As a sophomore this past season with the WAC's Utah Valley Wolverines, SLSS grad Fardaws Aimaq led NCAA Div. 1 rebounding at 15.0 per game. (Photo by Jay Drowns property of Utah Valley University Marketing 2020. All Rights Reserved)
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Fardaws Aimaq to test the waters of the 2021 NBA Draft! For Steveston-London grad and NCAA’s No. 1 rebounder it’s a win-win situation!

RICHMOND — NCAA Div. 1 basketball’s most prodigious single-season rebounder in over 40 years is set to test the waters leading up to the 2021 NBA Draft, this season scheduled for July 29 at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center.Richmond native Fardaws Aimaq, the 6-foot-11, 245 pound rising redshirt junior centre with the Utah Valley University Wolverines, who […]

Longtime former Pitt Meadows senior boys basketball coach Rich Goulet passed away Sunday at the age of 74. (Photo by Wilson Wong property of Wilson Wong photography 2021. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

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 […]

The North Delta senior Huskies pose 50 years ago today with the spoils of victory. (Photo courtesy BCHSBBA 2021. All Rights Reserved)
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Fifty years ago today, North Delta’s basketball Huskies became B.C.’s first-ever dual junior and senior boys champions

Fifty years ago today, on March 27, 1971, a pioneering double-double took place on the hardcourt at the Pacific Coliseum when the North Delta Huskies became the first boys basketball program in B.C. history to win both the junior and senior provincial crowns in the same season.The sweep was completed when the Huskies defeated the […]

Sir Winston Churchill's Marah Dykstra will help lead her team as one of the new additions to the 20-team field at the 2021 Tsumura Basketball Invitational at the Langley Events Centre. (Photo by Wilson Wong property of Wilson Wong 2021. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball High School Girls Basketball

Tsumura Basketball Invitational: Churchill, Seaquam, SMUS join girls draw as boys, girls 40-team field now official for December 2021!

LANGLEY — We are thrilled with the 40 teams who have now finalized their participation in this coming December’s 2021 boys and girls Tsumura Basketball Invitationals at the Langley Events Centre.(The full list of finalized teams is included at the bottom of this story)Yet what has us even more excited is the response we have […]

Kelowna's Micah Borne. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of Varsity Letters 2021. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

B.C. Boys Quad-A tip sheet: Star-studded and ready for 2021-22, here’s our look at 15 top rising seniors to watch!

The quietest Championship Saturday in the history of B.C. boys high school basketball has arrived.And while we have no actual games to celebrate, we can still celebrate the game itself and the resilience it has shown en route to a comeback in 2021-22.Today, to cap two straight weeks of looking ahead to some of next […]

Duchess Park's Cole Laing. (Photo by Wilson Wong property of Wilson Wong 2021. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

B.C. boys Triple-A tip sheet: Here’s our look at 15 top rising seniors to watch as our 2021-22 hoops tip-off now officially on the clock!

Welcome back to our unofficial countdown to the start of the 2021-22 B.C. senior boys basketball season.In a normal year, we would all have our eyes trained on the Langley Events Centre for Final Four Friday.Instead, our first cancelled provincials leaves us looking for more.Today, Varsity Letters is honoured to present its list of 15 […]

King George's Max Astak is a player to watch in 2020-21. (Photo by Wilson Wong property of Wilson Wong 2021. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

Part 1: B.C. Boys Basketball Players to Watch in 2021-22! Double-A, Single A plus rising Grade 11 talent at Quad-, Triple- and Double-A tiers!

Today, with three more official days official pondering remaining in a 2020-21 B.C. senior boys basketball season that wasn’t, we begin a three-day countdown of sorts.From today through Saturday, Varsity Letters will reveal  the Players to Watch in 2021-22 with our back-to-back-to-back tip sheets, compiled by a committee of B.C. Boys High School Basketball Association coaches, […]

North Vancouver's Robert Sacre has returned from an NBA and international playing career to begin his foray into basketball management with the CEBL's Fraser Valley Bandits. (Photo by David Sherman/NBAE via Getty Images)
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Robert Sacre: Energized by his Gonzaga/Lakers past, Fraser Valley Bandits’ new assistant GM makes a hoops homecoming!

He attended Vancouver Grizzlies games as a kid, then went on to play in the NBA for the Los Angeles Lakers.And through it all, it’s hard to think of anyone who has more passionately repped B.C.’s Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley regions as rightful professional basketball territory than Robert Sacre.With all of that in mind, […]

In 1972, Steve Pettifer worked out in the Langara Gym for an audience which included then-national team head coach Jack Donohue. (Photo courtesy Steve Pettifer)
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VL Podcast 03.03.21: Centennial’s Steve Pettifer reflects on playing days at SFU and UBC, and a 40-year high school coaching career!

Welcome to the Varsity Letters podcast. There is no better time than this week, one traditionally reserved for the B.C. senior girls basketball championships, to catch up with former Centennial head coach Steve Pettifer, who in the last 1980s, led the Centaurs to five straight provincial Final Fours, including a pair of titles. Pettifer, brought […]

Karn Dhillon (left) who has reffed in parts of the last six decades posed at KitsFest with the late Felix Gonzales. Dhillon eulogizes his friend, who passed suddenly this week, remembering him for his huge heart and his love for his family. (Photo by Tim Braund property of Tim Braund Photography 2021. All Rights Reserved)
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VL Podcast 02.24.21: Veteran referee Karn Dhillon, who reflects on the sudden passing of friend Felix Gonzalez, speaks to the tight-knit bond of BC’s hoops community

Welcome to the latest edition of the Varsity Letters podcast. Today we chat with longtime basketball referee Karn Dhillon on a variety of topics spanning a career that began not too soon after he graduated from Vancouver’s Sir Winston Churchill in the late 1970s. Dhillon also eulogizes his friend, longtime and well-loved referee Felix Gonzalez […]