Holy Cross senior defensive end Uyi Ologhola prepares to sack Robert Bateman quarterback Ty Martens in a AA Eastern Conference clash played in late October in Surrey. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Football

Uyi Ologhola: Holy Cross’ menacing sack artist might be a Crusaders’ hoops star first, but wow, have you seen this kid in a helmet?

SURREY — Back in the spring of 2017, when he was still only a ninth grader but playing senior varsity basketball at Holy Cross in Surrey, Uyi Ologhola was showing himself to be a kid already capable of stunning athletic feats.That season, he put his Crusaders’ teammates on his back in the B.C. Quad-A quarterfinals, […]

Feature High School Boys Basketball

TSUMURA BASKETBALL INVITATIONAL 2019: Your complete boys draw to the 20-team, four-day (Dec. 4-7) LEC hoops extravaganza!

LANGLEY — We’ve grown to 20 teams this season.The 2019 Tsumura Basketball Invitational will run Dec. 4-7 at the Langley Events Centre.Day 1 featured a new, eight-team opening round with the winners plugging into Day 2’s  16-team draw.Final Four Friday will be followed by championship Saturday as the best boys Quad-A and Triple-A teams take […]

Feature Podcast

The VL podcast for 11.06.19 welcomes VC Irish football’s Todd Bernett, DC Royals hoops coach Joe Enevoldson & Tupper hoops guru Jeff Gourley

Welcome to November! The 11th month means playoff football and the start of the basketball season, and our line-up of guests reflects just that. Vancouver College Fighting Irish head coach Todd Bernett stops by to break down his team’s incredible defensive play this season ahead of its Subway Bowl opener Saturday at home to Rutland. […]

Feature Podcast

Varsity Letters PODCAST 10.09.19: SFU basketball’s Steve Hanson, Tweedsmuir football’s Kurt Thornton and Centennial basketball’s Rob Sollero

Thanks for joining us for another episode of Varsity Letters — The Podcast! Basketball season is just around the corner and with it, the start of another season of the NCAA variety atop Burnaby Mountain. Simon Fraser Clan head coach Steve Hanson has orchestrated one of the biggest turnarounds in college basketball over the past […]

Calvin Westbrook, head coach of Haida Gwaii's Gudangaay Tlaatis’gaa Nay senior boys basketball team cheers on his charges at last March's B.C. championships at the LEC. (Photo by Wilson Wong 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

Calvin Westbrook: How the record-setting G.P. Vanier & TWU guard found his coaching paradise amidst the remote splendour of Haida Gwaii

LANGLEY — It had been a long while since Calvin Westbrook had anything to do with a B.C. senior boys provincial basketball championship tournament. In fact you’d have to go back 13 years to find the last time.

Liam McChesney of the Charles Hays Rainmakers is headed to NCAA Div. 1 Utah State. (Photo by Wilson Wong property of UBC athletics 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball University Men's Basketball

Varsity Letters B.C. Recruits List 2019: Where 88 boys basketball prospects are headed this coming season

LANGLEY — Even over an offseason in which the majority of local university programs are not brining in big classes, there almost 100 names to note provincially in the world of high school-to-post-secondary men’s basketball. All told, that adds up to 182 names between our boys and girls lists, among the most we’ve ever had.

Flanked by teammates Josh Hamulas (left) and Austin Swedish, Lord Tweedsmuir senior guard Patrick Jonas met the crowd at December's TBI 2018 with a brave smile. (Photo property of Wilson Wong 2019. All rights reserve
Feature High School Boys Basketball University Men's Basketball

Patrick Jonas: Despite his wounded knee, Tweedsmuir senior set a new ‘bench’ mark for leadership during championship season

LANGLEY — Patrick Jonas was such a bad shooter that his teammates called him Brick Squad. He was only in the eighth grade at the time, a stage at which the cloth we’re actually cut from is still unwoven.

North Delta's Brandon Bassi (left) saves a ball from going out of bounds against Byrne Creek's Titgol Jok during the St. Thomas More Chancellor Invitational in January of 2018. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2019. All Rights Reserved)
The words say it all. Former Yale basketball star Bradley Braich is shooting for new goals these days, including ending all of the stigmas surrounding mental illness. (Photo by Luke Ouellette property of Bigger Than Basketball 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

A Sunday Read: Why Bradley Braich counts his blessings and still celebrates the game through ‘Bigger Than Basketball’

ABBOTSFORD — It hasn’t even been 15 months since Bradley Braich delivered one of the most profoundly impactful messages I’ve received in almost 40 years as a reporter.Despite being just 17 years of age at the time, the direct message he sent me via Twitter was so heartfelt, a part of it which read: “Hey […]

Argyle's Gerial Larose (right) wraps suits up Wednesday at the North Shore all-star basketball game at Capilano University. (Photo by Wilson Wong 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball High School Girls Basketball

Capilano U hosts North Shore boys, girls all-star games as 2018-19 high school basketball season ends Wednesday

NORTH VANCOUVER — Capilano University’s Centre for Sport and Wellness will host on Wednesday what is surely the final event on the 2018-19 B.C. high school basketball calendar. The occasion?