Yale's Bradley Braich is bravely speaking out about his battle with mental illness. (Varsity Letters photo by Howard Tsumura)
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Bradley Braich: Yale’s star guard won’t hide from mental illness, wants to help others avoid his nightmare journey

ABBOTSFORD —He was born into a sport where, during solitary jump-shooting drills, finding a stretch of perfection was not entirely impossible. Yet when held to a standard that existed only in his mind, it became an act which on too many days proved agonizingly unattainable.

Reppin' his jersey number with pride, Tupper's Gaurab Acharya has knocked down 101 treys already this season. (Varsity Letters photo by Howard Tsumura)
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One tough Tiger: Over a season of adversity, Tupper’s compact Gaurab Acharya thinks big, plays even bigger

VANCOUVER — Jeff Gourley, like so many of our province’s veteran high school basketball coaches, is often asked the question that centres around the ‘R’ word.

Gurlal Mann and the rest of the defending B.C. Triple A champion Rick Hansen Hurricanes of Abbotsford are making a late run among the provincial elite. (Varsity Letters photo by Howard Tsumura)
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02.14.18 Valentine’s Day edition: B.C. boys Big 10 high school rankings for all four tiers, plus their preseason ranks

LANGLEY — The countdown from Valentine’s Day to tip off at the 2018 B.C. boys high school basketball championships at the Langley Events Centre hit precisely 21 days at 8:30 this morning. Can you wait?

Both the Kelowna Owls and WJ Mouat Hawks are teams deserving of spots in the B.C. AAAA top 10 rankings, but incredible parity and a glut of teams makes it impossible to include everyone. (Varsity letters photo by Howard Tsumura)
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B.C. boys Big 10 basketball rankings 02.07.18 edition: All four tiers check in, Quad-A jockeying continues

LANGLEY — We’ve got all four tiers of B.C. senior boys basketball checking in with new Big 10 rankings this week. In many precincts, the playoffs have arrived and in all the rest, it’s down to the nitty gritty of league play.

Semiahmoo Totems head coach Ed Lefurgy met Adam Paige (left) and Vlad Mihaila on the same day six years ago, and the trio have seen eye-to-eye ever since. (Varsity Letters photo by Howard Tsumura)
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Vlad and Adam: How two senior Totems passed a special eye-test and helped lift Semiahmoo hoops to B.C. elite status

SURREY — In these days of wireless hi-tech everything, there is something about the telekinetic link between Adam Paige and Vlad Mihaila which makes you want to call them Bluetooth basketball brothers.

W.J. Mouat senior point guard Sukhi Kang is stepping up as a much-needed leader for the Hawks. (Varsity Letters photo by Howard Tsumura)
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It’s Hawk-talk time: W.J. Mouat’s battle-tested, senior-laden birds of prey are worthy of March chatter

ABBOTSFORD — Study the resume of Abbotsford’s W.J. Mouat Hawks, then project it against those of the rest of B.C.’s best AAAA senior boys basketball teams and you surely can’t argue with mantra they’ve had in place since the season tipped off back in late November.

South Kamloops' big man Ripley Martin, sporting the scars of an on-court battle last month in PoCo, has gone through a crash course in basketball fitness after a serious pre-season ankle injury. (Varsity Letters photo by Howard Tsumura)
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Ripley Martin: South Kam’s battle-scarred big man fights for his fitness as AAA Titans think big on road to the LEC

LANGLEY — If you happened to catch Ripley Martin with his teammates at the recent Legal Beagle Invitational at Port Coquitlam’s Terry Fox Secondary, just one look at his face would have told you that battle scars are all a part of the journey when your goal is to return to the B.C. AAA championship […]

Now a mainstay with his school's AAAA powerhouse at Burnaby South, Jiordano Khan (left) helped lead the Rebels to the the 2017 B.C. JV title at the Langley Events Centre last February. (Varsity Letters photo by Howard Tsumura)
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01.31.18 B.C. JV boys rankings: Rebels and Tigers, 2017 title combatants, resume familiar perch in latest poll

LANGLEY — The fourth B.C. junior boys basketball poll of the season, coming 24 days ahead of the B.C. championship tourney’s opening-day tip at the Langley Events Centre, finds the province’s powers keeping some faithful company.

Lord Tweedsmuir's senior point guard Dylan Kinley has learned to maximize the gifts he's been given and not harbour resentment for the ones he hasn't. (Varsity Letters photo by Howard Tsumura)
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Dylan Kinley: Dyslexia can’t stop Lord Tweedsmuir’s basketball star from writing his own story of hope and inspiration

SURREY — It takes but a second to step outside the box, and that’s what both Dylan Kinley and I are doing on a weekday afternoon, chatting about perception, reality and how, in the end, what matters most is the wiring between the heart and the brain.

From the classroom to the court, Rick Hansen head coach Steve Twele is inspiring his defending B.C. champion Hurricanes. (Photo through permission of Wilson Wong, UBC athletics)
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B.C. Triple A ranks get a Hurricane warning, yet Rick Hansen coach Twele forecasts parity on playoff horizon

ABBOTSFORD — Steve Twele has surveyed the landscape, and the head coach of Abbotsford’s defending B.C. Triple A champion Rick Hansen Hurricanes is confident that you can throw predictability out the window from here until the end of the Fraser Valley senior boys basketball championships on March 2.