Jefferson Hagen / MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – Griffins' golf coach Jodi Campbell has a simple message for his players as they enter a new season at the ACAC North Regional tournament in Camrose this weekend.
"We want them to make our life hard," he said.
Campbell is referring to the fact that he and fellow coach Alan Riley can only take five men and three women to the Canadian Colleges Athletic Association nationals next month. So, competition within the team will be just as big as that against rival ACAC schools.
"By the time provincials and nationals roll around, I want every single one of those players to make my life difficult – make me wonder why I'm not taking them," he said.
For the ACAC North Regional – hosted by UAlberta-Augustana on Saturday and Sunday at Camrose Golf Club – MacEwan will go with returning veterans Josh Gorieu, Noah Lubberding and Christian Solkowski, while newcomers Justin Berget and Dakota Smith will round out the five men.
On the women's side, fifth-year players Elizabeth Stewart and Daniela Donnelly will be joined by freshman Hailey Turcotte.
The rest of MacEwan's lineup will play individually this weekend.
The 2017 Griffins men's golf team is coach Jodi Campbell, left, Justin Berget, Josh Gorieu, Christian Solkowski, Brandon Walterhouse, Noah Lubberding, Zac Yurick, Dakota Smith, Les Fisher and coach Alan Riley (Len Joudrey photo).
The Griffins men's team is going into the season as the defending ACAC champions, while the women are trying to get back on top after finishing second in 2016.
"The first event of the year is always an opportunity to get everyone's feet wet and check out the competition a little bit," said Campbell.
"The goals still stand. We're going in there with the expectation that we're going to be at the top of the leaderboard. I'm thinking in comparison to a lot of the other teams, history shows that we're as deep as any of them."
While MacEwan's men's team, in particular, has experienced great turnover – veterans Barrett Belland and Brett Hawken graduated, while fellow starting team member Mitch Lukasewich didn't return – Campbell figures their ACAC rivals have also lost several competitors.
"I don't think there's a team out there than hasn't replaced a big chunk of their core players and we're no different," said Campbell. "We've pretty much replaced four of our men and we have a new young woman on the team. But we've had some big shoes to fill with Barrett and Hawk leaving.
"In many ways, I still think we're in pretty good shape."
Following this weekend, MacEwan's golf teams head to the ACAC South Regional Sept. 23-24 in Medicine Hat before returning home to host. The Griffins will welcome the entire province for the ACAC Championship, Sept. 30 and Oct. 1 at Red Tail Landing Golf Club.
