Tag: Paul Langford

The Langley Christian Lightning seem ready to make a third run at the thus-far elusive B.C. senior girls Double A basketball championship title this March at the Langley Events Centre. It's a quest being led by the team's talented trio of seniors (left to right) Taelor Coxford, Sydney Bradshaw and Lainey Shelvey. (Photo graphic by Gabriel Lynn, photos by Howard Tsumura property of Varsity Letters 2022. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Basketball

The ‘Strikes Thrice’ magic of the Langley Christian Lightning! In a tier-free girls high school basketball world, might Double-A powers be BC’s No. 1 overall team?

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LANGLEY — Imagine a B.C. girls high school basketball world without any tiers of classification.Instead, replace it with a soup pot of sorts in which every team in the province is thrown together to form a chowder-like broth.Bring to a boil.Cover.Simmer.Let the cream rise to the top.And when you lift that cover, who might you […]

St. Thomas More Knights senior boys basketball coach Aaron Mitchell. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2020. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball High School Girls Basketball

Tip-off Wednesday: B.C. high school basketball is back, and minutes after news breaks, we catch up with six of our veteran coaches!

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B.C. high school basketball coaches could barely contain their excitement Tuesday evening as they spoke with Varsity Letters just minutes after the official decision came down that B.C. high school basketball’s delayed opening was over, and that tip-off around the province would take place on Wednesday.“They have been waiting to go now for weeks,” said […]

Riverside's star Grade 11 guard Sammy Shields is guarded by Lord Tweedsmuir's Alyza Aikins during 2019 TBI action, Dec. 14 at the Langley Events Centre. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Basketball

Sammy Shields: A veteran at last, Riverside’s star guard leads a new core of Rapids into Centennial’s midseason Top 10 Shoot-Out showcase

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PORT COQUITLAM — When you’re dropping 38 points in a senior varsity game as an eighth grader, the way Sammy Shields did back in the 2016-17 season, it seems a given that the greatest strength of the Riverside Rapids’ Grade 11 standout guard is her scoring ability.And while it’s hard to make a case that […]

Her comeback from a torn ACL suffered on the basketball court in her senior year of high school now over, UFV's Amanda Matsui has given her service to the sport of volleyball. (Photo courtesy Northfield Photography)
Feature High School Girls Volleyball University Women's Volleyball

UFV’s Amanda Matsui: She follows the volleyball compass in her heart to starring role as Cacades host PacWest provincials

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ABBOTSFORD — For Amanda Matsui, the map of her own version of the road less travelled takes two years to navigate.

Riverside's Jessica Parker, here being guarded by Abbotsford's Marin Lenz during the Tsumura Basketball Invitational in December, is thriving in her adopted home of Port Coquitlam. (Varsity Letters photo by Howard Tsumura)
Feature High School Girls Basketball

Riverside’s Jessica Parker: Her story of hoops, hugs and how compassion expands the parameters of transfer debates

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PORT COQUITLAM — To tell the story of Jessica Parker without cutting corners is to be, at once, both challenged and inspired.

New Westminster Hyacks' Sarah Forgie (left) dives to the floor to snare a loose ball in front of Walnut's Grove's Jessica Wisotzki during Mainland-Valley girls all-star game Wednesday in Port Coquitlam. (Varsity Letters photo by Howard Tsumura)
Feature High School Girls Basketball

Tsumura’s Take: Why the future of B.C. girls high school hoops is so bright

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PORT COQUITLAM — On the last day of the 2016-17 high school basketball season, dire predictions about the state of the girls game in our province seemed to be the last thing on anyone’s mind.A new concept, which pitted age-class competition in an all-star game format between the Fraser Valley and Lower Mainland zones on […]