Golden Bears add Prinsen to coaching staff
Eskimos O-line coach/grey Cup champion returning to U of A
New University of Alberta Golden Bears football head coach Chris Morris added a pair of two-time Grey Cup champions to his impressive coaching staff on Tuesday.
Tim Prinsen, who coached the Edmonton Eskimos’ offensive line since midway through the 2010 season, and former CFL all-star defensive back Shannon Garrett are Morris’s latest recruits.
They join offensive co-ordinator Rick Walters, a former Eskimos receiver who was head coach of the Edmonton Huskies junior team the last two seasons; defensive line coach and amateur football liaison Barclay Spady, a Golden Bears alumni who built the dominant high school program at Bev Facey before serving as an assistant coach with the Wildcats junior team this year; and defensive co-ordinator Danny Boily, a successful high school head coach at Harry Ainlay.
Prinsen played eight seasons in the CFL, including five as the Eskimos centre from 2000-04, winning Grey Cups with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in 1999 and Edmonton in 2003. He was Hamilton’s first pick, fourth overall, in the 1997 Canadian college draft.
The Edmonton native began his coaching career as the U of A’s offensive line coach from 2006-09, when he helped develop current Eskimos Simeon Rottier (the CFL’s No. 1 draft pick in 2009), Gord Hinse and Dale Stevenson.
He is returning to the Golden Bears because the huge time commitment to coach with the Eskimos was cutting too much into his family life.
“I’d like to thank Ed Hervey, Kavis Reed and the Edmonton Eskimos for giving me the opportunity to coach at the professional level for the team I grew up watching and the team I ended my playing career with,” Prinsen said in a news release.
Meanwhile, Garrett played 14 seasons in the CFL, including nine years with the Eskimos from 2000-08. He won Grey Cups in ’03 and ’05, and was a two-time CFL West Division all-star in ’01 and ’03.
Garrett was on Walters’ coaching staff with the Huskies last season.
In other news, Iain MacLean has replaced Walters as the Huskies head coach. He was the Prairie Football Conference team’s offensive line coach the last two seasons.