Mt. Douglas' two graduating seniors Becca Pettigrew (left) and Lucy Millam share a moment with Rams' coach Derek Horton after winning the B.C. Triple A title on Saturday. It was coronation day three years in the making. (Photo property of Mt. Douglas athletics 2021. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Volleyball

After three years of climbing the mountain, Mt. Douglas Rams top Seaton Sonics to reach the peak at B.C. Triple-A senior girls volleyball champs!

OK, so this championship title thing isn’t easy?Four seasons ago, after an unexpected upset loss in its junior zone championship tournament, Mt. Douglas Rams girls volleyball coach Derek Horton remembers taking his heartbroken team aside and telling them that their time would come.“I don’t consider myself a big speech guy, but I just said to […]

Sir Winston Churchill's Marah Dykstra brings her NCAA Div. 1-bound game to the LEC. The Bulldogs star is headed to Montana State next season. (Photo by Wilson Wong property of Wilson Wong 2021. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Basketball

TBI Girls Hoops 2021: How do you re-schedule an 18-team tourney? Here’s our new draw with a Tsumura ‘message of thanks’ to all players and coaches!

LANGLEY — All teams talk about their journey.In 2021, the girls Tsumura Basketball Invitational has got a story to tell as well.From our own cancelled 2020 tournament, we re-invited the entire field to join us in ’21.A huge number of teams were able to say ‘yes’, but others, for various reasons, most heartbreakingly those with […]

Terry Fox point guard Cerys Merton and the Ravens, second in 2019-20, open as Quad-A's team to beat in 2021-22. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Basketball

B.C. Girls Top 10 preseason basketball rankings: Terry Fox, R.A. McMath, Langley Christian, Credo Christian plus Fleetwood JV’s top the polls ahead of 2021-22 tip-off!

LANGLEY — A cancelled season makes the task of putting together pre-season rankings in any sport especially tough, so our thanks to everyone at the B.C. Secondary Schools Girls Basketball Association for taking a deep dive into all of the rosters to present our 2021-22 B.C. senior and juniors girls basketball Top 10 preseason rankings.Fingers […]

B.C. boys and girls high school basketball, originally set to resume on Nov. 29, has now been moved to Dec. 1 by B.C. School Sports. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2020. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball High School Girls Basketball

B.C. boys and girls high school basketball has its tip-off delayed by at least two days following latest BCSS ruling!

LANGLEY — If you’ve got plans to be playing in, coaching, watching or officiating a B.C. high school basketball game over the first two days of the season, you may have to cool your sneakers for a couple of days.B.C. School Sports announced late Wednesday that the start of the winter season of play has […]

We're looking for one more senior girls basketball team to play in the 10th annual Tsumura Basketball Invitational Dec. 15-18 at the Langley Events Centre. (Wilson Wong photo property of Wilson Wong 2021. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Basketball

Attention B.C. senior girls basketball coaches! We’re looking for one team to complete our 20-team field at the Tsumura Basketball Invitational!

LANGLEY — Greetings B.C. high school senior girls basketball head coaches!We are short one team for our 10th annual Tsumura Basketball Invitational tournament set to run Dec. 15-18 at the home of the B.C. championships: The Langley Events Centre.I have been empowered by the tournament committee of the TBI to accept the names of any […]

Feature High School Girls Basketball

Girls TBI 2021: Our Dec. 15-18 draw unveils Terry Fox, Kelowna, Riverside, Langley Christian among our headline field!

LANGLEY — Hello high school girls basketball fans!We’ve done a lot of waiting since we all last gathered at the home of B.C. high school basketball back in March of 2020.Today, precisely two weeks ahead of the official start of the 2021-22 season, it’s time to celebrate the return of our great game.And with that?From […]

Hailey Counsell's third season of play with the UBC Thunderbirds will sees her ascend to the biggest role of her U SPORTS career as one of the team's acknowledged veteran players. (Photo by Richard Lam property of UBC athletics 2021. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Women's Basketball

UBC women’s hoops 2021-22: War Gym a land of opportunity as youthful, untested ‘Birds open post-Huband era Thursday vs. TWU Spartans!

VANCOUVER — Its veterans are staring opportunity square in the face, and its rookies are going to get a chance to show early all it is that they are capable of becoming,It’s not the simplest of tasks to quantify just how different the first UBC Thunderbirds women’s basketball team of the post-Deb Huband era will […]

Trinity Western point guard Kianna Wiens is part of a four-player core from the 2019-20 season which takes to the floor for the Spartans' home opener Thursday night against the Winnipeg Wesmen at the Langley Events Centre. (Photo by Scott Stewart property of TWU athletics 2021. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Women's Basketball

TWU women’s hoops 2021-22: Spartans’ veteran core excited to push the re-start button in home-opener vs. blue-chip Winnpeg Wesmen!

LANGLEY — Ask university coaches across the country what the search for cohesion, chemistry and identity within their rosters has been like coming off the COVID-cancelled 2020-21 season, and while each will have their own way of describing the challenges, all are delivered along the same thematic road of putting all the pieces back together […]

Trinity Western freshman guard Shemaiah Abatayo was forced to hit the court running this season after six straight months of COVID lockdown in the Philippines kept her out of B.C. from March through August. (Photo by Mark Janzen property of Trinity Western athletics 2021. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Basketball University Women's Basketball

Shemaiah Abatayo: As Trinity Western’s ‘rookie’ guard preps for a hopeful 2021-22 re-start, she dishes on six months of COVID-forced lockdown in the Philippines!

LANGLEY — Shemaiah Abatayo, like the rest of Canada’s hard-luck Class of 2020 university freshmen recruits, will get a second chance to make a rookie impression when U Sports basketball courts flash their figurative green lights this coming fall.Nothing could have beaten the on-court experience that a 2020-21 Canada West season would have provided Abatayo […]

Jayden White of the Yale Lions has overcome the odds to rebound from injury and find a place next season at the University of Alberta. In Edmonton, she will play hoops, major in education and continue her studies in American Sign Language. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of Varsity Letters 2021. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Basketball University Women's Basketball

Jayden White: Special signs along the way speak the truth of compassion, tenacity Yale Lions forward carries to Alberta Pandas!

ABBOTSFORD — Ask Jayden White what it means for her to have walked the walk through a star-crossed high school basketball career, and she’ll show you this photo of the inside of a Gatorade bottle cap containing the bone chips surgeons extricated from her knee back in 10th grade.“The biggest one is the size of […]