A spot in the B.C. Top 10 is reason to clap! East Van's St. Patrick's Celtics have been a season-long staple at AA despite the fact they dropped three spots this week to No. 8. (Photo by Wilson Wong property of UBC athletics 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Volleyball

B.C. Girls Volleyball Rankings 10.24.19: KSS Owls rule the roost, Byng and Handsworth in Battle Royal, LFA and MEI a pair of new No. 1’s

LANGLEY — For the first time this season, half of B.C.’s four senior varsity tiers have new No. 1’s!Here are the latest B.C. senior girls Top 10 volleyball rankings:At Quad-A, the host KSS Owls claimed first place at their own Best of the West and retained their top spot at the province’s highest tier.Immediately beneath […]

The St. Ann's Academy Crusaders maintained their spot in the top 10 of the B.C. Single-A boys volleyball rankings this week. (Photo by Wilson Wong property of UBC athletics 2019. All rights reserved)
Feature High School Boys Volleyball

B.C. Boys Volleyball Rankings 10.24.19: Richmond’s McRoberts Strikers, Victoria’s St. Andrews Sabres the week’s big climbers

LANGLEY — Here are the latest B.C. senior boys high school volleyball rankings.Note — The B.C. boys volleyball commission will rank AAA and AA as Top 15 and A as Top 12.Here’s a look at all three tiers:TRIPLE A1 Earl Marriott Mariners (Surrey) (LW-1)2 Kelowna Owls (2) 3 Claremont Spartans (Victoria) (3)4 Mt. Boucherie Bears (Kelowna) […]

B.C. high school rugby coaches, like Lord Byng's Mike Mallette, are part of a rare resource being celebrated by BCSSRU rugby commish Walter van Halst, who has set up free coaching clinics to coincide with B.C.'s Pro D Day this Friday. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Rugby University rugby

BCSSRU offers teachers free rugby coaching clinics on Pro-D Day: “Why can’t we develop coaches the same way we develop teachers?” asks commish

SURREY — During the summer, as Walter van Halst contemplated some of the best ways to both recognize and enhance the many dedicated teachers who volunteer their time to coach rugby in B.C. secondary schools, he kept asking himself the same fundamental question.“Why can’t we develop coaches the same way we develop teachers?” asked the […]

Four years after helping UBC earn its 100th national title in its 100th birthday year, 'Birds defender Amelia Crawford leads her team back into the playoffs for the final time in her career. (Photo by Bob Frid property of UBC athletics 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Women's Soccer

UBC women’s soccer: On the road and in the shadows, these 2019 Thunderbirds seem built for U Sports’ second season

VANCOUVER — The UBC Thunderbirds have won the second most U Sports titles this century and are one of those programs which annually finds itself in the conversation when the talk turns to who will hoist the Gladys Bean memorial trophy, emblematic of Canadian women’s university soccer supremacy.

Feature Podcast

Varsity Letters PODCAST 10.23.19: We’re joined by SFU football’s Thomas Ford, W.J. Mouat football’s Andrew Harder & TWU rugby’s Andrew Evans

LANGLEY — Varsity Letters — The Podcast is back from its one-week sabbatical! Thanks for joining us and thanks for your continued loyalty to Canada’s only podcast dedicated solely to the coverage of provincial high school and university sports. Off the top, Simon Fraser Clan head football coach Thomas Ford checks in to chat with […]

Simon Fraser's Farnaaz Johal has emerged as one of the rising young stars on a Clan volleyball team riding a five-game GNAC win streak into a four-game homestead beginning Thursday atop Burnaby Mountain. (Photo by Paul Yates property of Simon Fraser Clan athletics 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Women's Volleyball

Clan ‘creating their own luck’ as preparation, opportunity meet to give SFU volleyball chance to set new program GNAC win streak on ‘Dig Pink’ night

BURNABY — You’ve no doubt heard about the concoction produced from that time-tested recipe, the one where preparation meets opportunity?Simon Fraser head volleyball coach Gina Schmidt isn’t denying the existence of old-fashioned good luck at various points of the five-match win streak her Clan (7-3) carry into the start of a four-game Great Northwest Athletic […]

South Delta running back Damon Badenhorst and the rest of the Sun Devils are B.C.'s beset No. 1-ranked AAA team. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Football

VL’s Big 5 B.C. High School Football ranks 10.21.19 edition: Undefeated South Delta 2019’s fourth AAA No. 1 team, Vernon still wire-to-wire atop AA

LANGLEY — In a parity-riddled 2019 season, undefeated South Delta becomes the fourth different team to own the No. 1 spot in Varsity Letters’ Big 5 AAA B.C. high school football rankings.The Sun Devils, two wins away from a perfect regular season, host Victoria’s winless Belmont Bulldogs on Saturday.The shuffle takes place, however, after former […]

Is he set to become the new face of UBC football in 2020? 'Birds quarterback Gabe Olivares engineered his team's 38-37 win over No. 3 Saskatchewan on Saturday at T-Bird Stadium. (Photo by Darryl Dyck property of UBC athletics 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Football

A SUNDAY READ: Why UBC football’s upset stunner over No. 3 Saskatchewan has ‘Birds coach Nill convinced it’s deja vu, all over again

VANCOUVER — Blake Nill didn’t hesitate for a second. When placekicker Garrin McDonnell booted his fifth field goal of the day, an 11-yarder with just 31 seconds to play to lift the underdog UBC to a most improbable 38-37 win over a Saskatchewan Huskies’ team ranked No. 3 in the nation, the grizzled Thunderbirds’ head coach […]

SFU rookie quarterback Brandon Niksich was near perfect through the air as he engineered three second-half scoring drives to lead the Clan past host Azusa Pacific on Saturday in California. (Photo property of Crossview Studios through the permission of Azusa Pacific Athletics 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Football

A Sunday Read: How Simon Fraser football snapped its 48-game losing streak! “It’s just the beginning for us” says Clan coach Ford

Sooner rather than later, Thomas Ford wants nights like Saturday to be business as usual.But he knew just as well as anyone who has held an emotional stake in Simon Fraser football over the past five-plus seasons that Canada’s NCAA team was smack dab in the middle of very a special moment.“Oh, man it was […]

New Westminster's Deakon Young (6) was a standout on defence on what was a very tough day for the New Westminster Hyakcs in their shutout loss at the hands of Vancouver College. (Photo by Alan Wardle property of New Westminster Hyacks football 2019. All rights reserved)
Feature High School Football

FINAL EDITION: VL’s Saturday night B.C. High School Football Report: Irish blank No. 1 Hyacks, plus STM stays perfect and Catlin returns for Abby

LANGLEY — The Vancouver College Fighting Irish, St. Thomas More Knights, Abbotsford Panthers and Robert Bateman Timberwolves all came away victorious as another week of BCHSF came to a close.Click here for Friday’s late game reports!Click here for the main edition of the Friday B.C. High School Football Report!SATURDAYWESTERN CONFERENCENo. 1 NEW WESTMINSTER at No. […]