New Westminster's Kaman Kaila in action against Abbotsford Christian on Monday. On Sunday, Kaila set a new B.C. junior boys tournament single-game scoring record. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of Varsity Letters 2024. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

Kaman Kaila: New Westminster’s star Grade 10 guards shatters 53-year single-game scoring record with 51 points at 2024 B.C. junior boys tourney!

LANGLEY — Kaman Kaila swears he was feeling it in the warm-ups early Sunday afternoon here at the B.C. junior boys basketball championships.With his New Westminster Hyacks set to face the Richmond Colts on the consolation side of the bracket, the 6-foot-2 grade 10 guard had a feeling he might be able to do something […]

A dunker, a high jumper, and a guy who looked like he had "...just arrived from Woodstock", Ted Cusick was a beloved coach who brought out the best in kids while having fun during a near 50-year coaching career. (Photo provided courtesy Cusick family 2021. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

Ted Cusick (1942-2021): B.C. boys basketball loses a coach for the ages, but impact of The Cuz, in the hearts of five decades of his former players, will never be forgotten!

VANCOUVER — When he arrived on the first day of classes at Point Grey Secondary School, in September of 1973, he was a well-traveled first-year student-teacher with a fashion sense for the times.Fu Manchu moustache. Huge sideburns. Flared pants. Platform shoes.It was a look that made Ted Cusick so instantly relatable to the students he […]

Despite the team's early-season carousel at quarterback, Carson Graham is 1-1 following a gutsy second-half performance by senior pivot Logan Mellish, a fact that has Eagles' head coach Brian Brady beaming with pride. Carson Graham topped Hansdsworth in the annual Buchan Bowl game Friday morning. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of Varsity Letters 2021. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Football

FINAL EDITION: 09.10.21 Varsity Letters’ B.C. High School Football report: Friday Night Lights late-night edition!

Welcome to Week 1 of Varsity Letters’ B.C. High School Football ReportAs this is the first time we’ve posted with a full schedule of games since late in 2019, remember that in order to read about all of the contests played in our Friday Night Lights editions, you’ve got to keep checking back throughout the […]

Connecting with players and a creating a connected culture between the program and its community was a founding principle of outgoing Hyacks head coach Farhan Lalji. (Photo by Alan Wardle property of New Westminster Hyacks football 2021. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Football

Farhan Lalji: As the New West Hyacks’ football founder bids adieu, his charter words from 2003 continue to speak an essential & universal truth!

“One of the parents of a player came up to me and said, ‘You’ve basically given my son his life back because this has helped motivate him in so many other areas.’ I don’t take myself seriously enough to think that it’s because of me, but it is because of this whole package that we’ve […]

New Westminster Hyacks' coach and B.C. high school football caretaker Farhan Lalji joins the Varsity Letters' podcast. (Photo by Alan Wardle property of NWSS athletics 2020. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Football

VL Podcast 12.03.20: TSN’s Farhan Lalji on Subway Bowl, the Seahawks, Claypool and a coaching life well-mentored!

This week, the Varsity Letters welcomes an enduring friend of the podcast! TSN’s Farhan Lalji, a 31-year high school football coach in the province of B.C. stops by to chat with host Howard Tsumura about a whole host of topics.   This coming Saturday at B.C. Place Stadium would have been the 2020 Subway Bowl […]

SMUS' Karter Fry, drives to the basket between Tupper's DJ Laconsay (left) and Matthew Dunkerley during Wednesday's TBI Round 1 game at the LEC. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

FINAL EDITION: Tsumura Basketball Invitational 2019 Boys – Our game-by-game reports live from the Langley Event Centre

LANGLEY — Welcome to the first day off the 2019 Tsumura Basketball Invitational.Please check back on this posting throughout the day for reports from the opening round’s four preliminary round games.SIR CHARLES TUPPER 56 SMUS 50LANGLEY — It was a game in which both teams could claim a disadvantage.East Vancouver’s Triple A No. 2-ranked Sir […]

With New Westminster's Austin Galbraith in coverage, Lord Tweedsmuir's Terrel Jones (left) just fails to squeeze a pass from quarterback Key-shaun Dorsey. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Football

Subway Bowl 2019 AAA Final 8: Tweedy’s special teams are oh-so-special, No. 5 Panthers prove to be No. 4 Hyacks’ worst nightmare

VANCOUVER — How special can your special teams possibly be?Well, with the playoff season here, it was hard to imagine a better performance from the sport’s oft-times under-valued third phase unit than the one turned in over the third quarter Saturday afternoon by Surrey’s No. 5-ranked Lord Tweedsmuir Panthers.As part of a 23-point outburst in […]

Greyson Planinsic (left) and Michael Udoh comprise B.C.'s most devastating offensive backfield. (Photo by Alan Wardle property of New Westminster Hyacks football 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Football

New West’s dynamic RB duo: With Greyson Planinsic and Michael Udoh, the whole & the heart of these Hyacks always greater than the sum of its parts

NEW WESTMINTSER — Their running styles are a study in contrasts, and the length and the breadth of their respective resumes couldn’t be any more different.Yet the bottom line in the New Westminster locker room following every Hyacks football game this season is the single-mindedness which drives every post-game gab-fest between running backs Greyson Planinsic […]

New Westminster Hyacks players Nick Toews (17) and Ian Zhou (5) are two of the big reasons why Royal City high school volleyball is sitting amongst the best programs in B.C. this season. (Photo by Billy Lee property of New Westminster Hyacks volleyball 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Volleyball

The rise of New West boys volleyball: Huh? Yes, these 7-0 Hyacks ride a different spike in fortunes with star setter Toews leading the way

NEW WESTMINSTER — Sure, football may be king in the land of the Hyacks, but they aren’t the only team in the provincial spotlight as the 2019 fall season of B.C. high school sports begins to wind its way towards championship conclusions.“I haven’t seen any of them in the crowd when we play, but maybe […]

Feature Podcast

Varsity Letters PODCAST returns to talk BCHS rugby at the World Cup, big high school football wins and the start of a new hoops season!

LANGLEY — Varsity Letters — The Podcast returns for another week, this time touching on football, basketball and rugby. Off the top, we visit with Canadian Under-20 men’s rugby coach Adam Roberts, the longtime head coach at Surrey’s Earl Marriott Secondary. Roberts and host Howard Tsumura talk about the inherent pride that comes with taking […]