This week, the Varsity Letters podcast welcomes a giant in Canadian basketball circles.

Allison McNeill has touched the stars at every level at which she has played and coached, and today we cover some of the facets of her basketball life that don't get as much attention!

But first, we will talk with Coach McNeill about the struggles the B.C. basketball community is going through as a new high school season, set to dawn across the province next week, remains shuttered.

High school, university, NCAA Div. 1, international competition including the Olympics! Allison McNeill has been a part of it all over her life in basketball.

Varsity Letters, Canada's only podcast dedicated solely to provincial university and high school sports coverage, is produced by Gabriel Lynn, and available at Apple Music, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Our theme music, Generation Next, is written and performed exclusively for Varsity Letters by Chad Joiner and the MEI Screaming Eagles marching band.

It's Wednesday and time to wrap up our two-part series of Shrum Bowl memories by chatting with Simon Fraser University running back Bo Palmer.

A man of many talents, Palmer not only left his mark on the NCAA-era of football at SFU, he enjoyed a little-known career as a child actor.

Originally a quarterback, it took him more than a few seasons before he eventually morphed into a running back, and once his feet hit the ground in that new position, he was off and running.

Today, Palmer takes us on an incredible football and life journey, looking back on a career filled with SFU records and looking ahead to the unifying force a post-pandemic Shrum Bowl celebration could mean for B.C.'s tight-knit football community.

Varsity Letters is Canada's only podcast dedicated solely to the exclusive community of provincial high school and university sports.

We're produced by Gabriel Lynn and you can find us right here each week, or at Spotify, Apple Music or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Varsity Letters-The Podcast marches to the beat of its exclusive theme music 'Generation Next', written and performed by Chad Joiner and the MEI Screaming Eagles Marching Band.

Welcome back to Varsity Letters - The Podcast.

Earlier this week, we let you — our loyal listening audience — know all about our themed, two-part discussion with a pair of past B.C. football greats, who each happened to have played in the last contested Shrum Bowl… way back in 2010!

My, how a decade flies by!

Today, we start the mini-series by inviting former UBC Thunderbirds' quarterback Billy Greene to the VL-Pod.

Yes, we talk plenty of Shrum Bowl memories, but we also talk about the quarterback's high school career, his 2011 award-winning campaign with the 'Birds.

There's also time to talk about his new career and the mentors who have played such a huge role in his life.

On Wednesday, we'll be right back, this time with Simon Fraser University running back Bo Palmer.

Varsity Letters is Canada's only podcast dedicated solely to the exclusive community of provincial high school and university sports.

We're produced by Gabriel Lynn and you can find us right here each week, or at Spotify, Apple Music or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Varsity Letters-The Podcast marches to the beat of its exclusive theme music 'Generation Next', written and performed by Chad Joiner and the MEI Screaming Eagles Marching Band.

What were the days of B.C. boys high school basketball like in the late 1980s and early 1990s, especially outside of the largest tier of competition?

Terry Fox Ravens' senior boys basketball co-coach Mark Prinster joins host Howard Tsumura on this week's Varsity Letters podcast to reflect on what now looks like a golden age!

Prinster and Tsumura were each 23 years old when they met during the 1986-87 season, Prinster as the head coach of Burnaby's Cariboo Hill Chargers, and Tsumura less than a year into his tenure as the sports editor at The Burnaby NOW newspaper.

The pair chat about the Chargers' B.C. Single-A championship behind Grade 11 MVP Brian Clements, who later played under Jay Triano at Simon Fraser, then reference such players as Derek Christiansen, Spencer McKay, Chris Brinnen, Brendan Graves, Eric Hinrichsen and Randy Nohr.

Prinster also talks about life these days at Terry Fox with all manner of programs shuttered due to the pandemic, and Tsumura finds out which teachers played an influential role in Prinster's development as a father, coach and educator.

Varsity Letters, Canada's only podcast dedicated solely to provincial university and high school sports coverage, is produced by Gabriel Lynn, and available at Apple Music, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Our theme music, Generation Next, is written and performed exclusively for Varsity Letters by Chad Joiner and the MEI Screaming Eagles marching band.

Welcome to the Varsity Letters podcast for Wednesday, Oct. 28.

Our guest this week might be the only person to have led a B.C. senior boys basketball team to a provincial title as a head coach, while also having played in a B.C. senior boys hoops varsity final, a CCAA national final, and a U Sports Final 8 national final.

All that said, St. Thomas More Knights head coach Aaron Mitchell, a proud Terry Fox, Capilano, Langara and Brandon alum, is also a fine broadcaster in his own right, launching A Hoops Journey this past May, a podcast which gets inside the basketball lives of so many who have left an imprint on the game in B.C.

Mitchell joins host Howard Tsumura to chat about all things basketball, education and life.

Varsity Letters, Canada's only podcast dedicated solely to provincial high school and university sports, is back on the air. You can find us at Spotify, Apple Music or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Trinity Western Spartans' women's basketball coach Cheryl Jean-Paul checks in with host Howard Tsumura this week to chat about her school's 2020 Leadership Super Conference, a remote event set to stream this Friday.

