Jefferson Hagen
MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – Growing pains are expected when launching any post-secondary sports program, but in the case of MacEwan women's volleyball, it's remarkable how quickly the Griffins found their footing.
Just two years after going 0-21 in their inaugural season, the team suddenly turned into a powerhouse, winning back-to-back CCAA silver medals, two ACAC Championships and recording a dominant 41-1 regular season record from 1979-81.
In 1980-81, the Griffins became the first of 12 teams in the 50-year history of MacEwan Athletics to go undefeated in a regular season with a perfect 21-0 record.
Long overdue, members of those 1979-81 teams will be inducted into the MacEwan Athletics' Wall of Distinction during a ceremony following Saturday's women's volleyball match vs. Regina (3 p.m., David Atkinson Gym). The teams will also play on Friday (5 p.m., both Canada West TV).
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"Ed Redden is the whole key to it all," said 1981 CCAA tournament first all-star member Erin Martin of their late head coach, who passed away in 2018. "He recruited the team and he's kind of the heart and soul of it.
"We were very competitive in our own ways, but we were all on the same page. Everybody wanted the same thing, everybody was working for the same goal and we loved playing together. We loved being together."
So much so that after receiving the news they'd be inducted last summer, they reconnected with teammates they hadn't seen in decades through a What's App group.
"I did a facetime with Sheila (Staples – nee Marshall) when I first heard about this," said Martin. "We were both laughing and crying, and it was like we were back to that time. It's like no years had passed. Just the enthusiasm is just awesome."
She also found out one of her former teammates – Kathy Nichiporuk – lives just an hour away from her Beaverlodge, Alta. home in Dawson Creek, B.C. They've begun regularly meeting for tea.
This is what happens when you accomplish what the 1979-80 and 1980-81 MacEwan women's volleyball teams did as they rolled through the ACAC and went to two-straight national finals, losing to Quebec's Collége Sherbrooke both years to earn silvers.
The MacEwan women's volleyball program had fun off the court and won most of their games on it, claiming back-to-back CCAA silver medals in 1980 and 1981 (File photo).
"Ed probably saw that he was putting together a very powerful team, but then all of a sudden, we were just winning constantly," remembered Patti Telford, an ACAC all-star in 1979-80. "Every tournament we went in, we were first or second. In the league we were winning. It was just kind of like this wild ride for two years of winning constantly."
The players' belief grew to the point that winning was their expectation every night.
"It was just kind of matter of fact," said Martin, a setter on the team. "It wasn't like, 'oh my gosh, look at this achievement that we had.'
"We just knew that we were together and that we were successful, we were competitive. We loved to play hard, and we loved to win."
In that era, the Griffins played out of the South Campus gym, which was recently part of a Covenant Health facility located in Millwoods before it was torn down. The gym was used as a testing centre during the COVID-19 pandemic with the Griffins' wordmark still on the floor.
The old MacEwan South Campus gym is shown with the Griffins' wordmark still on the floor while it was being used as a COVID testing centre during the pandemic (Jefferson Hagen photo).
At the time, Grant MacEwan College was spread out on four campuses across the city.
"It was so different because there were four campuses, so we didn't spend a lot of time in class together or saw each other in the same facility all the time," recalled Martin. "We met for practices at the old Millwoods campus. Every time we got there, it was just super fun. The floor was that horrific old sticky rubber floor.
"I actually read an article – a newspaper clipping I found – and it was, 'well, we don't really have a lot of fan support, but those that came were fairly raucous.' "
To drum up more interest, Redden – ever the showman – had some unique ideas to get fans in the seats.
"One time Ed was trying to get a fund-raiser, and we were supposed to play volleyball against the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders," said Martin. "That was just such a horrid joke. They weren't volleyball players.
"It would be like playing a junior high team, basically."
The 1980-81 MacEwan women's volleyball team is decked out in western wear for this photo. Head coach Ed Redden is pictured back right (Courtesy, Erin Martin).
Redden, who coached the MacEwan women's volleyball program from 1978-82 before becoming the Griffins Athletics Director from 1982-86, was also MacEwan's bowling coach for two seasons (yes, the ACAC once had bowling as a sport).
He was quoted for a story at macewangriffins.ca memorializing late former Griffins men's volleyball MVP Wade Konschuh, who passed away in 2017.
"He was one of the most reliable people I've ever met in my life," Redden said of Konschuh. "The reason I'm so emotional is he was just like a son to me; I was so close to him."
Redden sadly passed away a year later in Ontario and is also highly regarded by his former players. He would have been overjoyed the team is being inducted into the Wall of Distinction.
