After a redshirt transfer season in 2019 and the COVID-cancelled 2020 campaign, North Delta native Brittany Costa ends a near three-year drought from Canada West play this Friday when she captains the Fraser Valley Cascades at Rotary Stadium against the Victoria Vikes. (Photo by Dan Kinvig property of University of the Fraser Valley athletics 2021. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Women's Soccer

How long is 1,055 days? As Friday’s UFV soccer opener approaches, Cascades’ Brittany Costa reflects on wisdom gained over her near three-year Canada West drought!

ABBOTSFORD — Inform Brittany Costa just how long it’s been since she last played a meaningful soccer game, and the silence on the other end of the phone line speaks volumes.In her case, the waiting has indeed the hardest part.“It just feels like I have been training for so long that I don’t even know […]

They first met in 1993 at Trinity Western when Rob Giesbrecht (right) was a third-year player and Graham Roxburgh a first-year men's assistant coach. Twenty-eight years later, their friendship endures as the pair reunite for the 2021 Canada West season. (Photo by Scott Stewart property of Trinity Western athletics 2021. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Men's Soccer

TWU women’s soccer 2021: Seventeen years after an historic run to 2004 national title, Giesbrecht, Roxburgh re-unite Friday on Chase Field sidelines as Spartans open new season!

LANGLEY — Graham Roxburgh and Rob Giesbrecht first met on the practice pitch at Trinity Western University more than a quarter-century ago.And ever since crossing paths in their early 20’s, they’ve not only worked together, they’ve just spent the past decade scheming against each other.Along their parallel journeys, the pair formed a bond as soccer […]

Displaying the gold medal she was awarded for her remote role with the Canadian women's soccer team is Fraser Valley Cascades striker Sarah Parker, a Surrey native and former graduate of Lord Tweedsmuir Secondary School. FIFA honoured Parker for her role in video creation for the Canadian women's soccer team on its run to gold at Tokyo 2020. (Photo by Dan Kinvig property of University of the Fraser Valley athletics 2021. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Women's Soccer

A Sunday Read: How the camera eye of UFV’s Sarah Parker helped Canadian women’s soccer capture a golden moment in time!

ABBOTSFORD — For about as long as she can remember, Sarah Parker has felt a calling to capture moments in time.Whether as still life or moving pictures, she very quickly understood the effect images could have on the imagination, and how later, as an elite-level U Sports soccer player, the inspirational power they carried.“I love […]

Since graduating from Vancouver's Prince of Wales Secondary in 2016, Sadie Wilson has travelled a long volleyball road, including a stop at Vancouver Island University (above) before finally arriving in Abbotsford with the Fraser Valley Cascades. (Photo by Northfield Photography provided courtesy VIU Athletics 2021. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Volleyball University Women's Volleyball

A Sunday Read: Sadie Wilson’s winding road to the front row signals spike in fortunes as UFV’s volleyball Cascades prep for 2021-22 Canada West debut!

ABBOTSFORD — After years of waiting, Sadie Wilson’s inner volleyball radar is picking up the pulses of positivity.Or perhaps it’s more accurate to say, speaking in the language of her sport, that the 6-foot-1 right-side hitter is sensing a long-anticipated spike in her fortunes.To her, such peaks are welcome, especially when viewed against all of […]

G.W. Graham's 6-foot-2 forward Julia Tuchscherer (left) will graduate a year ahead of schedule and join her dad Al and older sister Deanna with the Fraser Valley Cascades next season. (Photo by Wilson Wong property of Wilson Wong photography 2021. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Basketball University Women's Basketball

Post-marked UFV: How GWG Grizzlies’ Grade 11 post Julia Tuchscherer will pivot into the paint with U Sports’ Cascades next season!

