After UBC's RB-1 Ben Cummings went down with an injury, back-up Kory Nagata answered the call by scoring two touchdowns in the 'Birds season-opening 30-20 win over Manitoba. (Photo by Richard Lam property of UBC athletics)
Trinity Western's fifth-year senior midfielder Joel Waterman (right) wants to help lead the Spartans back to the U Sports' national championship tournament. (Photo courtesy UBC Okanagan athletics)
Feature University Men's Soccer

Joel Waterman: TWU’s tide is high and so are its hopes as Spartans’ soccer feeds off the presence and purpose its fifth-year leader

LANGLEY — It may be the simplest game of Xs and Os ever invented, yet the ability to consistently win in the ancient discipline of tic-tac-toe doesn’t come without a complex level of sureness and clarity, which in intangible terms, might be best described as having an instant presence.

UBC's Sean Einarsson (left), a former Canada West Rookie of the Year, returned to his former side Friday for its clash against reigning GNAC Player of the Year Matteo Polisi and the Simon Fraser Clan at Thunderbird Stadium. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca)
Feature University Men's Soccer

SFU vs. UBC: Preseason paths converge at soccer crossroads! Now, directions diverge in the quest for national title spoils

VANCOUVER — One has secured all seven of its conference’s preseason votes as the No. 1 team, a position which has become as familiar as its annual perch on the top branch of NCAA Div. 2 national title contenders. The other, its time-honoured traditional crosstown rival, holds a similar spot in the Canada West

New UBC Thunderbirds' tight end Blake Whiteley has been working off the rust after an injury-filled career with the Texas Longhorns as the fourth-year former West Van star returns to live duty this Saturday at home to Manitoba. (Photo by Richard Lam property of UBC athletics)
Feature High School Football University Football

Blake Whiteley: An epic comeback underway at UBC as West Van tight end looks to shake years of rust, injury at Texas with hometown Thunderbirds

VANCOUVER — It’s no easy task to spend the years of a college football life in anonymity when you stand 6-foot-5, tip the scales at 248 pounds, and own an on-field intangible that those in the sport label as ‘a presence.’

Holy Cross' Uyi Ologhola (right) drives on Vancouver College's Jack Cruz-Dumont during 2017 B.C. championships. On Sept. 1, Cruz-Dumont's family will present the third annual John Dumont Classic as a fund-raiser for Ologhola following the recent passing of his mother Edna to cancer. (File photo by Wilson Wong property of UBC athletics)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

John Dumont Classic: Tourney’s third edition pays it forward by helping lift the heavy heart of Surrey hoops star

BURNABY — When Jack Dumont thinks about the past two years, the rising UBC Thunderbirds freshman can’t help but reflect on the help and support which was extended to himself, his mom Trixie and his younger brothers Hunter and Cole through the outstretched arms of B.C.’s tight-knit basketball community.

Parker Simson is enjoying his first basketball-only off-season and that's good news for his new team, the Douglas College Royals. (Photo by Wilson Wong property of UBC athletics)
Feature University Men's Basketball

After CCAA national title-game appearance, Douglas men’s hoops looks to build new Royal family with UBC as first test

NEW WESTMINSTER — The Douglas College Royals may only be six months removed from their journey to the CCAA national men’s basketball championship final, yet the sport’s insuppressible nature of seasonal renewal is helping head coach Joe Enevoldson keep things very real.

Gritty Isaiah Solomon (left), pictured during his 2012-13 rookie season, is hoping to make a return to the UBC men's basketball roster after an extended absence. (File photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.com)
Feature University Men's Basketball

UBC men’s basketball: Asian international the newest ‘Bird, an Isaiah spotting, Shook joins coaching staff

VANCOUVER — The UBC Thunderbirds men’s basketball team may have had its highly-anticipated clash with NCAA Div. 1 UC Santa Barbara, scheduled for Friday at War Gym, cancelled by the visitors concerns with local air quality. That doesn’t mean, however, that in the dead of summer, there was any lack of news emanating from head coach […]

Former W.J. Mouat Hawks' star lineman Sheriden Lawley is greeted by his new head coach, UBC's Blake Nill, as fall camp is underway for the Thunderbirds. (Photo by Richard Lam property of UBC athletics)
Fraser Valley Cascades' freshman midfielder Anthony Vega (left, 5), a New Westminster Secondary grad, is one of a gaggle of rookies populating the roster of the Abbotsford-based U Sports program this season. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of Varsity Letters)
Feature University Men's Soccer

UFV men’s soccer 2018: Cascades undergo a true culture change as 15 pure freshmen form program’s new foundation

ABBOTSFORD — It takes a pretty honest architect to unroll the blueprint and wield the eraser when the plans for a newly-poured foundation have barely had the opportunity to settle.

UBC's huge class of incoming players gathered Thursday on the Point Grey campus in advance of its 2018 fall camp. (Photo by Richard Lam property of UBC athletics)
Feature University Football

UBC FOOTBALL: How the ‘Birds new 2018 class can lean on and learn from 2015’s rookie class of Vanier Cup champions

VANCOUVER — His imprints may still seem fresh, yet with his fourth fall training camp at the helm of UBC football officially set to open today, you could say that Thunderbirds’ head coach Blake Nill has finally got some blue-and-gold tradition of his own to lean on.On Thursday afternoon, 16 sleeps ahead of its Canada […]