Griffins' championship-rich golf program leaves legacy of excellence

Jefferson Hagen, MacEwan Athletics

EDMONTON – The storied history of the MacEwan Griffins golf program needs little introduction.

Eighteen ACAC Championship banners.

Thirteen ACAC individual championships.

A total of 12 of those team titles and seven individual gold medals have come in the 11 seasons that Jodi Campbell and Alan Riley have been at the helm of the program.

So, it's understandable when reached to speak about the legacy of the Griffins golf program – which has been discontinued as part of MacEwan's decision to divest its ACAC membership – Campbell was reflective and emotional.

"The word pride almost doesn't do it," the head coach said. "I have a love affair with this team. Both myself and Alan Riley were a part of the team right from the get-go. This has been something that's been our baby for a lot of years.

"I think we've had 70 players, on the nose, who came through our program (in our tenure). So, we have a strong alumni. We have people who will be lifelong friends into the future. Our program is not just about the championships and trophies. It's about all the relationships that were formed along the way."

Campbell became the head coach prior to the 2009 ACAC season and took his time to study top programs from around the country – like Humber College and the University of Fraser Valley – as he worked to instill a winning culture.
"When I first took over the program, I was given one specific task and that was develop a winning program that would be sustainable," he explained. "We were able to build a team that didn't rely on any one player. Eventually, we were able to have sustained success because we always had those new recruits coming in and new people that were able to fill the gaps."

Case in point is how they graduated two ACAC individual champions – Barrett Belland and Brett Hawken after the 2016 season – only to win another conference championship in 2018 with a new crew, powered by veteran Josh Gorieu and youngster Justin Berget, who would go on to win an ACAC gold medal last fall.

Barrett Belland won every ACAC event during the 2016 season, including the championship (Len Joudrey photo).

"Part of my job was turning this individual sport into a team sport and it was something we did very, very well," said Campbell. "I remember when we were in Olds (in 2013), it all came down to the last player. I remember watching Barrett Belland make a three-foot putt to win the championship when two hours before that we were six shots back.

"We've got multiple stories throughout our team's history of doing that and being able to scrape out a championship and win by one shot."

Another moment that really stands out to Campbell is when the Griffins women captured five-straight ACAC Championships (2011-2015) to match Mount Royal (winners of five straight from 2002-06) for the most dominant run in conference history.

"Part of that team culture over the years that we created was never throwing in the towel, never giving up," said Campbell. "If you have a competitor who's going to shoot 82 and you're going to shoot 83, the goal is to shoot 81.

"Our women won five championships in a row because of that reason. Our men had sustained success over that duration because of our recruiting and team culture," he added. "It was something the players were able to buy into and we just repeated it year after year after year. We never did miss a year going to the national championships and I'm very aware there's a lot of teams that don't get to go within a decade and we went 11 years in a row."

The Griffins women won a Canadian Colleges Athletic Association bronze medal in 2012 before Berget captured the first CCAA individual medal in program history when he won a silver last fall in Sainte-Victoire De-Sorel, Que.

MacEwan golf coaches Jodi Campbell, left, and Alan Riley flank Justin Berget after he captured a silver medal at the 2019 CCAA national championship.

Berget, who won the 2019 ACAC Championship by nine shots in as dominant a performance the conference has ever seen, is one of five Griffins men to win individual conference titles, following Scott Wenger (1996), Jason Hnatiw (1999), Hawken (2012) and Belland (2016).

Eight times, a Griffins female golfer has struck gold at the ACAC Championship: Sue Wright (1993), Jeanette Anderson (1995), Jeannette Passmore (1996), Shari Humbke (1997), Megan Vermillion (2011 and 2013), Sydney Johnson-Parker (2012) and Elizabeth Stewart (2015). 

Adding to the program's crowded awards mantle, Campbell and Riley shared the ACAC coach of the year honours in both the 2011-12 and 2012-13 seasons.

"The golf team's student athletes have made an incredible contribution to the legacy of Griffins Athletics and both coaches were stellar program leaders‎ in the development of the championship culture which goes well beyond strokes, putts and scores," said Griffins' Director of Athletics Ken Schildroth.

MacEwan's eight men's team ACAC golf championships came in 1995, 1996, 1999, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2016 and 2018.

And in addition to the five in a row that the Griffins women won from 2011-15, they also captured ACAC Championships in 1995, 1996, 1997, 2009 and 2017.

Elizabeth Stewart, shown during a 2017 practice session at Red Tail Landing GC, is one of eight female golfers in Griffins' golf history that won an ACAC individual championship (Jefferson Hagen photo).

"Did we want to win? Yeah, 100 per cent," related Campbell. "But the one thing I would always tell the players is there's going to come a day when you're in your 40s and you're at somebody's wedding and you're all sitting around having a beer, you're not going to remember that triple-bogey or the time you shot 85 in a tournament. What you're going to remember are the championships and how people made you feel. You're going to remember being on the bus. You're going to remember hanging out in a restaurant and somebody pulling a prank. You remember those things.

"They soon realize that what we were trying to create was an experience for them as a MacEwan student-athlete. Was it about winning? Yes. Was it about working hard? Absolutely. But at the end of the day, I just wanted to create a really cool experience that they could take with them for the rest of their lives."