Jefferson Hagen, MacEwan Athletics
CALGARY – In another first for the MacEwan Griffins, Ken Briggs received the Marilyn Pomfret Award as the U SPORTS Fox 40 women's volleyball coach of the year on Thursday night ahead of the national championship.
After becoming the first Griffins bench boss to win a Canada West coach of the year honour earlier this month, Briggs is now the first MacEwan coach to win the award nationally as well.
"It's always nice to be acknowledged, especially this one because you're voted in by your peers," said Briggs, who has been head coach of the Griffins for the past 18 seasons, including all six of their Canada West campaigns. "Everything I say sounds cliché, but it's really true. Those people have supported me since the first year we came in. We finally won. We've been competitive. I'm not working harder this year than I have any other year or harder than any other coaches we play (against). But we put the pieces together and it shows the growth of the program.
"It's that group of fifth-years that kind of led the way. Our coaching, that's all established now. They've had a number of years to work with these athletes. You can see the difference it makes."
Indeed. The Griffins went from a four-win team two seasons ago to 12 last year and 17 in 2019-20 to finish fourth in the conference and earn the right to host a Canada West playoff weekend for the first time.
"I think it shows our program has evolved and developed – we've had some success," said Briggs. "The biggest thing is the growth piece. It's a reflection of our program and the tremendous group of female coaches and athletes that we've had establish our place in Canada West competition. That's the biggest thing."
The Griffins went 17-7 in a special season that included MacEwan's first U SPORTS athlete of the week (Kylie Schubert), Canada's West's new single-game digs record-holder (Rachel Jorvina) and the program's inaugural Canada West first-team all-star (Haley Gilfillan).
"I think it's a tremendous honour for the institution and a testament to all the hard work of the student-athletes and coaching staff. We're really proud of their accomplishments and Ken's ability to motivate those young women to higher levels," said MacEwan Athletic Director Ken Schildroth. "He's got a very experienced roster and he's put in a lot of time in developing their skills, so it's nice to see him get rewarded. They came together at the right time. I think that's a tremendous credit to them as a group of women."
Briggs was chosen for the U SPORTS honour out of four conference winners from across Canada – topping a group which included Ryerson's Dustin Reid, Montreal's Olivier Trudel and Acadia's Michelle Wood.
He was one of two U SPORTS women's volleyball major award winners from the Canada West conference; UBC-Okanagan's Amaya Perry was named rookie of the year.
