University rugby

Trinity Western Spartans prop Josh Halladay credits the program's shared coaching staff as a source of unity through the tough 2020-21 season. (Photo by Mark Janzen property of Trinity Western athletics 2021. All Rights Reserved)
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Trinity Western rugby: By sharing the same coaching staff, Spartans’ men’s & women’s teams strengthen team bonds!

Howard TsumuraComment(0)

LANGLEY — Its blueprint leads you to believe it has been designed specifically to guide its student-athletes through the unique emotional demands of the current global pandemic.Yet the coaching co-operative which was poured as part of the foundation of the Trinity Western Spartans men’s and women’s rugby teams back in 2019 is proving itself to […]

Trinity Western Spartans' blue-chip rugby recruit Josiah Levale, of Abbotsford Secondary, has already represented Canada in international competition. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2020. All Rights Reserved)
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“I got some rocks, and I loaded them in a bag”: Trinity Western Spartans’ rugby recruit Josiah Levale never shies from the heavy lifting!

Howard TsumuraComment(0)

LANGLEY — When you take a second to consider the quality of stone from which Josiah Levale has been chiseled, perhaps it’s not surprising to learn just how resourceful one of the prized signings in Trinity Western rugby’s incoming 2020 class of recruits was in tending to his training regimen over the early stages of […]

B.C. high school rugby coaches, like Lord Byng's Mike Mallette, are part of a rare resource being celebrated by BCSSRU rugby commish Walter van Halst, who has set up free coaching clinics to coincide with B.C.'s Pro D Day this Friday. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Rugby University rugby

BCSSRU offers teachers free rugby coaching clinics on Pro-D Day: “Why can’t we develop coaches the same way we develop teachers?” asks commish

Howard TsumuraComment(0)

SURREY — During the summer, as Walter van Halst contemplated some of the best ways to both recognize and enhance the many dedicated teachers who volunteer their time to coach rugby in B.C. secondary schools, he kept asking himself the same fundamental question.“Why can’t we develop coaches the same way we develop teachers?” asked the […]

UBC Thunderbirds' head men's rugby coach Curry Hitchborn sees the immense value attached to his team's participation in the 2019 World University Rugby Invitational in Japan next week. (Photo by Ben Nelms provided courtesy of UBC athletics 2019. All rights reserved)
Feature High School Rugby University rugby

A Rugby World Cup of their own! UBC Thunderbirds travel to Japan for eight-nation World University men’s championship

Howard TsumuraComment(0)

VANCOUVER — Canada opens play in Japan at the 2019 World Cup of Rugby on Sept. 26.And while the UBC Thunderbirds men’s team won’t be able to attend any of their home nation’s matches, they’ll be returning from the Land of the Rising Sun with some world-class rugby memories of their own.That’s because the ‘Birds […]

Trinity Western Spartans' new Director of Rugby Andrew Evans takes the time to chat with one of his new recruits, Caleb van Til of the South Delta Sun Devils, during a Fraser Valley playoff game Thursday in Abbotsford. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University University rugby

A Sunday Read: After a coast-to-coast journey, why Trinity Western’s Andrew Evans made Sparta his home, sweet rugby home

Howard TsumuraComment(0)

LANGLEY — Ask Andrew Evans how he got his chance to draw the blueprint and pour the foundation for a start-up Canadian university rugby program which embraces the sport’s true global spirit, and he’ll tell you that it’s because at every stop along his journey, he has seized his opportunity to glean a new perspective.