As Shrum Bowl 2022 approaches, UBC Thunderbirds head coach Blake Nill found time to chat and joke with coaches from rival SFU this past weekend during the B.C. high school Subway Bowl semifinals at BC Place Stadium. (Photo by Richard Lam property of UBC athletics 2021. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Football

Shrum Bowl XXXIV: With a new QB at the helm, UBC Thunderbirds set to climb Burnaby Mountain on Friday for meeting with SFU Red Leafs in first clash since 2010!

VANCOUVER — B.C.’s football community has gone 12 years without the ability to anticipate, watch and debate another Shrum Bowl clash.Consider that for a second, and you could also say that it’s been a dozen years since the coaches at UBC and rival Simon Fraser have actually had common ground on which to both greet […]

Slinging on his way to the best QBR of his collegiate career in last Saturday's win over West Texas A&M is Simon Fraser senior quarterback Justin Seiber. (Photo by Ethan Cairns property of SFU athletics 2022. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Football

After taking the road less travelled, Simon Fraser senior quarterback Justin Seiber reflects on adversity, the game of his life and a Shrum Bowl opportunity!

BURNABY MOUNTAIN — With the end of his football career now just weeks away, Justin Seiber admits he is pondering a professional path into the world of sports analytics.All of that seems fitting in light of the numbers that the 6-foot-3, 200 pound Simon Fraser senior quarterback put up last Saturday as the previously-winless Red […]

Fraser Valley's Deanna Tuchscherer and the rest of the Cascades have their highest national ranking in a decade this week at No. 2 in the latest U SPORTS national poll. (Photo by Tanner Geringer property of UFV Cascades athletics 2022. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Basketball University Women's Basketball

Made-in-B.C. and ranked No. 2 in the nation! Here’s three big reasons the Fraser Valley Cascades could be Bronze Baby contenders!

ABBOTSFORD — Ten years after, there’s a new band of basketball teammates shining the spotlight on the Cascades’ women’s basketball program at the University of the Fraser Valley.Precisely one decade after its most successful Canada West regular season, one it which it went 18-4 and was perched wire-to-wire within the top four of the U […]

UBC's Keijaun Johnson has been all over the ball all season long. What he was doing in a season-opening win back in September over the Alberta Golden Bears at Thunderbird Stadium ([pictured), he continued to do Saturday in Regina. His game-changing 46-yard interception return helped vault the Thunderbirds into next Saturday's Hardy Cup championship final in Saskatoon. (Photo by Richard Lam property of UBC athletics 2022. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Football University Football

A SUNDAY READ: UBC’s Keijaun Johnson reminds us all of the heart-stopping power of playoff football! Road underdog ‘Birds shock Regina for Hardy Cup title game berth!

Playoff football’s most defining moments have a way of coming out of the shadows and taking our breath away.Yet beyond the most obvious ways in which they dole equal parts joy and despair to their most loyal fans, they also seem to deliver, with barometric precision, a universal truth about their victors.That’s what I was […]

One of the best UBC head coach Kevin Hanson has coached is Jadon Cohee. This season Cohee returns after a brief absence as one of the team's assistant coaches and will bring the energy on the bench Friday as SFU pays a visit to War Memorial Gymnasium. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2020. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball University Men's Basketball

Buchanan Cup 2022: UBC hoops notes include the return of Jadon Cohee, our look at three rising ‘Birds in Luka Lizdek, Nikola Guzina, Triston Matthews and more!

VANCOUVER —Kevin Hanson loves the fact that his 2022-23 Thunderbirds are getting a great taste of post-season atmosphere before the conference season even gets a chance to tip off.On Friday, a little over two months after the ‘Birds kicked it all off in front of a near-capacity home crowd of 2,103 on Aug. 16 with […]

UBC Thunderbirds' fourth-year guard James Woods (left) turns a corner on UNLV's Elijah Parquet en route to a 33-point performance and 'Birds win in the team's season opener in mid August. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of Varsity Letters 2022. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball University Men's Basketball

Buchanan Cup 2022: For UBC’s James Woods, a career defined by beating the odds makes ‘Boy Wonder’ a well-earned nickname!

VANCOUVER — Deep down in his basketball soul, James Woods has always been Boy Wonder.It’s the nickname he picked up before he was old enough to shave, before he even started to play high school basketball for Langley’s Walnut Grove Gators.And on Friday night (7:30 p.m.), when he pulls on his No. 11 UBC jersey […]

Simon Fraser forward Jahmal Wright is one of only three returning Red Leafs with substantial playing time in 2021-22. SFU unveils its new team on the road Friday as it visits War Memorial Gym to face the UBC Thunderbirds in the Buchanan Cup classic. (Photo by Wilson Wong property of SFU athletics 2021. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball University Men's Basketball

Buchanan Cup 2022: “Coach, you’ve got a lot of new guys…” Simon Fraser Red Leafs face host UBC Thunderbirds on Friday with a new-look team intent on finding some instant karma!

BURNABY — A reporter takes a seat last week in the Burnaby Mountain office of Simon Fraser head men’s basketball coach Steve Hanson, offering an apology ahead of what must be the most obvious observation of all.“Coach, you’ve got a lot of new guys…”Willing to indulge his inquisitor in the playful manner in which the […]

Ready to sling it at home, Simon Fraser quarterback Justin Seiber has a cadre of sure-handed receivers to work with Saturday against Western New Mexico in the form of Ethan Beselt, Sam Davenport and Rob Meadors. (Photo by Paul Yates property of Simon Fraser athletics 2022. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Football

SFU Football notebook 10.20.22: Red Leafs filled with emotion ahead of Saturday’s unplanned homecoming to Fox Field! Coach Rigell says team “…ready to push the envelope”

BURNABY — Mike Rigell says he knows how much better his winless Red Leafs football team is than the one which dropped its conference opener to Central Washington 40-7 back on September 17.That game, of course, was played at Terry Fox Field within the friendly confines of SFU Stadium, and upon its completion came the […]

UBC offensive lineman Giovanni Manu has proven himself to be a plug-and-play standout at both tackle and now guard this season. (Photo by Bob Frid property of UBC athletics 2021. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Football

UBC Football Notebook 10.19.22 edition: An O-line overhaul sparks ‘Birds run game ahead of Huskies’ Saturday visit, plus more football Thunder Bolts!

VANCOUVER — A UBC football team able to define its identity through the ground game.As easy as it is to over-complicate the modus operandi, it’s always been that simple when it comes to predicting success or a lack thereof for the 2022 edition of the gridiron Thunderbirds.Today, as we open up the notebook from the […]

Simon Fraser quarterback Justin Seiber passed for 394 yards and three touchdowns as the Red Leafs suffered a heartbreaking overtime loss in Texas to the host Permian Falcons. (Photo by Paul Yates property of Simon Fraser athletics 2022. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Football

A SUNDAY READ: Why Simon Fraser football is inching closer to winning games in Texas! Saturday’s heartbreaking 31-24 OT loss at Permian shows the Seiber-Beselt duo at its best!

A lot of great things can be disguised by a loss.Yet if you witnessed the performance turned in Saturday night in no less a football town than near-mythic Odessa, Texas, you might be inclined to agree that not all ‘L’s’ are created equally.“It was a great momentum builder, a great step moving forward, but again, […]