Wall of Distinction: Magical playoff run led to Griffins winning 2009 CCAA national championship

Jefferson Hagen
MacEwan Athletics

EDMONTON – Chris Womack thinks about it a lot, how the entire course of his life might have changed if a single point they won went differently in the 2008-09 ACAC men's volleyball final.

Trailing 2-0 to defending national champion Mount Royal in the best-of-five gold medal match, the Griffins found themselves down 24-21 in the third set, a point away from their season ending.

Somehow, they improbably rallied to win 30-28, took Set 4 by a 25-20 count and knocked off the Cougars 15-11 in the fifth-and-deciding set to punch their ticket to nationals, where they won the program's only CCAA championship and etched their names in history. 

"I think back to that moment a lot," said Womack. "I think about if one of those points had gone a different way, my life is totally different. Playing that national championship, it gives you something no one can ever take away from you. If we wouldn't have come back from that deficit in that set, it changes how things go. 

"I ended up leaving for U of A the next year partially because we won nationals, and I felt I had accomplished everything at the ACAC level. I don't know if I would have done that if I hadn't have come back from that."

But they have the rings, the banner and the title that lives on forever.

"I remember when I was coaching at MacEwan to be able to look up on that wall and see that national championship banner and know that I was part of the group that was able to put that one up there, those are special moments," said Womack, who returned to MacEwan as an assistant coach under current head coach Brad Poplawski for two seasons (2017-19). 

"It's etched in time. Once you win a championship, there's nothing anybody can do to take that away from you. That's something I'm pretty proud of that we were able to do that for MacEwan. I'm really looking forward to the ceremony."

The 2008-09 men's volleyball team will be inducted into the Griffins' Wall of Distinction during a ceremony following MacEwan's match vs. UFV on Friday (5 p.m., David Atkinson Gym, Canada West TV). The Griffins will also host UFV on Saturday (2 p.m.).

PURCHASE TICKETS HERE

The Griffins pose after winning the 2008-09 CCAA national championship in Fort McMurray (Submitted).

Jon Heinen was in his first of three seasons as head coach of the Griffins men's volleyball team in 2008-09 and he remarked just what a special moment the group created when no one expected them to do so.

"I was reflecting on this because the ceremony's obviously coming up on Friday," he said earlier this week. "It was a really unique coming together of this group of athletes because we had a little bit of an up and down year. We had gone into Keyano in Fort McMurray the match before provincials and they whooped us 3-0, 3-0. That would have determined whether we went into provincials ranked first or fourth. Because we lost, we went in ranked lower than we would have liked, and we spent some time talking about how to perform. 

"Then, it was just like magic. We went into provincials and the guys just performed. It was one of those things when I reflect on it kind of gives me goosebumps – to think of how good they actually played. Everything they did all year to prepare just came together in six matches in a row."

Libero Mark Breakwell remembers well what happened when Mount Royal was serving for match point in that third set of the ACAC final.

"Actually, I screwed up," he recalled. "I got beat to my right and the ball was going into the stands, and I think it was Will (Pasieka) who brought it back into play. We gave a free ball on game point, and they ran a middle ball. I'd just gotten back to my position, and I barely popped it up and we saved the point. It was a mistake to start out and then you make a big play to get out of it."

From there, both Womack and Tristan Locke put the Griffins in a good position from the service line.

"We just never quit," said Breakwell. "It was ridiculous how everyone was just dialed in that game. I remember game point, me and Ryan Zwarich were in positions 1 and 5 and we were screaming at each other – we're finishing this now."

They did just that, winning the program's second ACAC Championship and gaining the conference's only qualifying berth to nationals as Keyano College got the other one as the nationals host.

The challenge of winning the ACAC title was great for the Griffins, who needed to rally back from 2-0 down to beat defending national champion Mount Royal in the conference final (Submitted).

At nationals, the Griffins again faced adversity right off the bat when Seneca College erased a 2-0 deficit to force a fifth-and-deciding set in the quarter-finals. That's when Womack had one of his defining moments.

"One of my memories is Chris going back there and pounding four or five serves in a row," said Heinen. "I think we were up 9-8 or something and all of a sudden, it was ours. That was the kind of moment that he created. He just took over and pushed us over the edge."

UFV was no slouch as their semifinal opponent, having won the silver medal in the tough PacWest conference. But, although the sets were close, the Griffins won all three to punch their ticket to the final.

Chris Womack's spin serve made a huge difference for the Griffins at the national championship.

That's when they stared down Quebec powerhouse Cégep de Limoilou, who were intimidating in their own right as the undefeated No. 1 seed of the tournament.

"They came out and they were all men," recalled Heinen. "They had full facial hair, and they had dyed (their hair) different colours. They had some of them who had shaved half their heads."

But the Griffins were undeterred by the display.

"I wish I remember all the inspirational stuff I said, but I think we just went in thinking it's another opportunity and let's go out and enjoy it, let's play our game," said Heinen. "We had a very good strategy; we had been watching Limoilou throughout the tournament. So, we lined up our lineup against them and it worked out nicely when we always got the matchups we wanted. Then again, the guys just performed. They were relaxed."

MacEwan won the opening set handily, 25-17 before Limoilou hit back with a dominant 25-14 win in Set 2.

"We did this back and forth and I remember thinking, 'OK, all right, let's see what happens in this third set,' " said Heinen. "But nobody panicked. They all kind of settled. 

