Pacey, 'smooth' BTB, Cavalry, Team Alberta fullback Welch has immediate impact potential for Griffins
Jefferson Hagen
MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – Lofty praise, indeed, but Griffins head coach Adam Loga has high hopes for his newest recruit.
He notes that fullback Kyrie Welch has similar attributes to MacEwan's 2025 Most Outstanding Player T-Boy Fayia.
"He's smooth," said Loga. "He moves well, he's very athletic.
"We're hoping he can kind of get to the level of T-Boy and balance out the other side with his pace and athleticism."
Welch, who spent the 2025 League 1 season with the Cavalry FC U21 squad, and is a product of BTB Academy in Edmonton, will bring his obvious talents to the Griffins in 2026.
Both Fayia and Welch bring speed, tenacity, strong technical ability and quick feet.
Loga envisions having Fayia on one side of the back line and Welch joining a few other veterans battling for playing time on the other.
"It's a pretty demanding role in our game model, so to add depth there along with T-Boy, Jason (Vuzi) and Malik (Abdul) etc., it's going to give us more depth and fresher legs in the second of a back to back."
The 5-foot-9 Welch is an Archbishop O'Leary grad who represented Team Alberta at the 2025 Canada Summer Games. He started and played a full 90 in all but one of their games, helping lead Alberta to a silver medal when Quebec won a scoreless draw in the final 4-3 on penalties.
"He comes with a respectable resume, playing at Canada Summer Games as a starter with Team Alberta," said Loga. "He's had a summer with the Calvary FC's League 1 team last summer and he's spent some time with us at the Whitecaps and has been on trial there with their residency program. So, he's definitely in and around it – similar to how we got Azar (El Khallaa) last year.
"We hope he can turn the corner with us with the help of our staff to develop him."
Speed on the outside is key to Loga's game model, and the Griffins seem to be in good shape following Welch's addition.
"It's like a nice safety net with Paul Amedume down the spine and the pace and athleticism of T-Boy, Kyrie, Liam Van Laar, Vuzi and Abdul – these guys bring a lot of athleticism," said Loga. "It just makes us that much more difficult to play against."
