MacEwan University’s student publication. Honest reporting, quality media, and good vibes.

Griffin’s golf team gone after ACAC highs

by | Jan 24, 2025 | Magazine, Sports | 0 comments

Originally published on January 1, 2025.

Walking through the pedway between Building 8 and SAMU, it’s hard not to notice the walls of banners in the David Atkinson Gymnasium. These banners celebrate the many successes in the Alberta Colleges Athletics Conference (ACAC) that the MacEwan Griffins teams have celebrated over the years. 18 of those banners, dating back as recently as 2019-20, are all that remains of the illustrious MacEwan University Griffins golf team.

Like all our athletics programs, they shut down for a season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Unlike most of them, they never returned.

The COVID-19 shutdown served as something of a buffer for MacEwan Athletics. The 2019-20 seasons were cut short, and the following 2020-21 seasons simply never happened. The Griffins entered the shutdown as undisputed juggernauts of the ACAC and returned to their courts and ice rinks as fresh meat in the Canada West conference of the U Sports league, the highest level of collegiate sport in Canada. 

Gone were the days of dominating the likes of NAIT and Concordia. The Griffins were due for a few years of humility served by the giants of university sport, such as the University of British Columbia, and cross-town rivals, the University of Alberta. The move to U Sports was the logical step for the program, but it was costly. To enter the league, MacEwan’s membership within the ACAC had to end. That meant a sudden goodbye to the historic golf team.

Despite the untimely end, MacEwan golf went out on a high. They might not have secured a team championship in the 2019-20 season, but either the men, women, or both had claimed the honour for each of the seven years prior. On the individual side, 2019-20 ACAC male golfer of the year, Justin Berget, won it all. COVID shutdowns took away what would have been the last couple years of his college career, but the program made an impact on Berget’s life that won’t be erased.

“The MacEwan Griffins rekindled my love for the game of golf and playing competitively. Even if I had reservations on going the professional golf route, I really just fell back in love with competitive golf through MacEwan, and I really wanted that to be a part of my life.”

Indeed, it did remain a part of his life. Justin Berget is now an assistant golf pro at Stony Plain Golf Club and a Griffin for life. He remembers his final season and his ACAC championship, well. His nine-shot victory in two-degree weather was one of the greatest performances MacEwan’s program had ever seen. He was part of two championship-winning teams. He was on the top of the Albertan college golf world when he and his teammates learned that the team they loved more than anything would never tee off again.

“Looking back now, I understand everything. It all makes sense. But in the moment, coming off a good year as a team and individually, I was a little bit surprised and, I guess you could say, angry because what would have been the last couple years of my college golf career was taken away.” 

Berget says that now, that anger has turned into gratitude. He says that playing college sports was a blessing and an opportunity, not a right. And, the opportunity to golf at MacEwan was unlike any other. 

“I’ve never been part of teams that were that close. There’s nothing I liked more than being on the team bus, going to tournaments, the hotels, going to team dinners, the laughs. And we were rock solid. Someone was always winning, whether it was a team, male, female, or if it was individuals, there was always good things going on.”

“Jodi [Campbell, head coach] said, when we first came on the team, that these are going to be your best memories. You’re going to forget classes, but you’re not going to forget these moments. I really have forgotten a whole lot of the things I learned, but I do not forget a single trip.”

As the MacEwan University Griffins continue to improve in the Canada West Conference, the question of the golf team returning to the school hangs in the air. The move to U Sports was made in the first place because the Griffins simply just kept winning in the ACAC. They had outgrown the provincial leagues and were ready for the national circuit. Looking back at the championship history of MacEwan, it feels like nobody was more fit for the switch to Canada West than the golf team.

“It was an elite program, and I see no reason why we couldn’t be successful at that level. If anyone could do it, it would be us.”


Graphics by Hayden Carkner

Evan Watt

The Griff

0 Comments

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related articles

Where to rendez-vouz 

Where to rendez-vouz 

Insight into francophone Edmonton Have you been dreaming of enjoying a latte and croissant under the Eiffel Tower as you — ‘ow do yoo say — speak...