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 […]
Tag: bc girls high school basketball
15 players to watch in 2021-22: B.C. girls basketball Double-A ranks filled with a class of rising senior talent
LANGLEY — Based on the tier’s senior Class of 2020, a group filled with as much dynamic talent as we’ve perhaps ever seen, the Double-A girls Class of 2o22 has a lot to live up to.Yet consider all of the senior varsity experience they have already accumulated and the betting money says they won’t disappoint.Day […]
Tsumura: Join me for the LEC’s Must-See-TV! Tune in Tuesday to Saturday for classic re-plays of B.C. senior girls, junior boys championship finals!
LANGLEY — Last season, observers labelled the 2020 B.C. junior boys championship final between St. Pat’s and Sir Winston Churchill one of the best high school basketball games they had ever seen… at any level.How about that classic, as well as a huge helping of some of the best recent B.C. senior girls basketball championship […]
Welcome to March Madness! Varsity Letters tips it all off Monday as we begin the four-day countdown of B.C.’s Top Girls Players to Watch in 2021-22!
Welcome to March Madness!While we all recognize our shared fortune in being able to complete last season’s 2019-20 B.C. boys and girls basketball championships just days ahead of the global pandemic’s arrival, there is, of course, the disappointing reality of having this season’s provincial tournaments cancelled.And although any kind of virtual celebration of our yearly […]
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 […]
A Sunday Read: The origin story of Victoria’s Sophie de Goede! At 21, Canada’s rising rugby superstar makes her mark with London’s Saracens
Last October, as she packed her rugby bags pre-flight for what was to be an extended overseas professional residency in the birthplace of her sport, Sophie de Goede made sure to leave a little room for the other half of her athletic alter-ego.“I brought my basketball shoes over, hoping that I would be able to […]
Tsumura Basketball Invitational: Optimism rules as we set tentative Dec. 2021 dates for an LEC return! Here’s our list of 40 boys and girls teams!
LANGLEY — Hope springs eternal here with all of us behind the scenes at the Tsumura Basketball Invitational.While our annual two weeks of early-season ‘Welcome Back’ to the B.C. senior boys and girls basketball world was, of course, cancelled this past December due to the global pandemic, we here at the TBI have our fingers […]
UBC’s Gabrielle Laguerta: Despite her battle scars and lost senior season, ‘Birds senior celebrates the silver lining of basketball’s shared experience
VANCOUVER —As Gabrielle Laguerta has gone about playing her role in the strangest year of our lives, UBC’s fifth-year senior guard has so often felt like an actor rehearsing her lines for a Broadway production she knows will never see the light of opening night.“I’ll come off a good practice where I’ve tried out this […]
VL Podcast 11.25.20: Canadian coaching great Allison McNeill reflects on a hoops life with stops at Oregon, Semiahmoo, Laurentian, SFU and more!
This week, the Varsity Letters podcast welcomes a giant in Canadian basketball circles. Allison McNeill has touched the stars at every level at which she has played or coached, and today we cover some of the facets of her basketball life that don’t get as much attention! But first, we will talk with Coach […]
Makenna Jacklin: She’s not just a post player! OKM’s 6-foot-1 star works to extend game beyond arc ahead of NCAA D-1 career with Idaho Vandals
LANGLEY — If Makenna Jacklin has her druthers, the trajectory of her NCAA Div. 1 basketball career is going to follow a script similar to the one she so dramatically penned en route to helping her Okanagan Mission Huskies beat East Vancouver’s Britannia Bruins in the championship final of last December’s Tsumura Basketball Invitational at […]