Jefferson Hagen
MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – After the most prolific season by a rookie in the conference, it came as no surprise that Griffins men’s volleyball star Mitchell Croft was named to the Canada West All-Rookie team on Wednesday.
Croft is the third student-athlete in program history to be named to the Canada West All-Rookie team, following Max Vriend (2015-16) and Ryan Zachary (2017-18).
Griffins head coach Brad Poplawski knew he was getting a great player, but even though Croft came from the Australian Junior National team, he exceeded his expectations.
“You meet a guy on Zoom and watch his video as he’s in a different part of the world,” he related. “You kind of have hopes that things could work.
“We had very high expectations when he signed with us. For him to come in and I think even surpass my expectations for him was really impressive. It was fun to watch, he (has been) great to coach. All the accolades he’s earned this year are fully on him. He’s full marks this year and very deserving of it.”
Croft’s numbers belied the fact he was only a first-year in the conference as he finished tied for fourth in Canada West in kills/set (3.69) and eighth in kills.
Not only did no other rookie even come close to his production, he was the only attacker in the conference’s top eight in both categories that didn’t make Canada West’s first or second all-star teams, released on Wednesday.
Poplawski said Croft was never satisfied with his game, even though he led the Griffins in kills in every match he played in but one (when he was tied for the team lead) during the 2024-25 season.
“What I loved with Mitch is every game after the game, he wanted to chat about what I saw, what I thought he could do better,” said Poplawski. “He has just a very mature approach to the game. I never felt he was ‘ah, I’m putting up these numbers, I don’t need to improve.’ He was always asking how he could help his teammates out. After every match he wanted to know what I saw offensively, defensively, serving, blocking.
“I like working with athletes like that who have a pretty mature approach to the game and aren’t just resting on their laurels. I know he has some very big goals for his career past this level. His attention to detail and desire to improve is why he was able to consistently put up good numbers for us.
“Obviously, teams game planned for him, so he was having to find different ways to score or evaluate what’s working and what’s not, and I just really appreciate that in an athlete.”
That’s the other thing at play here: Croft – who accounted for 38.3 per cent of MacEwan’s attacking numbers in 2024-25 – was constantly double and triple teamed, even more so than other big guns around the conference.
Even still, he managed to shatter program rookie records for kills, kills/set, points (263.0 – T9th in CW) and points/set (4.0 – T6th in CW).
“Even if you’ve played junior national team, it is a very big jump coming to U SPORTS, especially to Canada West,” said Poplawski. “You’re playing against grown men where a lot of the top players are looking at volleyball as a career. They’re not just playing to play, they’re playing to do good things and then go professional and to the national team and beyond. People treat it like a job. For him to come in as a first year against that level of competition and be as offensively dominant as he was, was very impressive.”
Croft joined six other first-years from around the conference on the All-Rookie team: Calgary’s Emil Olsen and Cole Czepuryk, Winnipeg’s Easton Dick, Manitoba’s Owen Weekes, Alberta’s Owen Harris and UBC’s Alex Emery.
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