Spectrum's Justin Hinrichsen (13) and North Delta's Arjun Atwal eye a rebounds Friday during TBI Rising 8 title game at the Langley Events Centre. (Photo by Ryan Molag property of Langley Events Centre 2022. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

Rising 8’s TBI 2022 final: Front-court force of Spectrum’s Hinrichsen and Felt carry Victoria’s Thunder past North Delta Huskies in title tilt!

SPECTRUM 79 NORTH DELTA 62LANGLEY — It’s not going to be too far in the distant future before Justin Hinrichsen and Tyler Felt are going to be among the most talked-about players in B.C. boys high school basketball.Shoot, it’s getting tougher and tougher by the day to ignore the Grade 10 sensations playing in the […]

Lord Byng point guard Eli Mullin (left) drives past Brookswood's Logan Stewart at the 2022 Tsumura Basketball Invitational Wednesday at the Langley Events Centre. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2022 All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

12.7.22 edition: B.C. senior boys basketball’s latest Top 10 rankings from Quaud-A to Single-A are right here!

The latest Top 10 rankings for B.C. senior boys high school basketball have arrived for Dec. 7, 2022:BASKETBALLTOP 10 RANKINGSB.C. SENIOR BOYSQUAD A1 Semiahmoo Thunderbirds (Surrey) (SF) (LW -1)2 Vancouver College Fighting Irish (VSS) (2)3 Burnaby South Rebels (FN) (3)4 St. George’s Saints (Vancouver) (VSS) (4)5 Abbotsford Panthers (EV) (5)6 Oak Bay Bays (Victoria) (VI) […]

Burnaby Mountain's Aidan Lear (left) is defended by Vancouver College's Aidan Lear during opening-round play in the TBI Super 16 draw Wednesday at the LEC. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2022 All Rights Reserved)
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Tsumura Basketball 2022: We’ve gone final for Day 1 of the TBI Super 16 draw! Game reports, photos and Thursday’s schedule are all here!

LANGLEY — We are complete here after Day 1 at the Tsumura Basketball Invitational’s senior boys Super 16 draw.THURSDAYQUARTERFINALS (all games at Centre Court)3:30 p.m. — Kelowna vs. St. Patricks5 p.m. — Burnaby South vs. Enver Creek6:45 p.m. — Vancouver College vs. Fleetwood Park8:15 p.m. — Oak Bay vs. Sir Winston ChurchillWEDNESDAY’S GAMESVANCOUVER COLLEGE 83 […]

Lord Byng point guard Eli Mullin (left) drives past Brookswood's Logan Stewart at the 2022 Tsumura Basketball Invitational Wednesday at the Langley Events Centre. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2022 All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

WE’RE COMPLETE! DAY 1 at Tsumura Basketball 2022: Complete game reports from our senior boys Rising 8 draw!

We are now complete after Day 1 of the inaugural Rising 8 bracket here at the 2022 Tsumura Basketball Invitational.SCHEUDLETHURSDAYSEMIFINALS(games at South Court)6:45 p.m.– Spectrum vs. Lord Byng8:15 p.m. — Steveston London vs. North DeltaFor a complete report of the Local 8 tournament, please go to the bottom of this story for a filing from […]

Spectrum's Justin Hinrichsen (left), battling in the paint with West Vancouver's Malcolm Lotz at the 2022 B.C. junior boys Sweet 16 at the LEC, has come into his own as a 10th grader on the senior varsity Thunder, in town to play in the Tsumura Basketball Invitational beginning Wednesday at the Langley Events Centre. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of Varsity Letters 2022. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

Tsumura Basketball 2022: A chip off the old hoops block, Grade 10 Justin Hinrichsen helps lead Spectrum Thunder precisely 30 seasons after dad Eric’s B.C. title with Carihi Tyees!

