Kelowna Owls (left to right) Jaeli Ibbetson, Paige Watson, Rylee Semeniuk, Jordan Kemper and Jenna Holland celebrate the school's first B.C. senior girls varsity basketball championship Saturday in Langley. (Photo by Garrett James for Langley Events Centre)
Feature High School Girls Basketball

Owls wise enough to embrace their re-invention, Kelowna’s first-ever B.C. girls varsity hoops title comes on the wings of pressure defence

LANGLEY — Darren Semeniuk is not kicking himself  because he didn’t realize it earlier. He’s just happy that somewhere along the road of a long senior girls basketball season, he realized that the roster of his Kelowna Owls was perfectly suited to embrace every aspect of becoming a team which could press, trap and suffocate B.C.’s […]

Kelowna's Japleen Chahal (centre) finds the going tough against Walnut Grove's Anneke Cairnie (left) and Juliana Jacobs during Elite 8 B.C. junior girls championship play Thursday at the LEC. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca)
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Junior Gators, Owls draw inspiration from their senior varsity sisters, Walnut Grove and Kelowna deep from top to bottom

By Aly Laube(Special for VarsityLetters.ca)LANGLEY — When Kelowna Owls and Walnut Grove Gators junior girls basketball teams faced off on Thursday in the quarterfinal round of the B.C. junior girls basketball championships at the Langley Events Centre, they both had impressive senior teams to take inspiration from.

Heritage Woods' Breona Martin (left) contends with the defence of Kelowna's Rachel Hare during opening-round action at the 2018 B.C. senior girls AAA basketball championships. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca)
Feature High School Girls Basketball

02.28.18: Complete Day 1 reports from the B.C. senior girls AAA basketball championships

We’ve got reports from all eight games played in the opening round of the B.C. senior girls AAA basketball championship draw, but first a look at Friday’s championship draw:

Tupper's Mathew Dunkerley (left) and Benny Bradford make life tough for Burnaby Mountain's Joao Coimra during Sweet 16 round action at the B.C. junior boys basketball championships Saturday at the Langley Events Centre. (Varsity Letters photo by Howard Tsumura)
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B.C. junior boys basketball at its Elite 8: Irish, Hawks, Royals, Saints, Tigers,Bulldogs and a pair of Panthers

LANGLEY — We’re down to eight teams in the chase for the 2018 B.C. junior boys basketball title, and we’ve only finished the first of four days!Sunday’s championship round quarterfinal schedule:TOP HALF DRAW3:30 p.m. — Vancouver College vs. Seaquam (South Court), Handsworth vs. St. George’s (Centre Court)BOTTOM HALF DRAW2 p.m. — Sir Charles Tupper vs. […]

Oak Bay's Katie Elsner (left) and Riverside's Alanya Davignon both have their teams sitting in the B.C. senior girls AAA top 10 this week. (Varsity Letters photo by Howard Tsumura)
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02.07.18: Oak Bay, Britannia and Whistler make climbs to contention in AAA & AA girls Big 10 rankings

SENIOR GIRLSTRIPLE A1 Walnut Grove Gators (Langley) (LW-1)2 Kelowna Owls (2)3 Abbotsford Panthers (3)4 Heritage Woods Kodiaks (Port Moody) (4) 5 Brookswood Bobcats (Langley) (5)6 Oak Bay Breakers (Victoria) (9) 7 Semiahmoo Totems (Surrey) (10) 8 Sullivan Heights Stars (Surrey) (6) 9 Riverside Rapids (Port Coquitlam) (7) 10 Lord Tweedsmuir Panthers (Surrey) (HM)Honourable mention — New Westminster Hyacks (NR), Yale […]

South Kamloops' big man Ripley Martin, sporting the scars of an on-court battle last month in PoCo, has gone through a crash course in basketball fitness after a serious pre-season ankle injury. (Varsity Letters photo by Howard Tsumura)
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Ripley Martin: South Kam’s battle-scarred big man fights for his fitness as AAA Titans think big on road to the LEC

LANGLEY — If you happened to catch Ripley Martin with his teammates at the recent Legal Beagle Invitational at Port Coquitlam’s Terry Fox Secondary, just one look at his face would have told you that battle scars are all a part of the journey when your goal is to return to the B.C. AAA championship […]

Senior guard Alex Tadic and the rest of Langley's Walnut Grove Gators top the B.C. AAA senior girls basketball top 10 for yet another week. (Varsity Letters photo by Howard Tsumura)
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01.31.18: Surrey’s Sullivan Heights Stars shoot up to No. 6 in latest B.C. AAA girls Big 10 rankings

LANGLEY — B.C.’s top five AAA girls basketball teams held their ground this past week as the road to the Langley Events Centre and the 2018 B.C. championships draw nearer. The Fraser Valley continued to field eight of the top 10 with Surrey’s Sullivan Heights Stars and the Riverside Rapids of PoCo each climbing two spots […]

Parker Simson wanted to reach a new level following a B.C. AAAA high school basketball championship title with the Kelowna Owls in 2016. He gets a chance to meet that goal this weekend back in his hometown, this time with the UBC Thunderbirds. (Photo used through the permission of UBC athletics)
Feature University Men's Basketball

A weekend for history: Parker Simson aims to become second UBC athlete in 57 years to play football, basketball in same school year

VANCOUVER — As Parker Simson prepared for a most unique moment in UBC sports history this weekend, and in of all places his hometown of Kelowna, he was professing an appreciation for one of sport’s oldest cliches.

G.W. Graham's Sydney Owens and the rest of her Chilliwack-based Grizzlies are the Fraser Valley's highest ranked AA girls senior varsity team, checking in at No 4 provincially this week. (Varsity Letters photo by Howard Tsumura)
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01.24.18: Gators, Titans strengthen grips on No. 1 , Kodiaks and OKM Huskies make elite climbs in B.C. girls Big 10 rankings

LANGLEY — So ably led by its trio of Tavia Rowell, Jess Wisotzki and Natalie Rathler, the Walnut Grove Gators stormed to first place at last weekend’s Top 10 Shoot-Out at Centennial Secondary, a performance which solidifies its hold on the No. 1 spot in this week’s Triple A poll.

UBC's Mason Bourcier is bringing his scoring and playmaking skills to the fore in his freshman season with the Thunderbirds. (Richard Lam/UBC athletics)
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Racin’ Mason: UBC’s freshman point guard Bourcier, set for a weekend return to his old Kelowna digs, grabs a piece of ‘Birds hoop history

VANCOUVER — Put Mason Bourcier’s basketball career on a one-year rewind, and over the final weekend of January, you would have caught the then-Kelowna Secondary senior star preparing with the rest of his Owls for the team’s annual Western Canada invitational.