With the O'Hagan Field scoreboard behind him telling the story, Vancouver College running back Tommy Carvalho finds the end zone against North Vancouver's Carson Graham Eagles for the first scoring play of not only a new season of B.C. high school football, but the first since the pandemic halted play across our province in all sports in March of 2020. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of Varsity Letters 2021. All Rights Reserved)
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Varsity Letters’ 09.02.21 B.C. High School Football Report ‘Welcome Back’ edition: No. 1 Fighting Irish top Carson in return-to-play game!

VANCOUVER — In the long history of B.C. high school sports, you won’t find an institution which honours its history, heritage and longevity with more aplomb than Vancouver College.With all of that in mind, as provincial inter-school competition took its first official steps since the beginning of the Covid lockdown in March of 2020 with […]

From a title in 2019 to a No. 1 ranking to start 2021, head coach Todd Bernett and Vancouver College maintain their spot atop the B.C. high school football world. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of Varsity Letters 2021. All Rights Reserved)
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Varsity Letters’ Big 5 Triple A high school football rankings: ‘Look up, look wayyy up’ at No. 1 Vancouver College and No. 2 Mt. Douglas!

LANGLEY — Back in the late 1960s, at my home in a rural part of North Delta, I’d watch a kid’s show on the CBC called ‘The Friendly Giant’ in which the title character, made to look larger than life by a simple upwards camera pan, would ask his young viewers to ‘Look up… wayyyy […]

Vernon head coach Sean Smith has his AA team ranked No. 1 in Varsity Letters' Big 5 preseason coaches poll. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.com 2021. All Rights Reserved)
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Our countdown to kick-off begins! Varsity Letter’s Big 5 B.C. High School Football preseason AA rankings have arrived!

In anticipation of a return to play on the high school football fields this fall, we’ve returned with the first of Varsity’s Letter’s own back-to-back preseason B.C. Big 5 rankings.Today, we will start with the AA ranks, with the AAA to follow in the coming days.Three games are scheduled in the Week 0 window Sept. […]

Simon Fraser returning quarterbacks Justin Seiber (left) and Brandon Niksich are setting a tone of togetherness as they battle it out for the GNAC team's starting quarterback job. (Photos by Howard Tsumura property of Varsity Letters 2021. All Rights Reserved)
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SFU Football 2021: In its return-to-play GNAC season, classy duelling QB-1s Seiber and Niksich keep shared focus on team fortunes!

BURNABY MOUNTAIN — It’s a vast understatement to say that a lot has happened since the last time the football team at Simon Fraser University found itself in the day-to-day preparations associated with the run-up to a season-opening game.It’s also the best way to set the scene for the NCAA’s only non-U.S. school, which as […]

Designed by Kwantlen First Nations artist Brandon Gabriel and muralist Dean Lauzé, the new Thunderbirds team logo opens a new chapter of student-athlete life at Langley Secondary School. (Logo property Langley Secondary School 2021. All Rights Reserved)
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A nickname that stands for inclusivity: Langley Thunderbirds strive to represent school’s own ‘diverse huddle’ heading into Sept. 10 opener vs. Mission!

There’s somewhere north of a few thousand new stories set to be written this coming September when, as prevailing hope and logic suggest, the heartbeat of the B.C. high school sports world rediscovers its healthy pulse following what will have been 18 straight months of silence.And wherever you may care to start, the high school […]

Connecting with players and a creating a connected culture between the program and its community was a founding principle of outgoing Hyacks head coach Farhan Lalji. (Photo by Alan Wardle property of New Westminster Hyacks football 2021. All Rights Reserved)
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Farhan Lalji: As the New West Hyacks’ football founder bids adieu, his charter words from 2003 continue to speak an essential & universal truth!

“One of the parents of a player came up to me and said, ‘You’ve basically given my son his life back because this has helped motivate him in so many other areas.’ I don’t take myself seriously enough to think that it’s because of me, but it is because of this whole package that we’ve […]

Terrell Jana of the Virginia Cavaliers brings a pair of sure hands to the CFL next season with the Saskatchewan Roughriders. (Photo by Matt Riley property of University of Virginia media relations 2021. All Rights Reserved)
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CFL Draft 2021: A true purist’s receiver, STM grad Jana puts his hands to an ‘instrumental’ test as he prepares for rookie season with ‘Riders!

As a budding musician, Terrell Jana has discovered that striking a chord or two has not only helped relax his mind, but keep his hands dexterous and strong in his endless pursuit of catching the football.Taken on the whole, it’s just another example of the purist’s approach the Burnaby native and Virginia Cavaliers receiver will […]

South Delta's Grant McDonald is moving from the Calgary Dinos to a CFL career in Edmonton. (Photo by David Moll property of Calgary Dinos athletics 2021. All Rights Reserved)
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CFL Draft 2021: For South Delta’s LB duo of McDonald & Moore its Subway Bowl, Vanier Cup and now, separate CFL futures!

At the time, the 2014 edition of the Subway Bowl B.C. high school Triple A champion South Delta Sun Devils showed all the signs of being a very unflappable football team.Of course, with 20/20 hindsight playing in the rearview mirror, a fast-forward to the events of Tuesday night may actually have unfolded without too much […]

A target to rely on, Virginia receiver Terrell Jana's laser focus made him one of the most sure-handed receivers in all of college football the past two seasons. (Photo by Pete Emerson property of University of Virginia media relations 2021. All Rights Reserved)
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STMC’s Terrell Jana: As draft week arrives, sure-handed Virginia receiver leaves a legacy as a giver en route to his pro football future!

He has helping hands.That’s the best way to describe, in both the literal and figurative sense, the essence of Terrell Jana, who on the eve of both the NFL and CFL drafts, is every bit as much a giver as he is as receiver, and that’s saying a lot when you’re talking about a guy […]

Saskatchewan Huskies' Nelson Lokombo (left), the former W.J. Mouat Hawk, and U SPORTS' 2019 Defensive Player of the Year, is being touted among the top players in the upcoming CFL draft. (Photo property of Saskatchewan Huskies athletics 2021. All Rights Reserved)
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W.J. Mouat’s Nelson Lokombo: Why a position switch “switched” his perspective and elevated Saskatchewan Huskies’ star DB in eyes of CFL scouts!

He’d enjoyed a Canadian Football Hall of Fame career along the offensive line of the Montreal Alouettes, and now, a few years after returning to his alma mater to begin a new one along the sidelines, he was being elevated to the role of head coach of the Saskatchewan Huskies.Yet as Scott Flory is the […]