Back in 1981, SFU opened its season in Idaho against the Vandals with a young Jay Prepchuk at quarterback. On Saturday, exactly 40 years to the weekend, SFU will open in 2021 campaign statside against the very same team, this time with Prepchuk serving as the program's new quarterbacks coach. (Photo property SFU athletics 2021. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Football

Forty years after starting at quarterback in SFU’s 1981 season-opener at Idaho, new QB coach Jay Prepchuk helps his alma mater go back to the future on Saturday!

BURNABY MOUNTAIN — Jay Prepchuk turned 60 on Sunday, but he has spent a lot of his time channeling his former 20-year-old self this week.Prepchuk, Simon Fraser’s first-year quarterbacks coach, is of course the school’s former record-setting quarterback from the early 1980s, a homegrown North Vancouver-Handsworth product who left the school having set virtually every […]

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 […]

SFU head coach Mike Rigell has listened and learned at every stop along his coaching journey. (Photo by Paul Yates property of Vancouver Sports Pictures 2021. All Rights Reserved)
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VL Podcast 01.20.21: Simon Fraser head coach Mike Rigell on his football journey from BYU to the sidelines of Terry Fox Field!

LANGLEY — From a college football career at Brigham Young University to an NFL coaching internship under Andy Reid and Eric Bieniemy with the Kansas City Chiefs, Mike Rigell has travelled a long and winding road on his journey to becoming the head coach of Simon Fraser University football. Today, Coach Rigell joins the Varsity […]

Simon Fraser linebacker Griffin Barrett, a weight-room disciple, saw his discipline pay off last season after leading the Great Northwest Athletic Conference in tackles. Griffin and SFU football kick off their inaugural fund-raising Lift-a-Thon this Monday. (Photo by Paul Yates property of SFU athletics 2020. All Rights Reserved)
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A football team’s lifting experience: Why the culture of Simon Fraser’s Lift-a-Thon is worth its weight in gold!

BURNABY — The Simon Fraser football team has already shown how adept it is at carrying the weight of disappointment that comes with a COVID-19-cancelled college football season.Now, over the course of a five-day run beginning Monday, the NCAA’s lone non-U.S. team will be demonstrating the best ways in which they have collectively lifted each […]

Former SFU running back Bo Palmer (left) and former UBC quarterback Billy Greene (right) will not only talk about their best football memories and their lives after the game during a two-part Varsity Letters-The Podcast series set to begin Monday, each will also reflect on playing in the last contested Shrum Bowl back in 2010, and how much the rivalry game needs to come back following the pandemic. (Photos by SFU and UBC athletics 2020. All Rights Reserved)
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VL Podcast series debuts Monday: UBC’s Billy Greene, SFU’s Bo Palmer on Shrum Bowl’s 10-year absence and their own lives in and out of football!

LANGLEY — Plans for the resumption of the best football rivalry game in the province of B.C. were not actively underway when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March.Put it all together, and the fall of 2020 marks the 10th straight season that the Shrum Bowl, that formerly annual crosstown clash between Simon Fraser and UBC, […]

His eyes trained down the field, late Simon Fraser quarterback Bernd Dittrich is captured in an iconic pose. It's now been a decade-plus since the Austrian native passed away at the tender age of 21. His memory lives on through a scholarship endowment fund put in place by the SFU Football Alumni Association. (Photo by Ron Hole property of Simon Fraser athletics 2020. All Rights Reserved)
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Simon Fraser’s Bernd Dittrich: A decade-plus after the iconic quarterback’s passing, a former teammate pays homage to his remarkable spirit and courage

ABBOTSFORD — Mathis Baumbach remembers how he never felt like a stranger in the summer of 2008, even though he had flown halfway around the world from Germany to join his new teammates on the Simon Fraser University football team.And all of that was due to the presence of one of the most iconic athletes […]

Simon Fraser football hit the turf Wednesday, opening up with its first on-field session of the fall under new head coach Mike Rigell. The school's new football fieldhouse complex on Terry Fox Field, nearing completion atop Burnaby Mountain, can be seen in the background. (Photo by Jacob Hall property of Simon Fraser athletics 2020. All Rights Reserved)
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No games for Simon Fraser football, but “…it’s like bricks off our shoulders” says SFU coach Mike Rigell of team’s return to Terry Fox Field

BURNABY — A new head coach, a new stadium, a pending new nickname, and of course, in these times of global pandemic, a new reality of uncertainty in the world of collegiate athletics.

UBC Thunderbirds head coach Blake Nill feels that if given a safe environment with which to play, that 2020 could be the year that the Shrum Bowl returns after a 10 year absence. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2020. All Rights Reserved)
Terry Fox's Jaden Severy (right, 23) rushed for 274 yards and three touchdowns back in November of 2018, during the early stages of a Subway Bowl playoff win over Carson Graham played at Simon Fraser's own Terry Fox Field. Severy will suit up for the Clan in 2020. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2020. All Rights Reserved)
A study in determination over his entire four-year Clan career, SFU's Rysen John signed a contract with the NFL's New York Giants on Sunday. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2020. All Rights Reserved)
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Rysen John: The Simon Fraser Clan’s pass-catching giant inks contract, set to attend main training camp with the NFL’s New York Giants

BURNABY — Its three-day virtual draft had just ended Saturday afternoon when Rysen John found out that even in these times of global pandemic, nothing has slowed NFL teams from reaching out and finding the best college football talent around.“After the last pick of the draft, I was like, ‘OK, cool,’” said John, the Simon […]