“It made us really proud to make all the conference championships”
Depending how you look at it, the Ooks 2024-25 season – the program’s 60th anniversary – was remarkable, possibly even historic. The main reason: Every team in the nine sports in which NAIT competes earned a place in the postseason, and often at the national level.
“I can't remember the last time all teams made championships or playoffs,” says Athletics and Recreation director Jordan Richey, whose career at NAIT now spans 25 years.
Making that feat even more impressive is that this year’s teams were unusually young. Compared to previous seasons, says Richie, the Ooks fewer fielded “senior” student-athletes in their fourth or fifth years of Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) play. Despite their newness, teams gelled and players excelled.
“It made us really proud to make all the conference championships when [we’re so] young and competing against 4th and 5th year student-athletes,” says Richey. He has no doubt that NAIT teams will be even stronger next year. “It's really exciting to look forward to that.”
While that’s acknowledgement that 2024-25 wasn’t a major medal haul, Richey is fine with that. He knows that the gain for student-athletes is best measured in the nature of the experience, on ice, court or field, and off. Here are the highlights of a memorable year in Ooks athletics.
Badminton
The Ooks soared in ACAC badminton, finishing first overall after the season’s three major tournaments. Players faced stiff competition, however, at the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) finals that followed at the King’s University in Edmonton, and national medals proved elusive.
Curling
The men’s team hurried hard through the ACAC playoffs to finish with a bronze medal and a ticket to the CCAA championships in Lethbridge. But ambitions for more medals were swept aside in a round robin that ultimately went to the Mohawk Mountaineers.
Futsal
When the ACAC outdoor soccer season ended, many of the Ooks players transitioned to futsal, an indoor version of the Beautiful Game – with outstanding results. Both the women and men’s teams finished first in the regular season, and followed up with silver medals in the provincial championships.
Champions in giving back
The 2024-25 season marked the Ooks’ strongest efforts yet in giving back. “We've had our highest community engagement ever this past year,” says Athletics and Recreation director Jordan Richey.
Each year, NAIT teams commit to activities connected to community groups and nonprofits, from supporting food banks to leading toy drives to reading to school kids. Women’s hockey players were the busiest contributors, participating in more than a dozen events.
Among their biggest was Female Hockey Day in the Rockies. The charity event saw the team face off against the Red Deer Queens in front of a crowd of minor hockey youth teams, then host a coaching clinic the next morning for female players interested in not only the game but playing it at a post-secondary level.
Golf
NAIT women golfers teed up an exceptional performance at the ACAC championships at Alberta Springs Golf Resort, near Red Deer. The team finished with a silver medal. Individually, Ella Dolan earned bronze and a trip to the CCAA championships in Ontario (though the podium would be owned by eastern schools).
After a silver-medal showing in Alberta, the NAIT men’s team was similarly shut out in Ontario. That said, the performance marked their second appearance at CCAA championships since the sport’s recent return to the polytechnic, in 2023.
Soccer
The men had an exceptional year, winning their first ACAC provincial championship since since 2018-19. No repeat performance was to be had at the nationals in Fredericton, however, where a one-goal loss in the semi-final put the team out of medal contention.
The women, too, earned a spot in the ACAC postseason, having finished third in the North division. Then they were excluded by a technicality. This year’s tournament was held at Northwestern Polytechnic, in Grande Prairie. As host, the school had earned the right to bump one of the top three qualifying teams. That team was NAIT.
X-country running
As another 2023 startup sport at NAIT, x-country running saw student-athletes put their best foot forward.
The men and women's teams earned bronze medals at provincials, hosted in Calgary by St. Mary’s University, sending them off to the races at the CCAA nationals in Windsor, ON.
All team members posted season-best performances at the event.
A milestone to come
For the first time, NAIT will host the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) 2026 men’s volleyball national championship. The event will bring teams from across the country to campus from March 11 to 14.
“We look forward to showcasing Canada’s best collegiate talent,” Athletics and Recreation director Jordan Richey said in a CCAA news release.
The event comes on the heels of the NAIT men’s volleyball 2023-24 gold-medal victory at the national finals – the first in the team’s nearly 50-year history.