NANAIMO - The VI Raiders made major strides in 2024 and the expectation is progress even further this upcoming season.After an 0-10 campaign in 2023 the Raiders finished 4-6 last year.Head coach Shawn Arabsky was encourage by the results especially late in the season."Last year was definitely a step forward for th...

NANAIMO - History will be made on Saturday, with the first-ever all-female tackle football game on Vancouver Island. The V.I. Steelers will host the Mainland Wildcats for a game at q'unq'inuqwstuxw Stadium on Third St on Saturday, March 22, a week after the province's first-ever all-female game was played between the t...

NANAIMO - Together since before they can remember and always each other's biggest supporters, two local golfers are going their different ways in pursuit of a university education. Isabel and Maria Schwager celebrated their commitment to university golf on Wednesday, March 13, signing letters of intent to attend UBC-Ok...

NANAIMO - The VIU Mariners women's basketball team is chasing down a second national gold medal in three years. The team is in New Brunswick preparing for their first game against the Mohawk Mountaineers out of Ontario on Wednesday, Mar. 12 at 9 a.m. Mariners athletic director Danielle Hyde is proud of a group that has...

NANAIMO - Untimely losses for a pair of local high school boys basketball teams proved costly over the weekend.Both Dover Bay and Wellington Secondary schools earned semi-finals appearances in their respective divisions at the B.C. School Sports Basketball Provincial Championships, held in Langley and ending with the g...

NANAIMO - The NightOwls will be a much different team on and off the field as their franchise looks to take a step forward.Player turnover is very common in summer baseball but for the first time Nanaimo has a new head coach with Cody Andreychuk taking over from Greg Frady.Andreychuk knows he has tough shoes to fill.&q...

NANAIMO - They came, they lifted and they conquered.A small group of lifters from the Nanaimo and Oceanside region competed at the Canadian Powerlifting Union National Championships, held in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan between Feb. 23 and Mar. 1.Among the group was Margot Croft, who set a new provincial record for her Fema...

NANAIMO - A trio of local high school basketball teams are Mainland-bound this week, with at least two holding high hopes to win a provincial championship. The Dover Bay Dolphins, Wellington Wildcats and Nanaimo Christian Trail Blazers all open their B.C. High School Provincial Basketball Championships campaigns on Wed...

NANAIMO - The VIU men's Mariners are gunning for their second straight PACWEST provincial basketball championship and their third in four years. Coach Matt Kuzminski said his first place team will have their season defined by their performance at the provincial tournament. "We're excited. It's a long regular seaso...

NANAIMO - It was a milestone year for the Nanaimo Sport Achievement Awards.The 20th annual event featured strong performances and commitment to Nanaimo area sports in 2024 with 20 awards handed out at the Coast Bastion Hotel on Friday, Feb. 21.Headlining the 2025 award winners was Ethan Katzberg's gold medal at the 202...

NANAIMO - For the 20th time in school history, the VIU Mariners will compete against the country's best volleyball squads for a chance at a National Championship. The women's volleyball team won the PACWEST Provincial Championships, hosted by VIU in Nanaimo, with the team winning the gold medal game on Saturday, Feb. 2...

NANAIMO - The VIU Mariners won men's and women's provincial gold medals in 2024, and they look to duplicate the same feat on home court in 2025.The VIU women go into the tournament on Feb. 21 as the number one seed while the men are ranked second.Women's coach Shane Hyde has a coaching staff and a roster loaded with ch...

NANAIMO - With seven graduating players, the Dover Secondary senior boys basketball team are hoping to wrap their school careers on a winning note.The team is putting final preparations on their game ahead of hosting the 4A Island Senior Boys Basketball Championship beginning Thursday, Feb. 20. Head coach Darren Seaman...

NANAIMO - After two years playing as Harbourside FC, the central Island's semi-pro soccer team is undergoing a new, albeit very familiar, re-brand.Both the men's and women's squads will play under the Nanaimo United FC umbrella for the 2025 League1 BC season, an on-field reflection of the off-field organization of the ...

