Markus Rauch (left) congratulates Sam Davenport after the latter's second touchdown of the first half Saturday in a semi-final win over Holy Cross at B.C. Place Stadium (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2018. All Rights Reserved)
The four coaches guiding their teams into Saturday's Subway Bowl semifinals (clockwise from top left) Terry Fox's Martin McDonnell, Todd Bernett of Vancouver College, New Westminster's Farhan Lalji and Mark Townsend of Mt. Douglas, speak to what they feel are common threads running through the four programs. (Photos by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2018. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Football

The Power of Four: Saturday’s quartet of AAA Subway Bowl semifinalists have won seven of last eight B.C. titles! So what’s their secret?

VANCOUVER — The. Mt. Douglas Rams have set the most recent bar of excellence within the senior varsity ranks of B.C. high school football. Yet the three other teams which join the Victoria juggernaut Saturday in the Subway Bowl AAA semifinal round at B.C. Place Stadium help give the 2018 Final Four a unique distinction.

Burnaby South head coach Mike Bell and blue-chip guard Baltej Sohal are ready to hit the court running in 2018-19. (Photo by Wilson Wong property of UBC athletics 2018. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

Encore, encore 2018: No identity crisis for B.C. Quad-A boys champion Burnaby South, these Rebels love who they are

BURNABY — It’s been an entire off-season since the 11th-hour transformation of the Burnaby South Rebels happened right before our eyes. You remember them, right?

North Delta head coach Jesse Hundal guides a Huskies team which opens 2018-19 at No. 1 in the Triple A rankings and is aiming for its first provincial senior varsity title since 1990. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2018. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

Senior boys preseason basketball rankings: Rebels, Huskies, Seyhawks, Sparks top the polls in B.C.’s four tiers

LANGLEY — Provincial pollsters were all given the option of revamping pre-season rankings from the original versions issued this past March. Beginning Dec. 5, rankings will be updated every Wednesday for the duration of the season, with the exception of the holiday season.

A second-generation passer, Bateman's Logan McDonald has followed in the footsteps of his father, former Abby Panthers' pivot Lance McDonald. (Photo by Paul Yates property of Vancouver Sports Pictures 2018. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Football

From father to son: Bateman Wolves’ QB-1 Logan McDonald preps for Subway Bowl Final 4, mentored by ex-Abby star and dad Lance

ABBOTSFORD — Growing up in what can only be described as one of the first families of Abbotsford football, Logan McDonald cops to the fact that not a day goes by without a little father-son gridiron gab-fest.

Vancouver College running back Basil Schincariol (with ball) has been the Irish's workhorse of consistency the entire season. His next task is to battle the Mt. Douglas Rams' run defence on Saturday.
Feature High School Football

Rematch Redux edition! Subway Bowl ’18’s AAA semi’s reprise Hyacks-Ravens ’17 final, along with sixth Rams-Irish meeting since ’15

VANCOUVER — It was a Triple-A campaign filled with surprising turns, yet as we reach the Final Four semifinal stage of the 2018 Subway Bowl playoffs, it’s interesting to note that four of the tier’s Big 5 preseason picks are still alive and in the hunt.

Holy Cross' Silas Marchan (left) will do his best to prove an elusive target for the Robert Bateman defence to try and slow Saturday at B.C. Place Stadium. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2018. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Football

Subway Bowl Semi-finals ’18: Who’s best in last-to-first Crusaders-Wolves battle? Mutual respect aplenty as Barby, Vernon clash

VANCOUVER — Two more sleeps and we’ll awaken to Subway Bowl’s AA semifinals Saturday. Here’s our look at first two semifinals of the day set to take place under the dome.

Hard to forget these Titans. Grade 11s Alex Sol (left) and Malachi Emerson (right) provide book-end congratulations to senior Jacob Sol who for the second season in a row, scored the game-winning goal for Langley Fundamental in the B.C. senior boys AA soccer championship final. (Photo by Wilson Wong property of UBC Thunderbirds 2018. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Soccer

B.C. Boys AA Soccer 2018: Grade 11 Titans grow up fast to make Langley Fundamental’s repeat feat complete

BURNABY — Back in 2017, Jacob Sol was the underclassman whose heroics helped his older teammates put a gold-medal finish on their schoolboy soccer careers.

Capilano U's fifth-year forward Denver Sparks-Guest has finally found the place to shine, as his 53 point-outing last week clearly shows. (Photo by Paul Yates property of Capilano University athletics)
Feature University Men's Basketball

Denver’s delight! His 53-point barrage a sign that after vagabond college career, Sparks-Guest had found home with Cap U’s Blues

NORTH VANCOUVER — As he watched the shot defy all kinds of logic and physics to somehow find its way through the bottom of the basket, Cassidy Kannemeyer just knew his senior forward was in for a big night.

Playing a football game at B.C. Place Stadium can make you feel larger than life. That's just how Surrey's Holy Cross Crusaders looked on the big screen inside the dome last week. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca)
Feature High School Football

The Holy Grail of Subway Bowl! Why it means the world for B.C. high school football teams to play games at B.C. Place Stadium

VANCOUVER — It’s one thing to enter B.C. Place Stadium by purchasing a ticket and clicking through the turnstiles. It’s entirely another thing to appear there via earned invitation on a Saturday in either late November or early December. The Dome? It’s the Holy Grail of B.C. high school football.