"He was an incredible people person," said Martin. "He wore his heart on his sleeve. He loved being around everybody and he loved telling stories. He absolutely reveled in the success that we had. He could take a joke. He was just so fun. Just the positivity. He just made everybody believe in themselves and in each other."
That's what made the difference in their success, said Telford.
"I would say that part of it was Ed's coaching, for sure," said Telford, who was a top outside hitter on both CCAA silver medal-winning teams. "He saw the best position that we'd each excel at. He was a relentless coach.
"We still laugh about the practices – just how hard we would practice and how hard he would push us. Then I think the momentum started carrying us. When we saw we were actually really good, we wanted to maintain that, and we worked hard."
Lora Anderson, left, high-fives teammates in a photo taken out of the MacEwan Scimitar (yearbook) in 1980-81. She was a CCAA tournament all-star in both 1980 and 1981.
CCAA nationals were in Red Deer in 1980, which helped the team acclimate quickly and play well.
"Yeah, it was huge that we were playing in this national championship, but it was just down the road, and we'd played there a lot, so we were pretty comfortable there," said Martin.
"Then the second year when we went to Cape Breton, and that was an absolute wonderful experience. The people and the experience there – there was lots of support and lots of enthusiasm."
Eva Mausolf bumps a ball in a pictured that appeared in the MacEwan 1979-80 Scimitar (yearbook).
In 1980, they lost 3-0 in the final to Collége Sherbrooke – 15-1, 15-9, 15-9 – finishing second out of seven teams at the nationals. Pat Cassidy and Lora Anderson were both named to the all-tournament team.
In 1981, they returned to the final and found themselves against Sherbrooke again, but the Quebec squad was too much, winning 3-0 again (15-3, 15-2, 15-9). Martin and Anderson both made the all-tournament team.
"They were just our nemesis," said Martin. "They were a tough team. They just had such a varied offence that we kind of got caught a bit on our heels. But we felt that we were competitive with them. We gave them a really good match. It was such a positive competitiveness."
And their accomplishment was special. They won the first two of 30 CCAA Championship team medals accomplished in MacEwan's history (along with another 24 individual CCAA medals) and established the legacy of excellence the Griffins are known for.
Shelia Staples (nee Marshall) spikes the ball over the net in a photo from the 1970-80 MacEwan Scimitar (yearbook).
When they returned home after winning their first CCAA medal, the celebration was on.
"I remember it being a big deal," said Telford. "I just think back to the energy at the campus. We weren't all at the South campus, some were downtown, but there was a lot of excitement.
"When we came back, I don't remember completely, but I feel like there was some kind of party or something for us."
Telford graduated from MacEwan with a law enforcement degree, but never actually ended up working in her field, and didn't play volleyball after her time as a Griffin. She instead went back to school to become a nurse, later moving into health care management consulting and also taught nursing at MacEwan for a time.
Patti Telford as shot by the Edmonton Journal for a preview story ahead of going to nationals (Courtesy, Patti Telford).
Seeing what everyone from those teams are doing now has been a special journey they've all been on since first hearing they'd be inducted.
"It's actually been pretty interesting," she said from Vancouver where she now owns her own business. "There have been pockets of us that have stayed connected, but collectively as a group we haven't. Erin and Sheila got us on a What's App group and we're kind of sharing what's been happening in our lives.
"It's kind of cool to see what people have done and where they've evolved to, what their families are like and all the other things that they've done. There's quite a bit of energy right now because it's coming up right away."
Martin stayed in volleyball right after graduating, launching into a 35-year coaching career in 1982 that included high school, Team Alberta and at then-Grande Prairie Regional College (now Northwest Polytechnic) volleyball programs, and ended with an induction into the Alberta Schools Athletic Association Hall of Fame in 2018. She's now retired.
"The reason why I came to Grant MacEwan was to play for Ed," she said. "I had played in Red Deer. My very first year at Red Deer College, the coach that had been there was away on sabbatical, so Ed Redden had stepped in to be interim coach for a year. The previous coach didn't recruit anybody, so here was Ed trying to recruit players.
"I had gone to Red Deer College to play basketball, but this funny little man – he was military – talked me into playing for him. I can't imagine the direction my life would have gone if I had made a different decision.
"I have lifetime friends because of this volleyball experience I had at MacEwan. I've coached for so long, too, so his reach has continued down through generations. It's really cool to have had that opportunity."
The 1979-80 MacEwan women's volleyball team - as shown in the Scimitar (yearbook) - is the first team in MacEwan history to win a CCAA Championship medal.
The 1980-81 MacEwan women's volleyball team, as shown in the Scimitar (yearbook).
