The spring season in university sports circles is now in full flight.Here’s our look at five takeaways from the weekend.TALENT GALOREAs I study the continued success of Simon Fraser women’s middle distance running, I’m reminded of a story I wrote in June of 2014, in the aftermath of that season’s Subway B.C. high school track […]
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SFU making its NCAA mark: Clan sit sixth overall in a field of 306 Div. 2 schools
BURNABY — When Theresa Hanson assumed the role of athletic director at Simon Fraser University in the fall of 2015, she set a pretty lofty goal for Clan athletics and its place within the 300-plus schools competing at the NCAA Div. 2 level.
UBC pitcher Connor Noble: On Hendrix, experience and life as the ‘Birds staff ace
VANCOUVER — Connor Noble is soft-spoken by nature, yet give him the ball on game days and he’ll show you an edge and a level of grit that in musical terms might best be described as ballsy blues rock.
SFU’s Vlad Tsygankov: Russian ready to face his old hurdles again
BURNABY — A new language. A new culture. A new life.
UBC’s Cole Keffer: The power of student-athletes to make a difference
VANCOUVER — It was a self-scheduled intervention, completely cosmetic in nature, but somehow Cole Keffer knew that his first real date with a barber’s scissors carried a much deeper meaning.
Trinity Western Spartans leave their ‘legacy’ with title repeat
By Aaron Martin – Special to VarsityLetters.caUSPORTS GOLD MEDAL GAME – TWU 3 ALBERTA 1EDMONTON, AB – Don’t call them a dynasty.On Sunday evening, the no. 1-ranked Trinity Western Spartans claimed their second consecutive U Sports Men’s Volleyball National Championship, upending the host no.7-ranked Alberta Golden Bears in a high-flying 3-1 (25-20, 25-20, 27-29, 25-23) win in […]
UBC volleyball The Golden Girls (again): “Now, we’re all of a sudden on top…”
By Aaron Martin – Special to VarsityLetters.caUSPORTS GOLD MEDAL GAME – UBC 3, ALBERTA 1TORONTO, ON – A role player in the team’s national title run back in her freshman season in 2013, fifth-year outside hitter Danielle Brisebois took center stage in the national finals on Sunday afternoon, leading the no. 3-ranked UBC Thunderbirds women’s volleyball team […]
Thunderbirds medal in back-to-back years, picking up bronze
By Aaron Martin – Special to VarsityLetters.caNAPANEE, ON – Coming into the 2017 U Sports Women’s Hockey National Championships as the top seed before falling 1-0 to the McGill Martlets in yesterday’s semifinals, some onlookers posted that the UBC Thunderbirds would be hard-pressed to get up for the Bronze Medal game.
Quarter-century later, coach Beauchamp leads Douglas Royals back to CCAA nationals
NEW WESTMINSTER — Steve Beauchamp has been coaching basketball for so long now and made it such an ingrained part of his life that sooner or later, he was going to run into a season like this one.With the symbolism as rife as the crackling pages a family scrapbook, Beauchamp has not only returned to […]
SFU basketball: Weary Clan fall to Lancers, terrific season comes to an end in Sweet 16
There’s a song whose lyrics are all about being anchored down in Anchorage, Alaska, and on Monday night, the road-weary Simon Fraser Clan women’s basketball team could certainly relate.