St. George's head coach Guy da Silva has his Saints sitting at No. 3 in B.C. Quad-A following its win over arch-rival Vancouver College. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2019. All Rights Reserved)
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B.C. boys ranks 02.15.23 edition: All hail Sea-to-Sky hoops! West Van, Kits surge to give VSS five of Quad-A’s Top 10 teams!

LANGLEY — Two of B.C. high school basketball’s tradition-laden top-tiered programs flashed a little something-something, hinting that, late in the campaign, they have each uncovered a little DNA of the yesteryear variety.The West Vancouver Highlanders, 73-70 regular-season winners back on May 7 over its cross-zone rivals from North Vancouver, the Handsworth Royals, carried that momentum […]

Dover Bay's scoring leader and senior Luke Linder has helped his Dolphins to a No. 2 ranking at Triple-A as the playoff season begins in B.C. senior boys high school basketball. (Photo by Wilson Wong 2023. All Rights Reserved)
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Dover Bay boys basketball 2022-23: Inspired by the legacy of its 2007 B.C. champs, Nanaimo’s Triple-A No. 2-ranked Dolphins put in the hard work needed to make a March Madness splash at the LEC!

Hoops karma is hard to actually describe, but in the early days of February, all you need to do is look at the B.C. senior boys basketball rankings to know that the 2023 Vancouver Island brand is as richly flavourful as anything you’re choosing to spread across your morning toast.From Victoria to Mill Bay to […]

Lord Byng's Quinn Handy faces a double-team from North Delta's Harvir Hothi (left) and Krishian Jeet during play at the 2022 Tsumura Basketball Invitational this past December at the Langley Events Centre. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of Varsity Letters 2023. All Rights Reserved)
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Savouring the season! As B.C. high school hoops playoffs begin, we appreciate the game through the eyes of Lord Byng coach Kevin Sandher who says: “The days are long, but the years go quick!”

VANCOUVER — For everything the B.C. high school sports world has endured over the past number of seasons, there is once again, thankfully, that feeling of normalcy… something that comes with the first fully-unencumbered regular-season of basketball since 2019-20.It’s made the simple act of moving from league contests to those of the post-season variety something […]

Splitting the Steveston London defence, Dionycius Bakare of Vancouver's King George Dragons goes up for two of his 27 points in an 82-54 win, Jan. 21 at UBC's War Memorial Gymnasium. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of Varsity Letters 2023. All Rights Reserved)
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King George’s Dionycius Bakare: A study in humility and gravity-defying hops, Dragons’ Grade 10 star already gliding in rare air!

VANCOUVER — Maybe the best way to describe the daily development of one of the most exciting young talents in recent B.C. boys basketball history is to say that Dionycius Bakare is going through two growth spurts at the same time.By the most standard of measures, the prodigiously-talented Grade 10 guard with Vancouver’s King George […]

Finlay Chow-White (right) and the rest of East Vancouver's Tupper Tigers moved into back into familiar territory Wednesday, sitting No. 10 in the most recent B.C. Triple-A rankings. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2023 All Rights Reserved)
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B.C. boys Top 10 hoop ranks 02.01.23 edition: West Vancouver, Tupper, Mulgrave make late surges as hoop calendar turns to February!

LANGLEY — Top threes remained consistent across all four tiers of B.C. boys high school basketball as the countdown to March Madness hit the one-month mark on Wednesday. Quad-A remained as quiet as it has all season, yet unranked West Vancouver’s 77-68 road win Monday at former No. 9 Kitsilano has pushed the Highlanders into honourable […]

With its logo featuring both the brain and a basketball, Bigger Than Basketball event founder Bradley Braich is turning the gathering point of the gymnasium into a place where it's just as easy to talk about mental health as it is to work on your jumper. (Photo by Ryan Molag property of Langley Events Centre 2023 All Rights Reserved)
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A Sunday Read: Five years his after mental health struggles nearly claimed him, ex-Yale hoops star Bradley Braich is a UBC neuroscience major whose life defines ‘Bigger Than Basketball’

Today, I wanted to share with you a little about the history of the most important story we have been able to tell here at Varsity Letters, and how that story’s subject has grown in ways which truly surpass the margins of the written page.Just weeks shy of five years ago, a courageous 17-year-old basketball […]

The Oak Bay Bays and host Vancouver College Fighting Irish were among the top three finishers this past weekend at the Irish's own Emerald invitational. (Photo by Gary Ahuja property of Langley Events Centre 2022. All Rights Reserved)
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B.C. boys Top 10 rankings 01.25.23 edition: Quad-A V.C. Irish, Triple-A St. Pat’s each nab fresh, new No. 1 ranks as Semiahmoo, Dover Bay each slip to into No. 2 slots! We’ve got all four tiers right here!

LANGLEY — For the first time this 2022-23 B.C. senior boys basketball season, there are new No. 1’s atop of the province’s two largest tiers of competition.Surrey’s Semiahmoo Thunderbirds fell from Quad-A 1 and were replaced by former No. 2 Vancouver College after falling to the host Irish 96-88 at the Emerald invitational final on […]

Fleetwood Park's Aaron Uppal, pictured at this past December's TBI, helped his Dragons to their first-ever championship title at St. Thomas More's Rich Goulet Chancellor Memorial on Saturday in Burnaby. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2022 All Rights Reserved)
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Goulet Chancellor Memorial 2023: Eesher Sarai plenty big enough to meet the challenge as Fleetwood Park edges St. Pat’s for Dragons’ first-ever tourney title at STMC!

BURNABY — B.C.’s No. 5-ranked Quad-A senior boys basketball team is playing up to its provincial pedigree, and that means a lot of good things have been coming the way of the Fleetwood Park Dragons.On Saturday, the Surrey squad achieved a program first, defeating Vancouver’s St. Patrick Celtics 71-68 in the championship final of the […]

Semiahmoo point guard Torian Lee is guarded by Oak Bay's Thomas Beames during play at the Terry Fox Legal Beagle Invitational Jan. 7 in Port Coquitlam. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2022 All Rights Reserved)
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Legal Beagle 2023: No. 1 Semiahmoo flourishes with “team to beat” target! Thunderbirds top No. 6 Oak Bay in tourney final, while No. 4 Kelowna Owls top host Terry Fox Ravens for third

PORT COQUITLAM — Marcus Flores will admit that nothing can ever fully replicate the feeling of stepping out in front of a screaming, sold-out crowd to play for a provincial championship title at the home of B.C. high school basketball, otherwise known as the Langley Events Centre.That’s just what the 6-foot-7 senior forward/centre and the […]

The freshly-dedicated Rich Goulet Chancellor Memorial gets off to an official start Wednesday at noon. Making it official was Dave Goulet (centre), the nephew of the late, great STM and Pitt Meadows coaching legend who tossed the opening ceremonial jump ball between Maeson Westerlund of Richmond's McNair Marlins (left) and Chris Ainley of the hometown STMC Knights. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2023 All Rights Reserved)
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The Rich Goulet Chancellor Memorial ’23: After two cancelled seasons, a grandaddy of B.C. hoop tourneys returns, its own fighter’s mentality not unlike its new namesake and foundational father!

BURNABY — They say that all great traditions, through the passing of time, seem to somehow take on the strongest characteristics of their creators.Early Wednesday afternoon, as he walked out of St. Thomas More Collegiate’s packed and deafening gymnasium having just coached the school’s first senior boys Chancellor tournament game in two years, Aaron Mitchell […]