VANCOUVER — “Hey Howard, I’ve got someone you have to meet” my friend, the former Victoria Times-Colonist basketball writer Jeff Rud said, finding me in my customary position, slumped over my laptop while transcribing an interview during one of the frequent media gatherings called by the Vancouver Grizzlies in the run-up to their first season […]
Tag: victoria vikes
Tsumura Basketball 2022: A chip off the old hoops block, Grade 10 Justin Hinrichsen helps lead Spectrum Thunder precisely 30 seasons after dad Eric’s B.C. title with Carihi Tyees!
Justin Hinrichsen doesn’t spent a whole lot of time thinking about it.“It just happens,” the 6-foot-3, 165-pound Grade 10 guard/forward with Victoria’s Spectrum Thunder admits when asked how his rare combination of athleticism, talent and instinct has managed to intersect in such a timely fashion just weeks into his first season of senior varsity hoops.“I’ve […]
“Be quick, but don’t hurry!”: Claremont Spartans’ dynamic guard Izzy Helman runs his hardcourt race at a different pace!
Look at Izzy Helman’s scoring numbers over his last four games, and the natural reaction is to imagine that the Claremont Spartans’ point guard has somehow shifted his game to yet another gear.In-between dual 37 point outings in tough losses to first Mark Isfeld, and then Brentwood College, the 6-foot-3 senior poured home 35 and […]
Off to a perfect 4-0 start, Trinity Western Spartans women’s hoops reaps rewards of studious work during 2020’s cancelled campaign!
LANGLEY — They are the kinds of numbers which, through the real-life rigours of a cancelled COVID campaign, seem even more distant and faded than they really are.Yet ask Trinity Western women’s head basketball coach Cheryl Jean-Paul about the early signposts she has spotted with her Spartans’ club in the formative stages of the Canada […]
How long is 1,055 days? As Friday’s UFV soccer opener approaches, Cascades’ Brittany Costa reflects on wisdom gained over her near three-year Canada West drought!
ABBOTSFORD — Inform Brittany Costa just how long it’s been since she last played a meaningful soccer game, and the silence on the other end of the phone line speaks volumes.In her case, the waiting has indeed the hardest part.“It just feels like I have been training for so long that I don’t even know […]
A Sunday Read: Why Dec. 1, 1990 – the day the UNLV Rebels came to town – was the day Vancouver came of age as a basketball city!
VANCOUVER — I can still remember the day that the late, great Jim Taylor, the newspaper sports columnist of my youth and later a co-worker at The Province newspaper, invited me over to his Vancouver home so that I might conduct an interview for a feature story I wanted to write on him for my […]
09.30.19: Varsity Letters-The Podcast gets historical with UBC’s Wilson Wong, ex-UVic Vikes radio man Guy MacPherson
Varsity Letters — The Podcast is back on the air. Looking back isn’t our usual habit, but with the pandemic shutting down what would normally be a frenetic fall season of high school and university sports, we’re going to be heavy on history this week. UBC’s manager of Sports Information Wilson Wong joins us off […]
Book-ends forged in gold? For UBC midfielder Sean Einarsson, a return to Thunderbird nation could well include a fairy-tale finish!
VANCOUVER — When Sean Einarsson decided to return to the home of Canada’s most decorated men’s university soccer program two seasons ago, it was with the hope that he could fashion a finish to his career which would be every bit as satisfying as its storybook start.It was back in 2013 when the redshirt freshman […]
Cascades are better with Bryana Buttar in the batter! Rookie a rare ingredient as UFV hunkers for huge weekend homestand vs. UBC, UVic
ABBOTSFORD — With the same clockwork precision she has shown at every key stage of her soccer career, Bryana Buttar has once again arrived ahead of her time.“I definitely feel that my whole youth career has set me up for this,” the Fraser Valley Cascades’ dynamic midfielder remarked Wednesday of the opportunity she has seized […]
TWU women’s soccer: On eve of 2019 season opener, training camp in England reminds Spartans of their “love and joy” for the beautiful game
LANGLEY — It wasn’t a trip planned specifically as a soccer pilgrimage.Training camps are serious business, and when you’ve played in five of the last seven U Sports national title games like the women’s team from Langley’s Trinity Western University have, it’s pretty clear that no part of the process can be ignored.Yet allowing that […]