Your author, presenting with pride, the MVP trophy at the 2015 Tsumura Basketball Invitational, to McMath Wildcats' Jessica Jones. (Photo by Wilson Wong 2015 All Rights Reserved)
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A message from Howard: After 40 years, I’ll bring a new writing direction to Varsity Letters for the 2022-23 high school and university sports season!

NORTH DELTA –  Heartfelt greetings to all of you, my loyal, longtime readers.It’s been five months since I decided to take a break from my writing life.As was the goal from the very start, my decision to take sabbatical after 40 years of daily practice — first from my typewriter, and of course later, in […]

By whatever new name B.C.'s high school football championships come to be known by, the emotion of its players will remain the same. In what is now the final Subway Bowl season on record, G.W. Graham's Theo Smith (2) and Colton Mocon found reason to celebrate a championship this past December at B.C. Place Stadium. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of Varsity Letters 2021. All Rights Reserved)
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Saying ‘good-bye’ to Subway Bowl! After 20 years, B.C.’s high school football championships ready to embrace a new title sponsor!

VANCOUVER — It had one of the best names ever… you know, one of those names which so quickly became unforgettable, earning a place in our sports vernacular so accepted that we never, ever considered its eventual demise.Yet now, after two decades at the centre of most every conversation about high school football in this […]

B.C. high school football saw a big gain in player registration but also a steep decline in its coaching numbers. Is this the new normal? (Photo by Blair Shier property of Blair.photo 2021. All Rights Reserved)
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Why B.C. high school football’s latest numbers might just be the first barometre of the new normal in our provincial high school sports world!

VANCOUVER — Set against the unpredictable backdrop of a pandemic now just weeks shy of its second birthday in this province, no one can yet fully define what the so-called new normal in B.C. high school sports is going to look like.B.C. high school football, however, released numbers earlier this week which may well provide […]

Celebrating a title are G.W. Graham's Theo Smith (2) and Colton Mocon during Saturday's 2021 Subway Bowl B.C. AAA Coastal championship final at B.C. Place Stadium. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of Varsity Letters 2021. All Rights Reserved)
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Subway Bowl 2021 gets its fitting finale! G.W. Graham Grizzlies edge Terry Fox Ravens 36-33 as BC high school football closes out a sizzling playoff season!

VANCOUVER — It happened somewhere around the time that Tyson Kelly picked up a bad point-after snap and ran it into the end zone for a two-point convert.Midway through the first quarter of Saturday’s Subway Bowl B.C. AAA Coastal final, Kelly and the rest of Chilliwack’s G.W. Graham Grizzlies had answered a game-opening touchdown drive […]

Carson Graham's Ashton Fink is all focus as he hauls in a touchdown pass from quarterback Logan Mellish with Bateman's Braeden Tuchscherer defending. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of Varsity Letters 2021. All Rights Reserved)
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Carson Graham mounts goal-line stand in OT, and in an epic Subway Bowl AA win over Robert Bateman it’s the fraction which decides a battle for the ages!

VANCOUVER — The longest yard.That’s what it came down to Saturday night at B.C. Place Stadium as the football gods pitted two incredibly talented and evenly-matched teams in a battle for the Subway Bowl B.C. Double A Coastal championship title.In a game that went to overtime, North Vancouver’s Carson Graham Eagles got a goal-line stand […]

St. Thomas More's Sebastian Gorrie sacks Vancouver College quarterback Finn Teasdale, forcing the Irish to kick a short field late in the third quarter of Subway Bowl B.C. AAA Coastal junior varsity final. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of Varsity Letters 2021. All Rights Reserved)
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Coach Dave Ruzycki gets a hero’s send-off! STM coach ends 20-year career with Subway Bowl B.C. junior AAA Coastal title after win over Fighting Irish!

VANCOUVER — The championship photo had been taken under the goal posts at B.C. Place Stadium on Saturday, and that’s when St. Thomas More’s Subway Bowl B.C. junior AAA Coastal championship final was official.Wait, not until virtually every player on the squad came over to offer a hug to the Knights’ longtime head coach Dave […]

Carson Graham's Ethan Samuels slows John Barsby's Kai Rednour-Bruckman during Subway Bowl AA JV Coastal final Saturday at BC Place. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of Varsity Letters 2021. All Rights Reserved)
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Key fourth-quarter plays lift Bulldogs past Eagles, John Barsby gets all it can handle from Carson Graham in Subway Bowl AA JV Coastal finale!

VANCOUVER — It was a game filled with enough highlight-reel scoring plays to stuff an entire season-long hype video.But in the end, two huge plays wound up being the difference as Nanaimo’s John Barsby Bulldogs outscored the Carson Graham Eagles of North Vancouver 34-28 to capture the Subway Bowl B.C. AA junior varsity Coastal championship […]

Kelowna running back Jack Nyrose celebrates his third quarter touchdown which, after the point-after, held as the winning margin in the Owls 21-20 Subway Bowl win over Vernon. (Photo by April Anderson property of A-Game Photography 2021. All Rights Reserved)
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Kelowna holds on to edge Vernon, Owls’ last-second tackle thwarts Panthers in dramatic 21-20 Interior/Subway Bowl final!

VERNON — The Kelowna defence came up with their play of the year to end their season on Friday, and it was a team tackle which lifted the Owls to a 21-20 win over the Vernon Panthers for the Subway Bowl B.C. Interior/Northern championship title.Trailing 21-14 with 1:17 to go in the fourth quarter, Panthers’ […]

The 2021-22 B.C. high school sports season opened this past Sept. 2 with its first event in 18 months. On that day, Carson Graham head coach Brian Brady addressed his team before a game at Vancouver College. On Saturday, the Eagles close out the campaign by playing in the Subway Bowl AA Coastal final at BC Place against Abbotsford's Robert Bateman Timberwolves. (Photo by Blair Shier property of Blair.photo 2021. All Rights Reserved)
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Football to the power of two: Carson Graham builds strength in numbers as Eagles’ senior and junior teams, season-long practice mates, each vie Saturday for Subway Bowl AA titles!

NORTH VANCOUVER — Ask Brian Brady what all the buzz is about these days within the football program at Carson Graham Secondary, and the Eagles’ head coach can’t help but speak in the most literal sense possible.“We’re in the dome last week against Langley, it’s late in the game and the phone in my pocket […]

Brothers in arms, these two Robert Bateman football players, faces obscured in celebration, represent the true meaning of high school football to David Mills, the team's head coach. (Photo by Rick MacDonald Photography 2021. All Rights Reserved)
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A Bateman, ready for framing: In Subway Bowl’s championship week, here’s why this photograph stands for the true meaning of high school football!

VANCOUVER — It was a picture that made me feel good from the second I saw it.Perhaps, in the run up to this coming Saturday’s 4 p.m. Subway Bowl B.C. Double-A Coastal championship final between North Vancouver’s Carson Graham Eagles and Robert Bateman of Abbotsford, you saw it, too.In the photo, taken by Bateman team […]