What does your picture of passion for life look like? This is Hailey Counsell's. (Varsity Letters photo by Howard Tsumura)
Feature High School Girls Basketball

Hailey Counsell: Watching Heritage Woods’ UBC-bound senior star reminds us all why passion for the game carries the day

COQUITLAM — Passion for basketball can come in a magnitude of degrees, but along the trail of a long season spent wandering through gymnasiums, you don’t easily forget the ones you score as perfect 10s.

UBC Thunderbirds senior Luka Zaharijevic shares a moment with both his father and school president Santa J. Ono (right). On Friday, Zaharijevic plays his final Canada West regular season game when the Birds host Victoria at War Gym. (Richard Lam/UBC athletics)
Feature University Men's Basketball

For UBC’s Luka Zaharijevic, the weight is over; ‘Birds big man pounds the paint, but not the scales

VANCOUVER — “It’s a secret,” Luka Zaharijevic smiles in response to an intrepid reporter’s question about his current weight. Cryptic? Yes.

Windsor Dukes' quarterback Ryan Baker sizzled on the turf of B.C. Place in December, leading Windsor to the Subway Bowl AA title. (Varsity Letters photo by Howard Tsumura)
Feature University Football

Ten years after Billy Greene, UBC tabs another top B.C. quarterback prospect in Windsor’s Ryan Baker

VANCOUVER — The UBC Thunderbirds are bringing B.C. high school football’s touchdown maker to the Point Grey campus.And ‘Birds head coach Blake Nill is not holding back his optimism for the future of Windsor Dukes’ superstar senior Ryan Baker.“To me, Ryan Baker is as close to a can’t-miss prospect as you can have when you […]

Lord Tweedsmuir's senior point guard Dylan Kinley has learned to maximize the gifts he's been given and not harbour resentment for the ones he hasn't. (Varsity Letters photo by Howard Tsumura)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

Dylan Kinley: Dyslexia can’t stop Lord Tweedsmuir’s basketball star from writing his own story of hope and inspiration

SURREY — It takes but a second to step outside the box, and that’s what both Dylan Kinley and I are doing on a weekday afternoon, chatting about perception, reality and how, in the end, what matters most is the wiring between the heart and the brain.

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)
Feature High School Boys Basketball University Men's Basketball

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.

The most important road trip the UBC Thunderbirds have taken this season was to Cuba over the winter break. (Photo courtesy UBC women's basketball)
Feature University Women's Basketball

Havana hoops holiday helps harvest ‘eureka’ moments, Huband’s UBC Thunderbirds grow together in time to make late-season surge

VANCOUVER — Listen to Deb Huband talk about the ever-evolving state of the youngest team she has ever coached in her 23 seasons at the helm of the UBC Thunderbirds women’s basketball program, and one phrase — ‘eureka moments’ — stands out above all the others.

Tanis Metcalfe is averaging 26 ppg as she leads her Carson Graham Eagles into this week's Top 10 Shoot-Out tournament at Coquitlam's Centennial Secondary beginning Thursday. (Varsity Letters photo by Howard Tsumura)
Feature High School Girls Basketball

Tanis Metcalfe: Carson Graham’s UBC-bound hoops star brings new-and-old school talents to Centennial Top 10 Shoot-Out tourney

NORTH VANCOUVER — It’s one thing for a high school basketball talent to surface in her senior season with a skill set on the court so varied she is able to affect the game at virtual any part of its dimensions. Yet it’s something entirely different when that surfacing reveals what is commonly referred to as […]

St. George's Saints guard Jerric Palma (right) has carried the load over his Grade 11 season and on Wednesday faces the Vancouver College Fighting Irish. (Photo courtesy Jon Hayduk/St. George's athletics)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

Jerric Palma: Tipping the scales through tenacity, St. George’s plucky guard has learned to carry his weight for the Saints

VANCOUVER — In the time reserved for preparation, those quiet pre-game moments where each player is left to his own devices, Jerric Palma finds a place where he can bring his heart and mind together in a single, perfect sphere.

Victor Radocaj of Richmond's R.A. McMath Wildcats was the youngest and the only B.C. player selected to Canada Basketball's Under-16/17 team this past summer. (Varsity Letters photo by Howard Tsumura)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

Victor Radocaj: Still just 15, he carries uncommon wisdom on his basketball path from McMath to the world

LANGLEY — It’s one thing to be big, which Victor Radocaj most certainly is. It’s another to truly see the big picture. 

Former UFV Cascades basketball great Peter Wauthy will be inducted into the school's sports Hall of Fame on Friday. (Photo courtesy UFV athletics)
Feature High School Boys Basketball University Men's Basketball

Doctor’s order: UFV’s 2018 Hall of Famer Peter Wauthy discovered precision for a life in medicine started with basketball

ABBOTSFORD — Peter Wauthy never got a chance to play basketball at the Envision Financial Athletic Centre, yet after this weekend, fans of the Fraser Valley Cascades men’s basketball team will be reminded of one of their past heart-and-soul hardcourt heroes each time they pass through the mezzanine of their home gymnasium.