The focus this year, in this time of global pandemic, has shifted even more squarely on the holistic side of student-athlete well-being.

As well, Jean-Paul speaks to the importance of the Diversity Panel she will chair as part of Friday's conference, and in the strides taken by the newly-formed Black Canadian Coaches Association.

There's also plenty of time to talk Canada West women's basketball as Jean-Paul speaks to the efforts her young Spartans are making as they continue to build team culture through these tough and demanding times.

Varsity Letters is Canada's only podcast dedicated solely to the coverage of provincial high school and university sports. We're produced by Gabriel Lynn, with original theme music written and performed exclusively by Chad Joiner and the MEI Screaming Eagles marching band.

You can catch us Apple Music, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

You can also keep up to date with our in-depth feature writing at VarsityLetters.ca

Welcome back to another edition of the Varsity Letters podcast!

This week we welcome Abbotsford Secondary head football coach Jay Fujimura to chat about the record-setting weekend enjoyed by former Panthers' great Chase Claypool.

The four touchdowns Claypool scored for the Pittsburgh Steelers in their win over the Philadelphia Eagles represented a landmark moment for the B.C. football community.

As well, you can read all about the incredible 2015 senior season Claypool enjoyed with Abby Sr. before embarking on his collegiate football journey at Notre Dame right here at VarsityLetters.ca

Four high school coaches who faced Claypool talk about first noticing the traits he so now confidently relies on to find success at the game's highest level.

VarsityLetters-The Podcast is available at Apple Music, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Our original theme music — Generation Next — is written, performed and recorded especially for Varsity Letters by Chad Joiner and the MEI Screaming Eagles Band.

Our thanks as always to producer Gabe Lynn for getting us on the air!

Welcome to another episode of Varsity Letters—The Podcast.

Today we open the show with a short tribute to the late Karin Khuong from Mike Carkner, one of her basketball coaches at Terry Fox Secondary in PoCo.

Khuong, 16, lost a two-year battle with cancer on Sunday.

The theme of the show this week?

In honour of World Teacher Day 2020, we welcome a pair of longtime B.C. teacher coaches.

Paul Eberhardt, a West Vancouver School District VP, and a longtime college and high school basketball coach, revisits with many of his past mentors, then chats about his Lanagara men's team and on the performance of South Kam's Kelly Olynyk in these 2020 NBA playoffs.

As well, Carson Graham Secondary head football coach Brian Brady stops by to chat about some of his most influential teachers, in addition to bringing us all up top date on the state of high school football practices at his North Vancouver school.

To wind things up, your podcast host talks about the teachers who have played a major role over the years, especially as it pertains to their positive encouragement on my path to becoming a sportswriter.

Varsity Letters is Canada's only podcast dedicated solely to the coverage of provincial high school and university sports. We're produced by Gabriel Lynn, with original theme music written and performed exclusively by Chad Joiner and the MEI Screaming Eagles marching band.

You can catch us Apple Music, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

You can also keep up to date with our in-depth feature writing at VarsityLetters.ca

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 the top to talk about UBC track star and former Prime Minister John Turner's time on the Point Grey campus, the 1929-30 UBC women's basketball world champions (they triumphed in the title game over France at the Women's World Games, not the Women's Olympiade as Wong states in the podcast but later corrects!), and 1972 Olympic high jumper John Hawkins, who was also a member of UBC's 1970 CIAU championship men's basketball team.

Also joining us is Guy MacPherson, the former radio voice of the Victoria Vikes men's basketball team. MacPherson, who has hosted the Vancouver-based What's So Funny comedy show on Co-Op Radio since 2004, also reflects on his six seasons covering the Vancouver Grizzlies for a number of different media outlets, as well as his chance meeting with Prime Minister Turner in the mid-1980s.

Varsity Letters is Canada's only podcast dedicated solely to the coverage of provincial high school and university sports. We're produced by Gabriel Lynn, with original theme written and performed exclusively by Chad Joiner and the MEI Screaming Eagles marching band.

You can catch us Apple Music, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can also keep up to date with our in-depth feature writing at VarsityLetters.ca

Welcome back to Varsity Letters - The Podcast for June 9, 2020.

Big news this week in the world of Canadian university sports means we'll welcome three guests to the pod this week!

Joining us will be UBC Director of Athletics Kavie Toor, longtime Trinity Wester University head women's soccer coach Graham Roxburgh, and Football Canada president Jim Mullin.

All three guests will shed their perspective on the Canada West's cancellation of its fall season Monday, touching on the uncertain future which lies ahead for student-athletes, as well as the financial realities which have begun to emerge three months into the Covid-19 pandemic.

Varsity Letters, Canada's only podcast dedicated solely to provincial university and high school sports coverage, is produced by Gabriel Lynn, and available at Apple Music, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Our theme music, Generation Next, is written and performed exclusively for Varsity Letters by Chad Joiner and the MEI Screaming Eagles marching band.