Trinity Western's new plug-and-play guard Ja’Qualyn Gilbreath showed in the preseason that he is capable of filling it up. (Photo by Scott Stewart property of Trinity Western athletics 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Men's Basketball

Trinity Western men’s basketball: Who are these guys? With 10 newcomers and a first-year head coach, Spartans begin new adventure Friday at TRU

LANGLEY — It’s hard to paint the precise picture that best captures the state of the 2019-20 Trinity Western Spartans men’s basketball team.First, you start with the basics: A team coming off an 0-20 conference season a year ago, with a brand new head coach and 10 new players, many of whom had likely never […]

New Westminster Hyacks head football coach Farhan Lalji (left) and UBC head men's basketball coach Kevin Hanson each visit with host Howard Tsumura as Varsity Letters -- The Podcast returns to the pod stream. (Photos by Howard Tsumura and Richard Lam property of VarsityLetters.ca and UBC athletics)
Feature High School Football Podcast University Men's Basketball

We’re back! Varsity Letters – The Podcast makes its return! UBC hoops coach Hanson, New West football coach Lalji stop in to chat

LANGLEY — There’s a sense deja vu filtering through the airwaves this week around the province of B.C. with return of Varsity Letters-The Podcast. Long a weekly staple during my years at The Vancouver Province, we’re back for the first time since 2016, right here at our new home at VarsityLetters.ca This week, we’re honoured […]

Liam McChesney of the Charles Hays Rainmakers is headed to NCAA Div. 1 Utah State. (Photo by Wilson Wong property of UBC athletics 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball University Men's Basketball

Varsity Letters B.C. Recruits List 2019: Where 88 boys basketball prospects are headed this coming season

LANGLEY — Even over an offseason in which the majority of local university programs are not brining in big classes, there almost 100 names to note provincially in the world of high school-to-post-secondary men’s basketball. All told, that adds up to 182 names between our boys and girls lists, among the most we’ve ever had.

Flanked by teammates Josh Hamulas (left) and Austin Swedish, Lord Tweedsmuir senior guard Patrick Jonas met the crowd at December's TBI 2018 with a brave smile. (Photo property of Wilson Wong 2019. All rights reserve
Feature High School Boys Basketball University Men's Basketball

Patrick Jonas: Despite his wounded knee, Tweedsmuir senior set a new ‘bench’ mark for leadership during championship season

LANGLEY — Patrick Jonas was such a bad shooter that his teammates called him Brick Squad. He was only in the eighth grade at the time, a stage at which the cloth we’re actually cut from is still unwoven.

Lord Tweedsmuir's Arjun Samra is carried around the court at the Langley Events Centre last March prior to being named the 2019 B.C. Quad A tournament MVP. (Photo by Wilson Wong 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball University Men's Basketball

Arjun Samra: Tweedy’s Quad-A B.C. MVP willing to risk university hoops career as walk-on hopeful in order to chase UBC medical degree

SURREY — Earlier this month, he pulled on a jersey, laced up his sneakers and made his entrance onto the court at UBC’s War Memorial Gymnasium, running with the Thunderbirds’ veterans in what was his first post-secondary basketball experience.

Former W.J. Mouat and UFV coach Trevor Pridie has left his job as video coordinator with Raptors 905 to fill the vacant head coaching chair at Trinity Western. (Photo by Scott Stewart property of Trinity Western athletics 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Elphinstone's Elan Kimpton-Cuellar is just now coming to grips with his vast array of skills. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball University Men's Basketball

A sleeper awakens to his potential: Elphinstone grad Elan Kimpton-Cuellar a true find for TRU’s basketball WolfPack

GIBSONS — Plug his given name into one of those on-line origin sites, and in the case of Elan Kimpton-Cuellar, you get more than a little foreshadowing.

While a solemn Keenan Danso-Dapaah of the Sheridan Bruins walks off the court of Saturday night, Vancouver Island Mariners players and coaches erupt into celebration after winning the CCAA national title at the LEC. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Men's Basketball

A Sunday Read: The simple truth behind three days of magic! How VIU’s Mariners perfected the art of the rally to win a CCAA national crown

LANGLEY — His tears had barely had time to dry and his voice, emotion-tinged from the kind of elation that only a national championship can bring, had recovered just enough to get a special message out.

Langara's Antonio Jhuty (left) challenges SAIT's John Smith during 7th-8th placing game Saturday at the LEC). (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Men's Basketball

CCAA Day 3: National tourney experience a bonus for Langara, Falcons move forward looking to start a new chapter in 2019-20

LANGLEY —It wasn’t the finish Vancouver’s host Langara Falcons were hoping for as they wrapped up play here Saturday afternoon as the 2019 CCAA Nationals hit the final day of its three-day run at the Langley Events Centre: An ejection for Langara head coach Paul Eberhardt after he picked up his second technical of the game with […]