West Vancouver's Max Fraser and the rest of the Highlanders are one of eight teams who were vying for three BC tourney berths out of the brutally-tough Vancouver Sea-to-Sky Quad-A zone as play was set to begin on Wednesday evening. (Photo by Blair Shier property of Blair.photo 2024. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

B.C. Boys Top 10 basketball rankings 02.21.24 edition: A bumper-crop season for Vancouver Sea-to-Sky Quads keeps the drama at high-alert levels in the run-up to March Madness!

LANGLEY — The Handsworth Royals 76-62 win over the West Vancouver Highlanders in last Thursday’s North Shore Quad-A final vaulted the North Vancouverites up the chart to No. 7 this week.Yet all of Vancouver Sea-to-Sky’s trap doors and tipping points continue to unfold in dramatic fashion as four the province’s Top 10 teams continue their […]

St. George's head coach Guy da Silva led his Saints to a pair of narrow wins and a resultant five-spot jump up the ladder of the latest B.C. Quad-A rankings issues Wednesday. Veteran St. George's basketball coach Guy da Silva has a teaching moment with his JV Saints on Saturday night in Langley. (Varsity Letters photo by Howard Tsumura 2022. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

B.C. Boys Top 10 basketball rankings 02.14.24 edition: Fast-rising Elgin Park Orcas, St. George’s Saints give boys Quad-A 10 Top 10 a new look!

LANGLEY — Vancouver’s St. George’s Saints and the Elgin Park Orcas of Surrey were the big climbers this week in the B.C. senior boys Quad-A Top 10 rankings.Saints proved their mettle in winning close at home and on the road against traditional rivals, beating St. Patrick’s at home 73-69 and then winning 85-84 last Thursday […]

Wellington's Grade 10 forward Grayson Ritzand is still just 15 years old, yet he's already scored 1,000 points at the senior varsity level. He's pictured dunking here during the 2023 Tsumura Basketball Invitational played this past December at the Langley Events Centre (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of Varsity Letters 2023. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

Grayson Ritzand: At age 15, here’s the origin story of Nanaimo-Wellington’s iron-pumping, semi-ambidextrous star Grade 10 forward who’s already surpassed the 1,000-point senior varsity scoring mark!

NANAIMO — Ask Grayson Ritzand to tell you the story of how he has become a chiseled, semi-ambidextrous senior varsity forward with level of maturity which seemingly overshadows even his own voluminous scoring average, and it almost seems like you’re privy to plot lines of some comic book super-hero origin story-in-the-making.That’s the feeling you get […]

Vancouver College's Roko Maric (right) and Finnley Lillis of Oak Bay met each other in the semi-finals of the 2022 B.C. junior boys championship semifinals. This season, a new group of Bays and a new group of Irish sit Nos. 2-3 in the final JV Top 10 of the season.. (Photo by Paul Yates property of Vancouver Sports Pictures 2022. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

BC Junior Boys Hoops Top 10: It’s 17 days and counting to championship tip-off at the LEC! Will form hold for an St. Pat’s vs. Oak Bay final? Let the madness begin as the chase for 32 berths is heating up!

LANGLEY — The B.C. junior boys basketball championships tip off on the final Saturday of February.That’s Feb. 24, or 17 days.Here’s the final Top 10 of the season as the official stretch drive to provincials is under way. Of note, only four ranked teams from last week survived the cut to remain in the final […]

Santa Margarita's Mason Hawker (left) guards Byrne Creek's Justin Pimintuan during opening day action from the 2023 Tsumura Basketball Invitational this past December at the Langley Events Centre. (Photo by Wilson Wong protected image 2023. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

B.C. Boys Top 10 basketball rankings 02.06.24 edition: Byrne Creek burns it up! Bulldogs take down St. Pat’s North Delta, Lord Byng to win Rick Hansen tourney and move into Triple-A No. 1!

