After previous recruit lands pro opportunity, Griffins add promising goalkeeper Murasiranwa
Jefferson Hagen, MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – With the 2020 Canada West men's soccer season cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a few Griffins players sought out pro opportunities to keep playing.
That led to the goalkeeper that head coach Adam Loga recruited last winter – William Tonning – landing a spot on Swedish second division team Ytterhogdals IK. And it sent the coach off in search of another man who might fill the shoes of stalwart graduated 2019 starter Seth Johnstone.
"He had every intention of coming in this fall," Loga said of Danish-Canadian dual citizen Tonning, who was transferring from Brandon University. "Given the situation with COVID, the route we chose to take gave him the opportunity to seek other options."
Tonning signed with an agency in Ottawa and ended up inking a contact to play in the same league that gave former MacEwan starting goalkeeper Dylon Powley his first pro opportunity.
"We've had a great track record with goalkeepers the past few years," said Loga of Powley, who now plays professionally for FC Edmonton. "Hopefully, we've signed another one who will move onto the pro ranks as well."
That would be one Darlington Murasiranwa, who has committed to the Griffins starting in the 2021 Canada West season. He currently plays for FC Edmonton's U20 side after getting his feet wet in U SPORTS as a backup with the University of Guelph Gryphons in 2019.
After Tonning went to Sweden, Loga's search for another keeper led him to talk with FC Edmonton assistant coach and Academy technical director Sean Fleming, who had an immediate suggestion.
"I told him about William signing pro and right away he called me about Dar, we set up some FaceTime meetings and we got Dar transferred in right away," said Loga of Murasiranwa.
"Everyone vouched for him and he was highly touted. With all the trusted references we've received from current players to highly-credible people in the game and our coaching staff, we signed him ASAP."
Among those providing positive reviews were Powley, who also helps coach Griffins goalkeepers, and FC Edmonton U20 teammates and current Griffins Michael Enes and Ricky Yasan.
"He's a great shot stopper and shot blocker," said Loga. "That's probably his best asset in terms of the tangibility aspect, the objective assessment. That being said, he's not a one-trick pony. He's very well rounded.
"Personally, what myself and the staff like is his professionalism. He's been in a professional environment at a very young age with FC Edmonton and then off to the Vancouver Whitecaps residency program. He's had stops with the national team within their training ground environment, so he's just been groomed as a professional from a very young age. We need that in the locker-room."
He will have the chance to earn the starting job at MacEwan after seeing just 135 minutes in his U SPORTS career so far – posting a complete clean sheet in a small sample size as a university rookie with Guelph in 2019, while facing only one shot.
"The biggest thing I find with Dar is he's a very humble lad," said Loga. "I'll get to know him a little bit more, but he may be a player who doesn't really know how good he actually is, and I think with that he may not sell himself as much as some of these other athletes trying to get recruited.
"With FC Edmonton bringing him back here and wanting him to stay closer to home, and our relationship with FC being phenomenal through the years as you see throughout our roster with the majority being graduates from their academy, it made the choice fairly easy for both sides."
