ABBOTSFORD — Even in the best of times it’s a difficult proposition to put together a preseason schedule and know precisely the level of competition you’re going to be facing.Factor in the uncertainties of COVID as well as the returning status of any number of opposition veterans forced to keep one eye on their academic […]
University Women’s Basketball
The rise of SFU’s Basketball Jones: Jessica Jones doubted her game early, but with perseverance Simon Fraser’s senior guard named 2021-22 GNAC Preseason Player of the Year!
BURNABY — Tuesday was a day for Jessica Jones to understand, with a veteran’s perspective, the meaning of perseverance in the face of adversity.After discovering that she had been named the GNAC’s women’s basketball 2021-22 Preseason Player of the Year, Simon Fraser’s energetic, shot-making senior guard put it all into words as best she could.“It’s […]
TWU women’s hoops 2021-22: Spartans’ veteran core excited to push the re-start button in home-opener vs. blue-chip Winnpeg Wesmen!
LANGLEY — Ask university coaches across the country what the search for cohesion, chemistry and identity within their rosters has been like coming off the COVID-cancelled 2020-21 season, and while each will have their own way of describing the challenges, all are delivered along the same thematic road of putting all the pieces back together […]
A SUNDAY READ: Dani Langford’s passion for the poetry of motion: How SFU’s national championship MVP point guard found her way to the NBA’s Golden State Warriors!
Describing the intricacies of the human body in motion is a language unto itself.And for Danielle Langford, a young girl chasing her basketball dreams in the early-1990s, unlocking the true meaning of all that jargon was a constant source of fascination, something she herself realized every time the bumps and bruises the journey led her […]
Shemaiah Abatayo: As Trinity Western’s ‘rookie’ guard preps for a hopeful 2021-22 re-start, she dishes on six months of COVID-forced lockdown in the Philippines!
LANGLEY — Shemaiah Abatayo, like the rest of Canada’s hard-luck Class of 2020 university freshmen recruits, will get a second chance to make a rookie impression when U Sports basketball courts flash their figurative green lights this coming fall.Nothing could have beaten the on-court experience that a 2020-21 Canada West season would have provided Abatayo […]
Jayden White: Special signs along the way speak the truth of compassion, tenacity Yale Lions forward carries to Alberta Pandas!
ABBOTSFORD — Ask Jayden White what it means for her to have walked the walk through a star-crossed high school basketball career, and she’ll show you this photo of the inside of a Gatorade bottle cap containing the bone chips surgeons extricated from her knee back in 10th grade.“The biggest one is the size of […]
“They need to be really persistent…” B.C. high school Class of 2021 grads in tough to find spots on crowded university & college rosters!
VANCOUVER — What’s the toughest challenge for a talented B.C. high school basketball player looking to continue his or her career as a student-athlete this coming season at the college or university level?How about simply finding a place to play?Student-athletes from B.C.’s hard-luck Class of 2021 have not only lost their entire senior season of […]
Post-marked UFV: How GWG Grizzlies’ Grade 11 post Julia Tuchscherer will pivot into the paint with U Sports’ Cascades next season!
ABBOTSFORD — For about as long as Julia Tuchscherer can remember, she’s had a knack for making all of the numbers add up.She’s even done it in these challenging times, heading down the home stretch of her Grade 11 year at Chilliwack’s G.W. Graham Secondary with a 4.0 grade point average within a core of […]
A Sunday Read: SFU women’s basketball celebrates the power of connection, uniting past and present through its IMPACT mentorship program!
BURNABY — There are many variations of the parable which informs us that in learning we teach, and that in teaching we learn.Boil those words down to their essence, however, and what remains is the singular feeling of a journey coming full circle.Laura Kalenuik, née van den Boogaard, like so many other former student-athletes, has […]
The Luyken Legacy: For UFV’s father-daughter duo of Anthony & Aieisha, building community through basketball is a lifelong calling!
ABBOTSFORD — Anthony and Aieisha Luyken are a father and daughter with a most special tie to the sport of basketball.Today, Varsity Letters is happy to help share, through the efforts of one of our founding partners, the Fraser Valley Cascades, the story of their incredible, life-defining love affair with the sport and its impact […]