LANGLEY — It was a relatively quiet week atop the upper reaches of the B.C. senior boys high school basketball world.Quiet, that is, unless you happen to be the Triple-A Byrne Creek Bulldogs.The Burnaby-based Bulldogs made about as definitive a late-season statement as is possible outside of league and zone playoffs, beating three straight ranked […]

Dover Bay's 6-foot-7 Grade 11 Frank Linder has helped his Dolphins claw back to No. 3 in the B.C. boys Triple-A rankings this week. (Photo by Wilson Wong 2023. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

B.C. Boys Top 10 basketball rankings 01.31.24 edition: Ready for March Madness? This week, 36 overall ranking slots change teams across four tiers of Top 10 polls! Parity runs rampant across the province!

LANGLEY — Absolute insanity.That’s the only way to describe how extreme parity has brought a fragile state of affairs to all four tiers of the B.C. senior boys basketball Top 10 rankings.How topsy-turvy did it get?From last week’s total of 43 overall Top 10 rankings slots (3A, 2A and 1A each featured ties for the […]

Back in 2019, en route to being named B.C. senior boys Quad-A MVP, Lord Tweedsmuir's Arjun Samra led his team to the provincial title. This week, Tweedy hoops sit at No. 4 in the most recent rankings, it's biggest share of the spotlight in almost five full seasons. (Photo by Wilson Wong copyright 2019. All rights reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

B.C. Boys Top 10 basketball rankings 01.24.24 edition: Tweed is back in fashion! Surrey’s Lord Tweedsmuir Panthers, unranked two weeks ago, top Tammy in RCMP final to grab Quad-A Top 4 poll position!

LANGLEY  — If you bought stock in the Lord Tweedsmuir Panthers a couple of weeks ago, you’ve been rewarded for your faith.Over a two-week span, Surrey’s formerly-unranked Panthers have rocketed skyward in the B.C. Quad-A Top 10, from No. 7 last week to now, No. 4 in the most recent provincial rankings.Lord Tweedsmuir edged former […]

A veteran's veteran, North Delta's Bill Edwards, serving as a consultant and assistant coach this season under head coach Jas Hothi, prowls the sidelines this past December at the 2023 Tsumura Basketball Invitational staged at the Langley Events Centre. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property Varsity Letters 2023. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

Bill Edwards Appreciation Night: “Once a Husky, always a Husky” seems custom-coined for one so steeped in North Delta hoops history! On Thursday, it’s time to say ‘Thank You, Bill’ to the Dean of the ‘Dawgs!

NORTH DELTA — If you had to identify his place on the family tree of North Delta Huskies boys basketball, you’d first start by imagining the mighty Oak.Then, you’d fix your stare on its weathered trunk.You know, that thick, strong and absolutely unflappable part of a tree, the place where it’s always thickest… the place […]

West Vancouver Highlanders' Max Fraser was selected tournament MVP after leading his team to the Terry Fox Legal Beagle championship title Saturday in Port Coquitlam. (Photo by Blair Shier property of Blair.photo 2024. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

Legal Beagle 2024: Led by its wrestling-themed Four Horsemen, West Vancouver Highlanders pull back-to-back-to-back wins out of the fire, then rise to No. 2 in latest Quad-A rankings!

PORT COQUITLAM — They’re named after a legendary stable of professional wrestlers ever assembled, and in a manner of speaking it’s actually very fitting because any time they’ve found themselves on the figurative ropes, a tag-team mentality has just seemed to take over.In a nutshell, that’s the best way to sum up the the quartet […]

Justin Hinrichsen of Victoria’s Spectrum Thunder during Tsumura Basketball Invitational 2023 this past December at the Langley Events Centre. The Thunder won last week’s Rich Goulet Chancellor Memorial at STM, and followed with a win over crosstown rival Oak Bay on Tuesday. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of Varsity Letters 2024. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

Rolling down their own Thunder Road: Behind its Hinrichsen-Felt-Helman power trio, Saanich’s Spectrum Thunder earn old-school respect as B.C.’s new No. 1-ranked Quad-A boys basketball team!

BURNABY — Is March Madness 2024 going to play out to the strains of Bruce Springsteen’s classic Thunder Road?Or perhaps that should be AC/DC’s power-chord bonanza known as Thunderstruck?As January does its usual fast-break towards February and the stretch drive to the B.C. senior boys basketball championships, its soundtrack has indeed been thunderous, as in […]