Jefferson Hagen, MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – Fresh off their best regular season since joining Canada West, the MacEwan Griffins women's soccer team got a Christmas bonus.
A pair of standout local players have decided to return from the NCAA and join the Griffins.
Myah Jalal (University of Memphis) and Breanna Truscott (University of Louisiana-Monroe) both approached head coach Dean Cordeiro – who is also their club coach with Northwest United – about returning home.
"They both hinted that, 'we want to try this experience down south and if it doesn't work, you're our local option,' " he explained. "We keep the door open for these types of situations."
And what a fortunate situation it is for the Griffins.
Jalal, who has already joined the team and will play in the winter season because she didn't consume eligibility at Memphis, is the third player from the Canadian national team player pool the Griffins have landed. Previously announced recruits Shanice Alfred (2019) and Grace Mwasalla (2020) out of the Calgary Blizzard also have Team Canada U17 camp experience, just like Jalal.
Both Jalal and Truscott were members of Team Alberta's 2017 Canada Summer Games squad.
"That's the calibre of student-athletes we're bringing in here," said Cordeiro.
"The awesome thing with Myah is we really find that her technical ability is at another level. Her ability on the ball to make things happen is really special."
Jalal spent the fall campaign with the Memphis Tigers, but didn't see any action behind a deep team and, thus, retains first-year eligibility for next season.
"They're the 15th-ranked program in all of NCAA Div. 1," said Cordeiro. "So, this is a program that has many international players, many national team players. She's coming from an environment that's best on best. For her to want to come back home and be a Griffin is very exciting.
"She can play as an attacking mid, she can play as a wide player. Myah's very good on the ball and can make things happen. I think it's just going to be a perfect fit for our style of play.
"We couldn't be happier that a player of Myah's caliber decided to come back home and come to MacEwan."
Goalkeeper Truscott shared the net at Louisiana-Monroe, starting seven games and seeing 729:11 minutes of action as a freshmen, racking up 71 saves. She was second in the Sun Belt conference in saves per game and sixth overall for total saves out of 33 keepers in the conference.
But she, too, wanted to come home after growing up playing for the Sherwood Park Phoenix and attending Archbishop O'Leary high school.
"Bre's a little bit different in the sense that she's going to stay winter term at Louisiana-Monroe and come back for fall term," said Cordeiro. "She consumed eligibility, so she would have only been able to train."
They're more than willing to wait. She's the type of quality goalkeeper that the program needs, especially with starter Emily Burns heading into her fifth and final season.
"We all know that Emily Burns, our No. 1, is going into her senior year, so this is it for her. With the likes of Breanna and Bianca (Castillo), who had a remarkable year for us, we're excited about the depth at a position you need to be strong in at this level to be a team that can compete," said Cordeiro.
"To have that competitiveness amongst those players is going to push them all to be the best that they can be. Like any position on the field, the best player will get those opportunities."
Jalal will be with the Griffins for their winter season, which begins on Jan. 19 vs. the University of Calgary (5:15 p.m., Foote Field Dome).
Part of the winter season will be used to find the right position for Jalal, who is joining a team that's knocking on the door for a Canada West championship.
"For me, it's a matter of trying different types of combinations and seeing what works best," said Cordeiro. "At the end of it, what we want to see happen is get our best 11 players on the field. A player like Myah, she's pretty versatile. She can play in a midfield role, she can play in a front three role. She'll compete to be in one of those two areas for us."
The Griffins will also compete in the University of Alberta's Snow Cup tournament on Jan. 25-26, play the Pandas on Feb. 1 (2:15 p.m.) and go against REX (Regional Excellence program that both Jalal and Truscott were a part of in their youth) on Feb. 9 (10:15 a.m.). They'll also face the Pandas on March 16 (12:15 p.m., all games Foote Field Dome).
The capper of their winter season, though, is a trip to Hawaii Feb. 14-25 where they'll see plenty of sun and play matches against post-secondary competition there.
All of it is building towards next season where the prospects are bright.
"Our talent pool continues to grow," said Cordeiro. "I can't wait for next year to get started. We only had one graduating player and we return pretty much everyone.
"We're getting older and becoming that experienced team we've never really been. Next year we'll finally be that veteran team and I think when you look around at a lot of teams losing some key fifth-year players, this is going to be our opportunity to hopefully take that next step."