ABBOTSFORD — For about as long as Julia Tuchscherer can remember, she’s had a knack for making all of the numbers add up.She’s even done it in these challenging times, heading down the home stretch of her Grade 11 year at Chilliwack’s G.W. Graham Secondary with a 4.0 grade point average within a core of […]

Anthony Luyken and his daughter Aieisha. (Photo by Dan Kinvig property of UFV athletics 2021. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Basketball University Women's Basketball

The Luyken Legacy: For UFV’s father-daughter duo of Anthony & Aieisha, building community through basketball is a lifelong calling!

ABBOTSFORD — Anthony and Aieisha Luyken are a father and daughter with a most special tie to the sport of basketball.Today, Varsity Letters is happy to help share, through the efforts of one of our founding partners, the Fraser Valley Cascades, the story of their incredible, life-defining love affair with the sport and its impact […]

Fraser Valley Cascades' guard Jordyn Sekhon has remained ready for his big opportunity at the U SPORTS level. Until the pandemic hit, many felt that breakthrough was going to happen in 2020-21. Now, the former W.J. Mouat grad is counting the days until next season tips off. (Photo by Dan Kinvig property of University of the Fraser Valley athletics 2021. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball University Men's Basketball

A Sunday Read: After making the biggest shot of his life, UFV Cascades’ guard Jordyn Sekhon reflects on the power of preparation!

It was the late, great John Wooden who once quipped: “When opportunity comes, it’s too late to prepare.”Delivered a full half-century ago, in an era where catchphrases weren’t so immediately fated to become commercialized cliches, the wise words of the Wizard of Westwood have retained a dignity and a depth of meaning so instantly relevant […]

Fraser Valley Cascades' Tripat Sandhu may not be ending her U SPORTS soccer career the way she wanted, yet on the heels of a COVID-19 cancelled season, the Abbotsford scholar/athlete is leaving a most unique legacy within her school's program. (Photo by Dan Kinvig property of University of the Fraser Valley athletics 2021. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Women's Soccer

UFV’s Tripat Sandhu: Even in a season lost to pandemic, Cascades’ soccer visionary shows us all what it takes to be a true MVP!

ABBOTSFORD — The official records will tell you, that in the history of Canadian university sport, the 2020-21 season simply did not exist.Whistles were not blown. Eligibility was not taken. Games were not played.Yet despite the bottom-line realities of COVID-19, there was, thankfully, nothing stopping this country’s student-athletes from still being students.In honour of today’s […]

The pandemic may have scrubbed the 2020 B.C. senior girls volleyball season, but nothing can stop the Varsity Letters annual B.C. Super 15 poll. Among this season's top players are (left to right) Kelowna Owls' Anya Pemberton and Madison Shanks, Sydney Wright of Surrey's Lord Tweedsmuir Panthers, Madison Gardner of Vernon's W.L. Seaton Sonics and Eva Person of Victoria's Stelly's Stingers. (Photo by Paul Yates property of Vancouver Sports Pictures 2020. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Volleyball

Our 12th annual edition: Who are B.C.’s Top 15 Grade 12 girls volleyball players? Check out our 2020-21 Dream Team!

LANGLEY — Way back in December of 2009, when UBC Thunderbirds’ head coach Doug Reimer floated an idea past me to honour the best girls and boys high school volleyball players in B.C. on an annual basis, little did either of us know that a dozen years later, the concept would be as fresh today […]

MEI's Hunter Arulpragasam was the fastest rising talent in B.C. boys high school volleyball. Check out where the Eagles' senior finished in our annual coaches poll of the province's best boys senior talent. (Photos by Paul Yates and Jon Hayduk property of Vancouver Sports Pictures 2020. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Volleyball

Our 12th annual edition: Who are B.C.’s Top 15 Grade 12 boys volleyball players? Check out our 2020-21 Dream Team!

It’s Year No. 12 for the Varsity Letters’ B.C. boys Super 15 senior boys volleyball player rankings.Once again, our sincere thanks go out to the head coaches of four B.C. men’s Canada West volleyball programs who cast their votes from a pool of this province’s top graduating Grade 12 talent.COVID-19’s appearance on the scene could […]