NANAIMO - Island Top Team, a Brazilian jiu-jitsu academy in Nanaimo, recently sent two students to a women's only jiu-jitsu event in Bellingham called Battle Grappling.Laya Walker and Sarah Kolybaba travelled stateside along with coach Rob Biernacki.In the adult intermediate category, Walker returned to competition aft...

NANAIMO - The Nanaimo Timbermen selected seven players to their roster through the WLA draft, including three excellent transition defenders.With their territorial protection pick Nanaimo secured the rights of Aidan Collery from the Junior A team.Collery's acquisition signalled a trend of the Timbermen adding players w...

NANAIMO - The Harbour City's Jazmine Wilkinson is taking her talents to the nation's capital as part of a new pro league's inaugural season. After wrapping her collegiate career at Texas A&M in the NCAA, Wilkinson will suit up this year for Ottawa Rapids FC, one of the six teams in the new professional women's Nort...

NANAIMO - The Nanaimo Sport Achievement Awards will celebrate a milestone 20th year.Nominations opened in early December and will wrap up on Jan. 12.The 2025 ceremony itself happens on Feb. 21 at the Coast Bastion Hotel.With memorable performances at the Olympic level as well as national, provincial and island wide suc...

NANAIMO - The PACWEST-leading VIU Mariner women's basketball team has opted not to suit up this weekend, in support of their teammate.A letter signed by all 13 players on the team said the squad does not feel safe playing against Columbia Bible College (CBC) in Abbotsford, for a pair of games beginning Friday, Jan. 10....

NANAIMO - Some of the best hockey players in Western Canada will be in Nanaimo this weekend to showcase their talent in a pair of high-anticipated games. The Vancouver Island University Mariner's hockey team is hosting the BCIHL All-Star game at the Nanaimo Ice Centre with the All-Star team taking on a pair of teams fr...

VANCOUVER - A history-making medal helped sway voters choosing who would win The Canadian Press male athlete of the award in 2024. Hammer thrower Ethan Katzberg earned the honour for his golden performance at the Paris Olympics. He is Canada's first Olympic champion in the event and earned the country's first hammer th...

NANAIMO - Headlined by multiple Olympic and Paralympic gold medals, but backed up by provincial and national championships, key rebuilds and lots of success - the year in sport on the mid-Island was a big one. While NanaimoNewsNOW will have more on this as our series continues, the biggest sports story of the year was ...

NANAIMO - A perfect start to the season for the VIU Mariners men's basketball team as the group in some rare air. The squad has been a perfect 12-0 through PACWEST play in the first half of the season, wrapping play with a 94-64 win over Langara College on Nov. 30, a result indicative of many dominant scorelines with V...

NANAIMO - A former local minor hockey product hopes to return to the same tournament but this time with a different result. On Monday, Dec. 2 Hockey Canada announced the 32-player selection camp roster for the upcoming World Junior Hockey Championship (WJHC) in Ottawa, Ontario, which includes Nanaimo's Matthew Wood. Th...

NANAIMO - Evie Pritchard's resume on four wheels continues to grow.The 12-year-old skateboarder, who hones her skills regularly at the skate park in Cedar, finished third in the street open category at Exposure, in Encinitas, California (north of San Diego), in early November. It's the world's largest skateboarding eve...

NANAIMO - The John Barsby Bulldogs are playing in a BC high school football quarterfinal game in Abbotsford.The AA varsity team will be an underdog against the number three team in the province when they take the field on Friday, Nov. 15 at 3 p.m.Barsby coach Rob Stevenson said it's been a fall of growth for his 5-3 te...

NANAIMO - Clippers alumni Matt Irwin has announced his retirement from the NHL after a career spanning 13 years and 461 games. Irwin played junior hockey in Nanaimo from 2004-2008, appearing in 163 games and earning 92 points. The product of Brentwood Bay was named the BCHL's top Coastal Conference defenceman in both 2...

SQUAMISH - After a narrow defeat in their first game at the CCAA women's soccer nationals the VIU Mariners kept in medal contention with a massive win. The Mariners scored four goals in the opening 22 minutes of their bronze medal quarterfinal en route to an 8-0 win over the Brandon University Bobcats on Thursday, Nov....