"Then we had some big moments, there was lots of energy, we were in Fort McMurray where there was a very good crowd that was supporting us, largely, I would say because we were from Alberta."

MacEwan rolled to the title with 25-23 and 25-21 wins in Sets 3 and 4.

Steve Phillips, left, and Chris Womack accept the hardware after the game. The Griffins won both the CCAA national title and the Mel Stelck Award for Fair Play (Submitted).

On match point, Breakwell remembers Pasieka's serve put Limoilou out of system, giving the Griffins a free ball back over the net, which allowed Ryan McDonald to hammer a kill off a defender's chest and out of play. 

"It was surreal," he said of the moment they won the national title. "Just kind of elation and pure excitement. I turned around and saw my teammates running off the bench and just hugging everyone – guys jumping up and down, guys in tears. It was an incredible moment, something I'll never forget."

Womack was named tournament MVP, while Breakwell and Pasieka made the first all-star team.

"It was pretty special, but at the same time it was more about the team winning a national championship," said Womack, who later won MacEwan's Male Athlete of the Year award. "It wasn't about the MVP trophy, it was about having the main trophy and getting rings as a team. I was just happy I played my part and performed when I needed to. 

"Obviously, it's an honour to be named MVP and know that you contributed to your team winning that. It was a cool experience, but it wasn't the most important thing to me, it was more so having our name etched on that trophy."

Libero Mark Breakwell, left, and setter Wyatt Dogterom pose with the CCAA banner draped around their shoulders. Breakwell was named to the tournament's first all-star team (Submitted).

Heinen said the tournament allowed Womack to showcase himself to a larger volleyball world.

"Here's a guy who was an underrated superstar," said the coach. "He wasn't praised as being one of the best players in the league or anything. Then he showed up in the most incredible manner – didn't miss any serves and was super clutch. When we needed him to get a kill, he got a kill. He passed really well. 

"He went from a guy nobody really noticed to a guy the U of A recruited for the next year because he just played so well. It's a pretty cool story when I think about it. He played outstanding."

To top it off, the Griffins were awarded the Mal Stelck Award for Fair Play, based on their sportsmanship throughout the event – an honour that rarely goes to the championship team.

"I have always thought about it as a recognition of just the quality of the athletes," said Heinen. "They were good kids, they didn't argue with the refs, they were polite, they had a good attitude, they were not jerks; they were just really quality people, so they got recognized for it. 

"I remember at the MacEwan Athletics ceremony when we got together with all the other teams, we had three trophies sitting on our table – provincials, the sportsmanship award and nationals. Of all those three, in some ways, the sportsmanship award is the coolest. Maybe not the best trophy because you always want to win, but it's pretty cool these guys were recognized for that as well."

William Pasiecka led the Griffins with 10 blocks in three matches at the ACAC Championship tournament.

Under Heinen, the team went 15-5 in the regular season, but didn't really start to get the respect they deserved until they swept 12-8 Red Deer College in the quarter-finals. The Kings were a recent dynasty that had won an unprecedented eight-straight national titles from 2000-07.

"I just remember the quarter-final match against Red Deer, we won it pretty handily and I remember other teams coming into the gym after and seeing the look on their faces and hearing the chatter, like 'whoa, that was not a game everyone else expected us to win,' " said Breakwell. "We obviously thought we had a good shot there, but I think that was a surprise to a lot of people and we might have caught some teams off guard that didn't think we could perform at the level we did."

But the Griffins delivered their peak performance when the moment called for it. They also knocked off Medicine Hat 3-2 in the ACAC semifinals before winning the title.

"I think Jon was kind of the right fit for that group," said Breakwell of the head coach. "He instilled confidence in us and gave us the belief that we could pull off this – I wouldn't call it a miracle because we were a very good team – but I don't think everybody had us pencilled in to win the national championship that year."

Added Womack: "To be honest, the big thing was we peaked at the right time. There was definitely some luck involved in some of the matches we played, but we performed when we needed to perform our best. That kind of allowed us to have that success."

An overhead shot captures Griffins players celebrating with the 2008-09 CCAA national championship trophy (Submitted).

Heinen, who moved to Fort McMurray to raise a family for a decade after coaching the Griffins, is now back in the Edmonton area coaching volleyball again with the SAS Volleyball Club (St. Albert Sturgeon) and is still playing the game with FOG after formerly playing pro in Sweden. 

He's never seen anything like the winning magic the 2008-09 Griffins had.

"I think that's part of the mystery," he said of how that team went from underdogs to national champions. "I've coached and watched a lot of volleyball, and I've ruminated on the idea that winning is really difficult. Everything just has to come together at once. In some ways, if we had the answer to that, well then everybody would win. But that's not how it works. 

"Some of it was timing, some of it was the quality of athletes we had. We didn't have anyone I'd describe as a superstar. If I look back, I don't think any of those guys got CCAA All Canadian (awards) or anything like that. 

"But they were just really good athletes and when you put them all together and they all rose to that level, it just was a really cool experience to see."

Now, as one of only three Griffins teams that won a national championship, they will become just the second MacEwan squad inducted into the Wall of Distinction. 

"There are a few guys we've stayed in touch with a few guys we haven't," said Womack, who had Steve Phillips in his wedding party and still plays beer league volleyball with Jeremy Potter. "But it's one of those things. Whenever you see those guys, you're always going to have a connection with them just given what we went through that year and what we were able to accomplish as a group."