LANGLEY — The 2021-22 B.C. high school basketball season may be but a month in the rearview mirror, yet the journey to a new campaign’s tip-off is already well underway.
While Varsity Letters is currently on an extended sabbatical, the one piece of news we did promise last month was unveiling the boys and girls entrants for the 2022 Tsumura Basketball Invitationals set to run this December at the Langley Events Centre.
Yet before we pull the curtain on all of the teams set to take part in both the boys (Dec. 7-10) and girls (Dec. 14-17) tournaments, a bit of new is in order.
In what will be the most significant change to the format of both tournaments since inception 11 years ago, the TBI will expand from one tournament to three beginning this coming season.
The changes?
1 The 20-team main draw has this season been reduced to 16 teams, with each team playing one game per day in a format mimicking the B.C. championship draw.
2 A second tournament, this one for teams best described, for the most part, as “…rising in talent”, will also be staged. It is an eight-team field, one which includes a number of programs who have never before taken part in the TBI.
3 And finally, a third tournament has been created for those programs, located within close geographic proximity of the Langley Events Centre, who might not otherwise have the opportunity to play in the TBI.
The latter two tournaments will also each open play on the Wednesday, and play through their brackets to a Friday completion. On the Saturday, we will then do some creative matchmaking to produce the most competitive games we can between teams which have not previously faced each other.
With that said, a total of 64 boys and girls B.C. high school teams will come together at the home of provincial championships for two weeks of early-season celebration.
The third tournament’s complete field is not yet fully confirmed, so we will announce it at a later date.
Today, however, we have the complete fields (in alphabetical order) for the aforementioned first two fields.
To the many who requested spots in TBI 2022 that we were unable to accommodate, we appreciate your understanding.
BOYS
December 7-10
Langley Events Centre
(Preseason provincial ranking in parenthesis if applicable)
SIXTEEN-TEAM DRAW
Burnaby Mountain Lions (Quad-A HM)
Burnaby South Rebels (Quad-A No. 3)
Byrne Creek Bulldogs (Burnaby) (Triple-A No. 3)
Claremont Spartans (Victoria) (Quad-A HM)
Elgin Park Orcas (Surrey) (Triple-A No. 4)
Enver Creek Cougars (Surrey) (Quad-A No. 9)
Fleetwood Park Dragons (Surrey) (Quad-A No. 8)
Holy Cross Crusaders (Surrey) (Quad-A HM)
Kelowna Owls (Quad-A No. 10)
Oak Bay Bays (Victoria) (Quad-A No. 6)
St. Michaels University School Blue Jags (Victoria) (Double-A No. 3)
St. Patrick’s Celtics (Vancouver) (Triple-A No. 1)
St. Thomas More Knights (Burnaby) (Triple-A No. 2)
Sir Winston Churchill Bulldogs (Vancouver) (Quad-A HM)
Vancouver College Fighting Irish (Quad-A No. 2)
Walnut Grove Gators (Langley) (Quad-A unranked)
EIGHT-TEAM DRAW
Brookswood Bobcats (Langley) (Triple-A HM)
College Heights Cougars (Prince George) (Triple-A unranked)
King George Dragons (Vancouver) (Double-A No. 10)
Lord Byng Grey Ghosts (Vancouver) (Triple-A No. 9)
North Delta Huskies (Triple-A No. 7)
Sir Charles Tupper Tigers (Vancouver) (Triple-A No. 5)
Spectrum Thunder (Victoria) (Quad-A unranked)
Steveston-London Sharks (Richmond) (Triple-A HM)
GIRLS
December 14-17
Langley Events Centre
(*Preseason provincial ranking in parenthesis if applicable)
SIXTEEN-TEAM DRAW
Argyle Pipers (North Vancouver) (Quad-A No. 12)
Brookswood Bobcats
Burnaby Central Wildcats
Fleetwood Park Dragons (Surrey) (Quad-A No. 4)
Kelowna Owls (Quad-A No. 9)
Langley Christian Lightning
Mulgrave Titans (West Vancouver)
Okanagan Mission Huskies (Kelowna) (Quad-A No. 8)
R.A. McMath Wildcats (Richmond)
Riverside Rapids (Port Coquitlam) (Quad-A No. 1)
St. Michaels University School Blue Jags (Victoria)
Seaquam Seahawks (Delta) (Quad-A No. 5)
Sir Winston Churchill Bulldogs (Vancouver) (Quad-A No. 10)
South Delta Sun Devils (Quad-A No. 7)
Walnut Grove Gators (Langley) (Quad-A No. 2)
Yale Lions (Abbotsford) (Quad-A No. 3)
EIGHT-TEAM DRAW
Claremont Spartans (Victoria) (Quad-A No. 11)
Clayton Heights Nightriders (Surrey)
College Heights Cougars (Prince George)
Heritage Woods Kodiaks (Port Moody)
Lambrick Park Pride (Victoria)
St. John Brebeuf Bears (Abbotsford)
South Kamloops Titans
Vernon Panthers
NOTE — B.C. girls high school basketball did not release 2022-23 preseason rankings for 1A, 2A or 3A tiers.
If you’re reading this story or viewing these photos on any website other than one belonging to a university athletic department, it has been taken without appropriate permission. In these challenging times, true journalism will survive only through your dedicated support and loyalty. VarsityLetters.ca and all of its exclusive content has been created to serve B.C.’s high school and university sports community with hard work, integrity and respect. Feel free to drop us a line any time at howardtsumura@gmail.com.
Hey Howard, I love your website and all that you do for high school sports.
I was wondering if you were going to do a article on BC Boys Basketball “top 5” or top 15 etc. I really enjoyed reading those articles for other sports and would love to see the highlighted players in BC Basketball.
Trying to find draw for tourney? If you have an electric copy please send to Dave Morgan at
Mugcon@gmail.com.
Thanks