LANGLEY — The journey that the B.C. boys high school basketball championships have taken to become the annual showcase it is these days under the bright lights at the Langley Events Centre is one filled with some of the most moments in provincial sports history.Yet the chief reason the game has been able to retain […]
Tag: Aaron Mitchell
St. Thomas More’s Tarrence Booker: Through his basketball bloodlines & Knights’ hoop traditions, Grade 11 point guard gains deeper appreciation for the game!
BURNABY — At the age of 16, you could say that the pages of Tarrence Booker’s basketball life are just now being written.Yet engage the St. Thomas More Collegiate Grade 11 point guard on any number of topics, both on and off the court, and it becomes pretty clear that he’s already a few chapters […]
Tip-off Wednesday: B.C. high school basketball is back, and minutes after news breaks, we catch up with six of our veteran coaches!
B.C. high school basketball coaches could barely contain their excitement Tuesday evening as they spoke with Varsity Letters just minutes after the official decision came down that B.C. high school basketball’s delayed opening was over, and that tip-off around the province would take place on Wednesday.“They have been waiting to go now for weeks,” said […]
STMC’s Terrell Jana: As draft week arrives, sure-handed Virginia receiver leaves a legacy as a giver en route to his pro football future!
He has helping hands.That’s the best way to describe, in both the literal and figurative sense, the essence of Terrell Jana, who on the eve of both the NFL and CFL drafts, is every bit as much a giver as he is as receiver, and that’s saying a lot when you’re talking about a guy […]
Welcome to the Rich Goulet Memorial Chancellor! St. Thomas More to honour its late, great pioneering coach with lifelong tournament dedication!
BURNABY — In its early days, St. Thomas More Collegiate’s Chancellor Invitational enjoyed the distinct blessing of being run by a basketball visionary.From his very start as boys varsity head coach in 1970, Rich Goulet knew just what the Burnaby school’s annual tournament needed to represent to both student-athletes and coaches, and he worked tirelessly […]
RIP, Coach: For Pitt Meadows & STM’s Rich Goulet (1946-2021), basketball was his student, his teacher and the air that he’d breathe
PITT MEADOWS — On Sunday, on what would be the final day of a life so completely devoted to his greatest passion, Rich Goulet made a simple request.“Scoresheets. He was asking for scoresheets from a Grade 9 basketball tournament,” said his nephew Dave Goulet who was bedside at the hospital, tending to the needs of […]
VL podcast 10.28.20 edition: St. Thomas More teacher/coach and podcaster Aaron Mitchell takes us on ‘A Hoops Journey’
Welcome to the Varsity Letters podcast for Wednesday, Oct. 28. Our guest this week might be the only person to have led a B.C. senior boys basketball team to a provincial title as a head coach, while also having played in a B.C. senior boys hoops varsity final, a CCAA national final, and a U […]
B.C. coaches say “…basketball is going back to being about you and a hoop” How to summon your inner-Naismith in a time of social distancing
NORTH DELTA — What defines a self-made athlete?As the 2019-20 B.C. high school basketball season was coming to an end last March, just days ahead of a province-wide COVID-19 shutdown, it was certainly not a topic I spent much time pondering.Yet some two months later, I can say with great confidence that it has emerged […]
Ok, so where did these Knights come from? Internal belief in face of mounting losses helped St. Thomas More earn a most unexpected BC AAA berth!
LANGLEY — If you had simply counted up the W’s and the L’s along the will-testing 3-10 stretch which Burnaby’s St. Thomas More Knights navigated over the first six weeks of 2020, you wouldn’t have believed your eyes this past Sunday afternoon at the Langley Events Centre.
UFV basketball: After years of searching for his hoops home, fourth time’s a charm for Cascades’ forward Andrew Morris
ABBOTSFORD — Last Friday, before he took to the court for Seniors Night and the final regular season home game of his Canada West career, Fraser Valley Cascades’ forward Andrew Morris got a timely text, one which served as a personal reminder of why he has persevered seven seasons to complete his university basketball journey.