The Fraser Valley Cascades' dynamic duo of forward Deanna Tuchscherer (left) and point guard Maddy Gobeil are a pair of 19-year-old Cascades finding their solution to the cancelled Canada West campaign by signing pro contracts to play in Europe over the fall-winter season. (Photos by Dan Kinvig property of UFV athletics 2020. All rights reserved. Photo graphic by Gabriel Lynn)
Feature University Women's Basketball

A SUNDAY READ: Banking their Euros! Postmarked ‘Abby, BC’, UFV’s teen duo of Tuchscherer & Gobeil find their bounce with overseas pro careers

ABBOTSFORD — It was a basketball migration along a flight path neither could have ever anticipated just a handful of months ago.Yet this past Thursday, as both U SPORTS and its conference affiliate, Canada West, announced the official cancellation of the remainder of the 2020-21 university sports season (including basketball) due to the ongoing virulence […]

Trinity Western point guard Kianna Wiens developed her leadership skills during a character-testing 2019-20 Canada West season. (Photo by Scott Stewart property of Trinity Western athletics 2020. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Women's Basketball

Trinity Western women’s basketball: Veteran coach Cheryl Jean-Paul keeps her youthful Spartans on a proven path to Canada West success

LANGLEY — There is a virtual mountain of statistical evidence to illustrate just how unforgiving a season the young Trinity Western women’s basketball team endured in 2019-20.The good part for the Spartans is that head coach Cheryl Jean-Paul has been through this tough, early part of the journey before with her program, and its precisely […]

Fraser Valley women's basketball players (left to right) Natalie Rathler, Maddy Gobeil and Lauryn Walker each provided inspirational moments this week as part of the Cascades' week-long virtual climb of Mt. Everest. (Photos by Dan Kinvig property of UFV Athletics 2020. All Rights Reserved. Photo graphic special for Varsity Letters courtesy of Gabriel Lynn)
Feature University Women's Basketball

A Sunday Read: How UFV Cascades’ women’s basketball strengthened its bond on a virtual climb to the top of Mt. Everest!

ABBOTSFORD — Al Tuchscherer was watching the nightly news recently when a story came across the screen which immediately sparked his imagination.“They had a human interest story about this gentleman who I guess always wanted to climb Mt. Everest,” began the head coach of the Fraser Valley Cascades women’s basketball team. “And he decided to take […]

Fraser Valley's Deanna Tuchscherer has enjoyed a brilliant rookie debut in the Canada West. (Photo by Dan Kinvig property of University of the Fraser Valley athletics 2020. All Rights Reserved)
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“…Hey, she just pulled a Dirk!” UFV’s fab frosh Tuchscherer making like a U Sports’ Nowitzki

(Due to technical difficulties encountered here at VarsityLetters.ca over the past two weeks, several stories, including this one, had not been posted here on our main site, which is now back to being fully operational as of Feb. 17, 2020. We thank you for your patience and your continued loyalty to B.C.’s most trusted source for […]

Simon Fraser's Tayler Drynan has never missed a game over the course of her entire four-year career with the Clan. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2020. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Women's Basketball

Tayler Drynan: Simon Fraser’s senior point guard never missed a moment along the road to her Clan home finale

(Due to technical difficulties encountered here at VarsityLetters.ca over the past two weeks, several stories, including this one, had not been posted here on our main site, which is now back to being fully operational as of Feb. 17, 2020. We thank you for your patience and your continued loyalty to B.C.’s most trusted source for […]

UBC's Jessica Hanson is in the midst of the most efficient run of play in her entire university basketball career. (Photo by Richard Lam property of UBC athletics 2020. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Women's Basketball

UBC’s Jessica Hanson: Appreciating the present of presence has allowed ‘Birds senior guard to see 20/20 in 2020

(Due to technical difficulties encountered here at VarsityLetters.ca over the past two weeks, several stories, including this one, had not been posted here on our main site, which is now back to being fully operational as of Feb. 17, 2020. We thank you for your patience and your continued loyalty to B.C.’s most trusted source for […]

Simon Fraser's junior guard Jessica Jones (left) hits the deck to battle for a loose ball in this past Saturday's home loss to Alaska Anchorage at the West Gym. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2020. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Women's Basketball

With a new balance in her basketball core, gritty Simon Fraser Clan guard Jessica Jones elevates her game atop Burnaby Mountain

BURNABY — Jessica Jones always believed she had what it took to become the kind of player and leader positioned at the very core of the Simon Fraser women’s basketball team.

Playing it tough in the paint was the key Thursday for the Simon Fraser Clan, and sophomore Sophie Klassen was one of the leading lights in that regard as her team topped visiting Seattle Pacific at the West Gym. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Women's Basketball

Even without its magical three-ball, Simon Fraser women sit at 4-1! Clan turn rebound-hungry in impressive win over Seattle Pacific Falcons

BURNABY — The only thing certain about 2019-20 Simon Fraser Clan women’s basketball team at the quarter-pole of their league schedule is that they sit third in the 11-team Great Northwest Athletic Conference standings with a 4-1 record.That’s first and foremost, and in the minds of Clan fans, more than soothing enough despite the fact […]

When UBC head coach Deb Huband cut down the nets back in 2004, she was bringing the Bronze baby back to Point Grey for the first time in 30 years. (Photo by Richard Lam property of UBC athletics 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Women's Basketball

From Debbie to Deb: How UBC’s iconic women’s hoop coach Huband has found balance on her journey towards a signature milestone

VANCOUVER — If playing and coaching represent the two sides of the basketball brain, then a life well-lived in both is a life which has achieved a rare level of balance… in some cases as spherically-perfect as the ball itself.

Fraser Valley freshman guard Jessica Parker, the former PoCo-Riverside standout, announced herself on the U Sports circuit Saturday in the Cascades win over visiting UBC at Envision Athletic Centre. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2019. All Rights Reserved) (Photo by Vancouver Sports Pictures property of VSP 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Women's Basketball

UFV Women’s Basketball: Forget the Fab Five! Cascades’ freshman-filled Fab Four combine for 50 points in win over UBC

ABBOTSFORD — Don’t hold it against Jessica Parker just because she doesn’t know the history of the Fab Five.After all, the Fraser Valley Cascades’ high-scoring pure freshman guard wasn’t even born when Chris Webber, Juwan Howard, Jalen Rose, Ray Jackson and Jimmy King arrived on the scene, baggy shorts and all, way back in 1991, […]