G.P. Vanier Towhees head coach Larry Street. (Photo by Wilson Wong 2021. All Rights Reserved)
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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 […]

UBC Thunderbirds head coach Blake Nill feels so much of the team's 2021 identity will stem from the team's play along its trenches. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2020. All Rights Reserved)
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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 […]

High-flying Ron Putzi dunks during the Richmond Colts' 1988 title win over Seaquam at the PNE Agrodome. (Photo property of BCHSBBOA 2020. All Rights Reserved)
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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 […]

Terry Fox's Mark Prinster (left), pictured with Ravens' co-coach Brad Petersen, reminisces with host Howard Tsumura about the galaxy of talent which played outside of the top tier during the late 1980s and early 1990s in B.C. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2020. All Rights Reserved)
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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 […]

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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 […]

Abbotsford football coach Jay Fujimura chats about former Panthers' receiver Chase Claypool's NFL success with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
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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 […]

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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 […]

This week, the Varsity Letters podcasts welcomes UBC's Wilson Wong and ex-UVic basketball PxP voice Guy MacPherson.
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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 […]