Justin Hinrichsen doesn’t spent a whole lot of time thinking about it.“It just happens,” the 6-foot-3, 165-pound Grade 10 guard/forward with Victoria’s Spectrum Thunder admits when asked how his rare combination of athleticism, talent and instinct has managed to intersect in such a timely fashion just weeks into his first season of senior varsity hoops.“I’ve […]

The UBC Thunderbirds celebrated an 18-17 Shrum Bowl victory over the SFU Red Leafs on Friday atop Burnaby Mountain as the crosstown clash resumed after a 12-year absence. (Photo by Jeff Sargeant property of UBC athletics 2022. All Rights Reserved)
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Its Friday rise from mothballs complete, Shrum Bowl’s 34th performance seizes the magic right back, its charm defined by both its ferocity and its foibles! UBC tops SFU in an icy 18-17 classic!

BURNABY MOUNTAIN — As B.C.’s football gods looked down from above at the frozen tundra of Terry Fox Field on Friday night, the actions of their collective super-powers made it readily apparent that they were an immortal group of gridiron fans scorned.Who dare deny them the pleasure that would have come from watching the past […]

Football Canada president Jim Mullin, who worked his first Shrum Bowl as a 13-year-old statistician in 1978, picks three of the most memorable crosstown clashes in which he provided the play-by-play call. (Photo property of Krown Kountdown U 2022, All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Football

Jim Mullin: The venerable voice of 14 Shrum Bowl broadcasts re-visits three classic crosstown SFU-UBC clashes ahead of Friday’s epic re-start at Fox Field!

BURNABY MOUNTAIN — Jim Mullin is the Keith Jackson of the Shrum Bowl.Behind the mic for 14 of the crosstown classics since 1990, the current president of Football Canada is a walking encyclopedia when it comes to not only reflecting on the most human moments of the province’s very own gridiron treasure, but on what […]

Back in the early 1980s, Jay Prepchuk, who would go on to serve on both the UBC and SFU coaching staffs, was a record-setting pivot for Simon Fraser. (Photo property SFU athletics 2021. All Rights Reserved)
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Having grown up in the game, Simon Fraser’s 1980 Shrum Bowl MVP Jay Prepchuk, a former UBC and SFU coach, cherishes the return of the grand game!

BURNABY MOUNTAIN — If there’s one area that any wannabe Shrum Bowl historian will find tough sledding, it’s determining the reasons why the series stuck to either U.S. or Canadian rules for extended periods of time throughout its history.For example, as local broadcaster and Football Canada president Jim Mullin points out, the reason the first […]

Simon Fraser head coach Mike Rigell catches a moment on Terry Fox Field during fall training camp 2021 to chat with top returning quarterbacks Brandon Niksich and Justin Seiber. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of Varsity Letters 2021. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Football

Extra practice time a huge benefit for SFU, UBC heading into Friday’s Shrum Bowl XXXIV, and why the revival of the crosstown classic kicks off a local university football renaissance!

BURNABY MOUNTAIN — Talk to those in the know, and the future of the Shrum Bowl becomes something much more than a game local football fans hope gets played each season.In its fabled past, both UBC and SFU have had their turns declining the game (it has been played 33 times in 55 years heading […]

A snow plow begins the job of clearing a heavy Tuesday snowfall from the surface of Terry Fox Field at SFU Stadium in the early afternoon hours of Wednesday. The host Red Leafs are set to face the visiting UBC Thunderbirds in the first Shrum Bowl in 12 years on Friday evening. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of Varsity Letters 2022. All Rights Reserved)
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After a fresh coat of the white stuff, Terry Fox Field gets a Wednesday dusting as we prepare for a winter classic Shrum Bowl! Our preview includes three Thursday stories!

BURNABY — Friday night’s resurrected Shrum Bowl atop Burnaby Mountain could not be coming at a better time for Simon Fraser football.The school’s new SFU Stadium at Terry Fox field is still shy of its second birthday, the program is in it’s first season as the newly-minted Red Leafs, and on Nov. 12 the team […]